15 breweries on tap at Burnsville Beer Fest

Burnsville, North Carolina, kicks off its first beer fest Saturday, September 29, just eight years after the town first approved alcohol sales.

The inaugural No Place Like Homeplace Beer Fest will feature 15 breweries, and will also offer live music and local food vendors.

The festival, hosted by Burnsville brewery Homeplace Beer Co., will take place at the Nu Wray Inn and along South Main Street. Tickets are $25 and include a seven-ounce glass and six tokens for samples. Additional tokens may be purchased at the festival.

“We have a pretty impressive lineup of breweries for our first year,” said festival organizer John Silver, owner of Homeplace Beer Co. “Fonta Flora is probably the biggest name, and Hi-Wire and Catawba are regional staples. Others are up-and-coming like us and working hard to establish their place in the beer world.”

The list of North Carolina guest breweries includes Fonta Flora Brewery and Catawba Brewing Co. in Morganton; Hi-Wire Brewing, Archetype Brewing, Ginger’s Revenge Craft Brewery, Habitat Brewing Company, Hillman Beer and One World Brewing in Asheville; Blue Ghost Brewing Company in Fletcher; Eluvium Brewing Company in Weaverville; Mad Co. Brew House in Marshall; Mica Town Brewing Company in Marion; Turgua Brewing Company in Fairview; and Zillicoah Beer Company in Woodfin.

The Toe River Arts Council, a robust nonprofit that supports artists in Yancey and Mitchell counties, partnered with Homeplace to put on the festival. Two local potters, Dennis McAvoy and Linda Powell, will sell handmade mugs bearing the festival logo. Momma Molasses, Nick Gonnering, and the Christy Lynn Band will provide live entertainment.

A beer festival in Burnsville has been on Silver’s bucket list for a long time, but he said he never expected to pull it off within 15 months of opening Yancey County’s first brewery.

“The response has been better than I could imagine,” Silver said. “When we opened, I thought the taproom would be a cool little place to taste some beers and most of our business would be in wholesale, but it’s been the opposite. This summer we cut back on wholesale to keep up with the taproom.”

The festival runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Earlier in the day the annual Old Timey Fall Festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Town Square. For beer fest tickets or more information, go to www.HomeplaceBeer.com.