Catawba Brewing Co – Charlotte

HISTORY

History of a Craft Brewery

It all began with a Christmas gift in 1994. Billy Pyatt, a notoriously hard guy to buy presents for, fell in love with the carboys, pots, hydrometers, grains, hops, chemistry, and physics involved in home-brewing. His brother, Scott, fell right in with him. Their love became an obsession that could only be resolved by going pro – not an easy thing to do in 1999! When the business plan was hatched, the Pyatts bought the assets of a defunct brewery in Colorado, flew out west, rented a U-haul, and brought it home to North Carolina. Of course, it stayed in a garage for three years while the brothers searched for an appropriate building where they could put it to use. Finally, they settled on a spot in the small town of Glen Alpine, NC. While it didn’t have any glass in the windows and ivy was growing inside, the price was right at $200 per month. “Turnkey” breweries were virtually non-existent back then, so the pieces and parts were cobbled together from dairy equipment or made by hand. Billy’s wife Jetta joined the brothers in ownership of the fledgling family business, and Catawba beer was made – with the first kegs sold to accounts in Asheville. That produced enough money to buy some ingredients, make another batch, rinse and repeat.