ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – Governor Roy Cooper has proclaimed April as North Carolina beer month.
This year marks the fifth year of the celebration and is sponsored by the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild and Visit North Carolina.
“Thanks to North Carolina’s thriving brewing industry, our state’s entrepreneurship and craftsmanship can continue to shine,” Cooper said at a news conference held at historic Rocky Mount Mills, a complex undergoing an adaptive reuse as a one-of-a kind space with offices, residences, a brewery incubator and a 7-acre island in the middle of the Tar River. “North Carolina’s breweries attract tourism and create economic development opportunities to communities of all sizes across the state.”
The number of craft breweries in North Carolina has more than quadrupled since 2010.
According to the Craft Brewers Guild, the economic impact of the craft industry was $1.2 billion in 2015, which accounts for $300 million in annual wages and 10,000 jobs.
Surveys from the Economoic Development Partnership of North Carolina show that in 2015, 1.7 million travelers visited breweries during their overnight trips to destinations in North Carolina.
