The first brewery came to America’s shores over 100 years before the American Revolution. Before we were even a country, The Dutch West India Company built the first brewery in Lower Manhattan. This early foundation helped ensure that most people adopted beer as the drink of choice and not wine. This European style ale dominated the scene until German style lagers were found to have better shelf life in the mid-1900s. Of course, we can’t talk about breweries in the US without talking about Anheuser-Busch. Founded in 1860 Budweiser would go onto be the world’s largest beer and be the first to be named the national beer brand of America.
North Carolina and beer has had a rocky relationship in the past. North Carolina was a staunch supporter of Prohibition and even enacted its own anti-alcohol laws 12 years before the 18th Amendment was passed. Even upon its repeal, North Carolina took an additional 2 years to change its own laws before allowing the sale of beer in the state once again. Coincidentally, NASCAR and stock car racing got their start in North Carolina, with bootleggers racing one another during the Prohibition Era. When finally legal, the state still passed a series of regulations limiting the production and sale of beer. For instance, they made brewing beer and selling it on the same premises illegal. It wasn’t until 1985 that the law was changed and the first microbrewery was able to sell the beer which had been produced on site. Today North Carolina has over 120 breweries, more than any other Southern state.
There are over 10 of those breweries located right here in and around Fayetteville. One of the first built, which continues to produce and sell great beer is the Mash House. Since 2001 the Mash House has been brewing award winning craft beer and selling it alongside freshly sourced food. The history of beer and the breweries that produce it has been shaped and written by one man and one brewery after another. The story is still being written and Mash House is proud to be a link in the chain that is the narrative of craft brewing.