I forgot* to post this on Friday:
As expected, the venerable craft beer pioneer Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is coming to North Carolina.
Gov. Bev Perdue announced Wednesday that the California-based brewery will locate an East Coast facility in Mills River in Henderson County, about 20 miles south of Asheville. It will also include a restaurant.
The project will be partly funded by a $1 million grant from the One North Carolina Fund. Sierra Nevada says it plans to have 95 full-time employees, and will invest $107.5 million in the county over the next five years.
Another 80 part-time employees and about 60 construction and mechanical jobs are also planned during a two-year building phase. The jobs are expected to begin later this year and continue through 2013. The average wage will be about $42,000, according to the company.
North Carolina is home to 21 brewpubs and 28 breweries, making it the most active*** of any Southern state, according to the governor's office.
The first decent beer I ever tasted was the Pale Ale which makes one think, shouldn't we be measuring the benefits of the $1 million grant (yikes, is the state really giving them $1 million?) as the additional consumer surplus and producer surplus, not additional jobs. Minus the $1 million, Sierra Nevada would have located somewhere and those jobs would have still appeared somewhere. In addition, jobs are costs.
*Either that, or I was actually working (or already drinking**).
**A joke people, a joke.
***Active = soaked?
