Beer Scout: Noblebräu and Homeplace embrace small-town identities

With Asheville dominating Western North Carolina’s craft beverage scene, it’s easy to forget about breweries in more rural areas.

Dialing in from “afar,” the owners of Noblebräu Brewing in Brevard and Homeplace Beer Co. in Burnsville recently spoke with Xpress about the perks and drawbacks of operating in a small town and how they’re navigating the challenges of an ever-shifting industry.

German-style

A native of Albany, N.Y., Noblebräu co-owner and events coordinator Madeline Magin was recently listening to her father lament that there aren’t neighborhood bars anymore. Within seconds, she had an epiphany about her business and its role in Brevard.

“I was like, ‘That’s what we are,’” she says. “And the community aspect, that’s what made me move here and stay here. The whole town feels like it’s giving you a hug all the time.”

Magin and her husband/co-owner, Cody Noble, who’s also the head brewer, opened Noblebräu in November 2020. Working with a modest 5-barrel brew house, the operation shares its taproom with the 185 King Street music venue, which brings a steady flow of people to its products. In fact, the attention is starting to become a problem.

“We’re kind of struggling to keep up with beer production,” Magin says. “But that’s a good thing.”

Before starting Noblebräu, her husband would, in Magin’s words, “go around handing out homebrews to people” who encouraged him to keep pursuing the craft. A job then opened up at Boojum Brewing Co., so the couple moved from Brevard to Waynesville. And while Magin says the experience was a positive one, Noble “wound up fixing the canning line more than he was brewing.”

When the opportunity to open their own brewery in Noble’s hometown arose, the couple took the leap of entrepreneurship, prioritizing their own distinct path forward.

“One thing that is unique to us is that we don’t have any standard beers outside of our house beer, which is a German pilsner,” Magin says. “[Noble] is always trying different styles and doing new things and experimenting and finding new yeast strains. He really enjoys the actual brewing process.”

She adds that Noblebräu is doing its best to stay on a small scale and be profitable so that Noble can continue creating in that fashion rather than be a big production brewery. That approach allows him to follow seasonal styles, such as making a brut IPA this summer and bringing back his popular Spruce Tip IPA this winter.

But in addition to potentially running out of beer on an especially busy night, staying small carries other challenges, including staffing. While Magin is satisfied with her current crew and says the employee pool is nearly back to its prepandemic levels, the numbers don’t always work out.

“It still can be hard to know when you’re going to be busy and know when you need enough feet on the floor and make sure everyone’s happy,” she says. “I think that’s our biggest thing is just keeping everyone happy.”

Hosting benefit shows, silent auctions and other fundraisers for worthy local causes likewise helps in the community goodwill department. And quarterly beer dinners featuring food pairings by chef Corie O’Malley offer loyal patrons and curious newcomers more deluxe experiences. Yet continuing to provide these services in Noblebräu’s current location doesn’t feel as secure as its owners would like.

“Cody and I were born in the early ’90s, so we’re that generation where we’re like, ‘Wow, we really wish we had bought some property,’” Magin says, noting that the business is theirs but not the real estate. “Our next steps are figuring out how we can make sure we’re investing in something that’s safe for our future, rather than taking the risk of continuing to develop something that we don’t own.”

The Yancey way

Community engagement beyond merely making and serving craft beverages has similarly been key to Homeplace’s success.

Founded in 2017 by Burnsville native and veteran brewer John Silver, the brewery significantly expanded its reach with its 2020 move from a humble downtown storefront location to a three-story brewpub around the corner.

“We built a program of steady weekly events of all different kinds to get people interested and to get the community involved in nonprofit events,” Silver says. In addition to hosting different nonprofits once a month and donating a portion of sales to the group, the brewery programs music two or three nights a week on its outdoor stage.

That mentality has also enhanced the business’s annual No Place Like Homeplace street festival, which Silver says has evolved from a fairly traditional beer festival into “more of a culinary/music hybrid with beer” — the new recipe for success with brewcentric events.

“Unless it’s a large metro area, it’s hard to do just a beer fest anymore,” he says. “Beer itself is just not the draw that it used to be. It seems like people are just more about the overall experience.”

Homeplace remains primarily retail-based with an estimated 85% of sales conducted at the taproom. Silver limits distribution primarily to Asheville, Boone and spots along the way. And even when boom times arise, as they did in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he remains conservative in his dealings.

“I don’t know if food and beverage businesses anytime soon will experience the type of summer we had in 2021 when the [state] restrictions were lifted and everybody had a lot of extra [federal stimulus] money to spend,” Silver says.

“I saw a lot of breweries look at the post-COVID business and expand into other areas with other taprooms. We considered that at one point, and I’m really glad we didn’t because it would have definitely overextended us. The business everyone was expecting from ’21 forward just never materialized.”

With the same core staff leading the way over the past four years, Homeplace has also been careful to pivot to meet customer preferences. The business recently got a liquor license and began offering cocktails. Wine and cider offerings have grown considerably, too, as have its craft nonalcoholic beverage options.

“The taste of the market has evolved considerably. Five to eight years ago, if you just had good craft beer and a taproom, you were going to be successful, up to a point,” Silver says.

“But younger people are not drinking as much. The younger folks that are drinking are going more toward other things that aren’t craft beer. And so we have to just acknowledge that and still fight against it.”

Despite being thankful for not expanding Homeplace’s footprint when it seemed the market would support it, Silver will likely take that step in the near future — albeit modestly. He and his family live in nearby Spruce Pine, where a new multiuse facility is being built with a large music venue, culinary school, beautician school, YMCA and a food court.

“We’re discussing the possibility with them of being their craft beverage provider,” Silver says. “It wouldn’t be a huge risk or a lot of extra overhead for us to take on. So we’re thinking about that, and we’ll know more later this year once they get closer to completion.”