After Sierra Nevada Brewing‘s plans to build a brewery in Black Mountain, North Carolina fell through, they set their sites on the nearby town of Mills River as one possible location they’re considering. According to Blue Ridge Now, the Mills River location “is now among a ‘handful’ of possible locations for California-based Sierra Nevada to build a second facility.” (And thanks to Win Bassett for the tip.) Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman was in North Carolina Thursday and was reportedly pleased by the “welcome reception” he received. He told Blue Ridge Now in a telephone interview:

“We like the community; we like the culture in the area and the focus on craft beer, and a vibrant craft (beer) community is certainly an appealing draw,” Grossman said. “The water is good; we’ve been well-received in the area — certainly a welcome reception helps, not that we haven’t been welcomed everywhere we’ve looked.”

“Logistically, it fits,” he said. “We began discussing the project five years ago but put it on the back burner a couple of times as we agonized over the concept of starting from scratch and building a second plant. But it really makes sense for us from an economic standpoint and a carbon footprint standpoint as far as shipping, as our Eastern markets have continued to see double-digit growth for a number of years.”

Apparently Brian Grossman, Ken’s son, would be relocating to run the Eastern Sierra Nevada operations, wherever it turns out to be.

UPDATE: Miles J. sent me a link to a similar story about Sierra nevada’s search foran East Coast location for a brewery that ran in today’s ChicoER.