ASHEVILLE — Whether or not it's potable, sediment-filled water is simply not a good foundation for a glass of beer.

Water customers began reporting discolored water on March 27, caused by a break in a water line near the North Fork Dam, making some taps spew brown water.

Separately, contract work in the River Arts District caused a water line blowout, resulting in low pressure — or no water service at all — to areas of the city April 1, with affected customers under a boil water advisory.

All of these issues combined spelled headaches for schools, restaurants and breweries.

Brewers, in particular, had plenty to complain about; nearly all of their product, after all, is water. Plus, this is prime beer production season, with Asheville Beer Week and the Beer City Festival on the horizon.

"Everyone from Highland across the gamut is brewing now to have stuff ready in May," Asheville Brewers Alliance interim director Mike Rangel said.

Leah Ashburn, president of Highland Brewing Co., Asheville's oldest brewery and one of its best-known brands, did not mince words in a statement to the Asheville Citizen Times.

“The water disruption is impacting our business, within and beyond Asheville," she said. "We cannot make beer without good water, and we will not compromise on quality. In the larger scope, this outage affects the city of Asheville as a brand.”

'Definite financial loss possibilities'

New Belguim Brewing, with its East Coast brewery in the RAD, has stopped brewing beer, waiting for the water to clear.

"In response to water quality issues involving the North Fork and RADTIP water projects, New Belgium has temporarily suspended all new beer production," Michael Craft said in an email on April 1. "We have had excellent and reliable access to good clean water here in Asheville and we have faith that the city is diligently addressing the situation. These last few days have been a good reminder of how precious clean water is to all of us."

Trouble was also brewing for Archetype, where water woes threw a wrench in the West Asheville taproom's brew schedule.

Fortunately, this week's brewing schedule is light, said Sally Tanner, who handles marketing for the brewery.

The water there, which only started running brown around 11:30 a.m. April 1, was too murky to risk using it to wash kegs.

"We're simply not going to brew beer until it's running clear, pre-filter," she said. "I don't know if this will put us behind schedule, but it's certainly not ideal."

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Rangel, who owns Asheville Brewing Co., said water issues have halted brewing since the middle of last week. He stressed the city has been "transparent and super diligent" about keeping him informed.

But, as the interim director of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, he could report nearly all of the breweries under the organization's umbrella had been impacted by water issues.

"Everyone from big breweries to smaller breweries, as each hour goes by, it becomes more stressful."

For now, there are sanitizer stations behind the bar at the Coxe Avenue taproom, the kitchen is closed, and bartenders are serving beer in plastic cups.

Beyond that, Rangel said there was no way to know how long brewing delays would persist. "If it gets to Wednesday and we're not brewing, you're talking about definite financial loss possibilities."

Rangel added that 95 percent of the brewing process is cleaning, rinsing and sanitizing.

"The water in the beer is obviously sacrosanct as far as purity, but also cleaning for filters, what you're soaking the tubes in — all equipment has to be sanitized and pure."

Soon, he said, brewers will start running out of clean kegs. "There are water trucks and other solutions, but that becomes an added expense, also."

'No one wants to drink brown water'

Several restaurants reported full or partial closures on April 1.

Jay Medford, owner of The Underground Cafe with DoughP Doughnuts in the Jackson Building, stayed open mainly through the help of friends, who provided massive donations of purified water to keep doughnut production humming for this small business.

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"We have a great filter on our espresso machine, but our coffee maker is a pour-over machine, so we had to buy a bunch of purified water to heat up for that, and start our doughnuts with," he said. "Today, the water was fine when I got here at 4:30 a.m., then it was barely there, now it’s back, but in and out of being brown again."

Medford said he'd have to close early because he was running out of purified water. "We are washing what I can with super heated water and sanitizer, and bleaching what we have to, but I don’t want to risk it past that."

At Pack's Tavern, managers made the decision to close for lunch April 1, said Mary Evans, who handles marketing and event coordination for the downtown restaurant.

Ice would have to be remade, the machines cleaned out. The water and soda guns were basically unusable, she said. "And with the volume of business we have, boiling water for cooking is difficult."

She did not know whether the restaurant would open for dinner. "We'll have to play a wait and see game, and see if the discoloration abates and if the boil advisory is lifted," she said. "Thank god it's not a Friday, but it is certainly inconvenient."

Meanwhile, staff would likely scramble to get stocked up with bottled water and soda. "We're investigating what measures we can take to get open," she said.

By 3 p.m., Evans reported the restaurant would be able to open for dinner.

Is the brown water safe? City says yes

Meanwhile, the city of Asheville maintains brown water unrelated to the Monday's water disruption and boil advisory is an "aesthetic issue."

"Customers are advised to run cold water for 5-10 minutes or until water is clear," the city said in a release March 27. "If your water is discolored, you may want to postpone washing laundry."

On April 1, Evans said serving discolored water was out of the question.

"We just have to err on the side of caution — no one wants to drink brown water, even if it has been deemed safe."