Tony Kiss

ASH

Florida-based Cigar City Brewing is considering both Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina as possible locations for an expansion brewery, the Asheville Brewers Alliance said Thursday.

Joe Redner, owner and founder of Cigar City Brewing of Tampa, Fla., is in the Asheville area to scout possible brewery locations, said Joe Rowland, co-owner of Nantahala Brewing and president of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, a non-profit organization representing local breweries. Redner is also considering locations in Travelers Rest, S.C. and Florida, Rowland said.

Cigar City is looking to build a 50-barrel brewhouse, similar in size to the system used by Asheville's Highland Brewing Co., Rowland said. The system would back up the main Cigar City brewery in Tampa.

"This would be huge," Rowland said. There is no word yet on when the decision would be made or a brewery built.

Cigar City does not distribute its beers in Western North Carolina but is highly regarded in the craft beer industry for such beers as Jai Alai IPA, Florida Cracker White Ale and Invasion Pale Ale.

If it chose to build in Western North Carolina, Cigar City would join such national craft brands as Oskar Blues in Brevard, Sierra Nevada in Mills River and New Belgium, which is now building its expansion brewery in West Asheville along the French Broad River. Buncombe County is also home to 17 craft breweries.

An Upstate S.C. location would be good news to the Palmetto State, which lost out when Stone Brewing of San Diego, Calif., chose about a week ago to build its east coast brewery in Richmond Va.