UPDATED: Black Star Line Brewing closes Hendersonville location

HENDERSONVILLE - Black Star Line Brewing Company announced it would cease operations its Hendersonville-based storefront and brewing operation Thursday with a post on Facebook.

"Thanks for the love, Hendersonville. At this time, we will no longer be operating on 131 3rd Ave W. We'll let you know about updates as soon as they are available. Thank you."

On Saturday, L.A. McCrae sent an email to the Citizen Times stating that the brewery is "still in business" and BSL beer can be found tap in Asheville at Hopey & Co., Fifth Season Gardening and in Morganton at Brown Mountain Bottle Works, with more locations by the end of the month.

"We'll be hosting a town hall to answer people's questions and a party to celebrate the accomplishments in (Hendersonville). Stay tuned for details."

"Black Star Line Brewing is alive and well," McCrae finished. "We have some location changes in the future, in North Carolina and beyond."

Black Star Line, which billed itself as the first black-owned and queer-owned brewery in Western North Carolina, makes sweet beers brewed with botanicals, with names that pay homage to activists.

Black Star Line notes on its website that the beer industry and brewery owners "are unsurprisingly and almost exclusively all white and mostly male owned and centered.

"Our brewery is a chance to change that narrative and create space for women, people of color, queer folks, and other folks with marginalized social identities. It is the spot that is truly for us and by us."

McCrae originally intended to open Black Star Line in Asheville, but the battle to find a space and lack of funding sent the brewery instead to Hendersonville.

Since opening in fall, Black Star Line Brewing reported a number of racially tinged, threatening emails to the Hendersonville Police Department.

After the brewery owner talked publicly about the reported threats to the brewery, hundreds of people showed up to the brewery to demonstrate support.

Read more here:

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