When Stone Brewing announced recently that they were looking for a site in the eastern United States to build a new brewery and distribution facility, an unlikely suitor came to the table: Hernando County, Florida.
According to an article in the Hernando Today, Hernando County Administrator Len Sossamon said the county was notified that Stone received the proposal and is considering it.
“In his proposal to lure the company, Sossamon said he played up Hernando County’s low impact fees, lack of a state income tax, accessibility to major highways and great weather.
Hernando County is competing against sites known to be friendly to craft beer like North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. These states have central locations combined with brewery-friendly laws may edge out the small, rural county in Florida- a state where a handful of legislators have recently shown contentiousness towards the state’s craft brewers. North Carolina alone has, in recent years, attracted Sierra Nevada Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, and Oskar Blues Brewery to build new facilities.
County Commissioner Dave Russell said he believes Hernando has an edge over the other states because of the county’s reputation of having a quality water supply.
‘They have terrible water, and we have great water here,’ Russell said. ‘Water is critical to brewing.'”
Russell said the infrastructure already is in place so Stone could set up shop without a long wait.
During the building of the new brewery, Stone plans to hire over 400 people in a facility that would cost over $60 million to build. The new brewery, once up and running to specifics, would produce up to 500,000 barrels of beer.
With papers submitted, the county will wait and see what ferments.