More growth and progression for the Mills River area of Henderson County.
The area’s newest brewery is getting closer to opening its doors, hoping to bring some warmth to local drinkers’ cheeks as early as this summer.
Burning Blush Brewery, under construction on Boylston Highway in Mills River, hopes to open in late July, but it could be as late as this fall, according to owner and brewer Whit Lanning.
Lanning, 32, has been living in South Carolina, but is coming back closer to home here in WNC to open the brewery in Mills River with his family. His mother, Melody Lanning, will be in charge of brewery operations and his sister, Ryan Lanning, is set to head up the website, social media and IT.
Whit Lanning graduated from N.C. State with a degree in chemistry and moved on to brewing school at Brew Lab in Sunderland, England. He then worked in South Carolina for about 10 years, including at Thomas Creek Brewery and Birds Fly South Ale Project in Greenville and Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery and Winery in Anderson.
Next, he’ll lead the brewing at Burning Blush, where he hopes to create a wide gamut of crafted beer styles.
From work he’s done in the past, Lanning is very familiar with barrel aging, sour cultures and mixed cultures, but is hoping to also focus on IPAs as well as English-style beers, German-style lagers and more.
The building, which can be seen alongside the highway between the intersection with Highway 191 and Presbyterian Church Road, sits on about 2 acres and will be around 8,700 square feet, with 2,600 of that dedicated to the taproom. The rest will be used for production on a 15-barrel system that should be arriving soon, he said.
Starting out, they’ll have six 15-barrel fermenters and two bright tanks, as well as 10 serving tanks so beer can be served to customers straight from the tank, which Lanning says he feels provides a better taste than when a whole batch has been kegged.
At first, the brewery should be producing between 500 and 1,000 barrels per year, he said, distributing some of the kegs to restaurants with a canning line coming at some point. Early on, however, the focus will be front and center on the taproom.
“The biggest thing we’re excited about is just having a place for the community to come in, bring your families, bring your dogs,” Lanning said, adding that the brewery hopes to get involved with community outreach as well. “Just get people together. I think that’s the most important thing.”
He said they’re going for a good family environment, and one goal for him and others leading the brewery is to be front and center for customers, as he feels the owner-to-customer experience is lacking in a lot of places.
The taproom will also feature a covered outdoor area of about 700 square feet, lawn space and 50 parking spots alongside overflow grass parking.
The name Burning Blush is a reference to an Edgar Allen Poe poem. Lanning explained that Poe was writing letters to a love interest that were being intercepted by her father, but then Poe was invited to her wedding. When she saw him for the first time, she got a “burning blush,” in her cheek, something Poe later wrote about in a poem.
Burning Blush is shooting for a Victorian-Romantic-Gothic vibe, Lanning said, with chandeliers planned for the taproom as well as large castle-style doors and stonework in front.
The bar that will be used in the taproom is waiting at Needful Things in Hendersonville, a 1930s-era bar from Chicago the brewery purchased and is waiting to install.
Burning Blush is one of two breweries under construction in the area, with Mills River Brewery constructing its new home close by on Banner Farm Road. With Bold Rock Hard Cider also just a stone’s throw away, there’s the start of a corridor of taprooms for Mills River.
