A few Wilmingtonians across social media have argued there may be a saturation point for breweries the Port City can sustain. The majority, however, contend there’s plenty of room to grow.
In 2016 Smartasset reported Wilmington as the seventh best city for beer drinkers in the country—tied with Denver, Colorado. At the time, Wilmington had nine open breweries, totaling 7.76 microbreweries per 100,000 residents.
In perspective, Asheville—which held the number one slot—had the most microbreweries per capita in the U.S. at 27.12 per 100,000 residents. Then it was 12th for most number of microbreweries in one city.
Martin de Jongh, brewer and co-owner of Wilmington’s upcoming Mad Mole Brewing, believes the city has yet to reach a tipping point.
“There’s still plenty of beer to go around,” he assures. “We can’t make enough beer to serve Wilmington; it’s a drop in the bucket. If you look at Asheville, the population is less than Wilmington, but they support a large amount of breweries.”
