Deschutes Brewery ranks in the top ten biggest craft brewers in the country.
While it’s located in Oregon, there are plans for an east coast location. And it’s believed that Roanoke is battling it out with Asheville to land the deal.
“At first it was like a let’s see how this goes and now this is getting serious,” said Michael Galliher.
Galliher is the man behind a Facebook campaign that is using #Descutes2Rke to help push the Oregon craft brewery to come to Roanoke. Galliher says he saw the hashtag on Twitter and then created the Facebook to get more attention.
“I think it’s kind of been building. We’re tired of getting second place for breweries,” said Startlight Bikes owner Stratton Delany. “We lost out to Stone and Oscar Blues and New Belgium to Asheville and Richmond and we’re ready for our own right now.”
The facebook page created only a few weeks ago already has more than 37-hundred “Likes”
People are sending the brewery songs about coming to Roanoke.
And some local businesses are backing the campaign.
“I was in the shower, and I thought hey we should make a jersey,” said Delany.
Delany quickly had jerseys made using #Deschutes2Rke and posted picture to social media.
“They tweeted it out to their followers last night so they’ve definitely taken notice,” said Delany.
“This is our way of giving Roanoke a voice and allowing people and supporters of Roanoke and local leaders to see that we’re serious about this and we want Deschutes to also see that within a community we will support you and help build you within the community itself,” said Galliher.
Local craft brewers like Soaring Ridge think a bigger craft brewer like Deschutes will be good for business.
“Hopefully it will get people a lot more excited about it and more people from out of town will come. We get pretty good amount of local people and from out of town so hopefully it will just step it up,” said Head Brewer and Owner of Soaring Ridge Brewery Sean Osborne.
Galliher says it’s not just about beer. “This is about jobs, the economic impact through tourism.”
WDBJ7 reached out the Roanoke City Manager’s Office.
While they cannot tell us if something is in the works, the City Manager’s Office says they support the social media campaign to bring Deschutes Brewery to Roanoke.
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