Asheville is home to dozens of craft breweries, but like so many other local businesses, they're working hard to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

Let's take a look at how some of these breweries are making long journey back.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] - I'm drinking Recovery IPA, part of our Beers That Build program.

One of my favorite styles, session IPA, 4.7%.

Just a delicious drinker.

But this is going to the WNC Long Haul.

We're providing money for grants to go to, whether it's businesses or individuals who are in need to help rebound from Helene.

- I think Asheville molds together a couple of important components to the beer drinking experience.

I mean, the outdoors, there's nothing better than getting off the trail or getting off your bike or outta the kayak and having a beer.

And you know, the fact that you can turn around any corner in Asheville and run into a brewery is, is part of the allure and the draw to this city.

- I think, ironically, in the wake of the hurricane, that Asheville became a destination for craft beer because of the water.

And that's what drew brewers here, but also it's a destination for makers and crafters and that's a perfect place to make beer.

[gentle country music] - First thing I would tell everybody in the outside world is that like Asheville is really struggling and in Western North Carolina as a whole is still, you know, picking through massive damage.

It's going to take a long time to clean up.

And you know, the city spirit is stronger than I think it's ever been.

I mean, I've been here for 12 years.

I've never seen people more inspired and enthusiastic about the road ahead than I've seen now.

- We initially wanted to reach out to all of our staff members to make sure they were all safe.

Once we got word that everyone was safe, we started going into an action plan of what we could do for the community, move the needle in any way.

So we did open up a emergency relief fund at Dirty Jacks, one of our pubs on Buxton Avenue.

And the amount of donations was insane.

Everyone brought a million things to Dirty Jacks and so we were able to reach the community that way.

- For the community, the whole loss of tourism, we have moved from a local tourist place to a tourist local place.

The numbers are really important, and to lose 70% of that is really difficult.

For us, we lost 65% of of income because our place on the other side of the tracks took 14 foot of water.

So that's a challenge.

We lost the use of this facility briefly.

We're brewing beer in Waynesville with Boojum.

We're brewing beer in Charlotte.

We're doing a collab with Burial.

There's always somebody there to help you if you need it.

- To really process everything that's happened, I think the first thing that our teams did were "what can we do to help?"

I think that's what's beautiful about Western North Carolina from us going and being, you know, a distribution hub from water, from supplies to having our teams cook meals for all of our employees, for people downtown, just however we could help was the number one priority.

And something that's just amazing that we've seen come from such a terrible event.

- Our team was so amazing.

Some people decided to do wellness checks on their neighbors.

Some people delivered supplies, some people showed up here and some people left town, which was safest and best honestly for their mental health.

So we encouraged everybody to do what they needed to do.

- Once we got potable water, that made all the difference in the world as far as what we can do as a brewery.

So we were able to start brewing.

We've been brewing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just trying to catch up, get beer out into the market and get people back to work.

You know, we're still going through it, we're still dealing with it every day.

We're still trying to figure things out.

We're still piecing it all together, but we're getting back on track as far as bringing people back, brewing beer, and kind of working our way forward from there.

- I mean, the power of connectivity between people is something that drew us to opening this brewery.

And it's a big reason that I'm in the hospitality industry, which is a beautiful part of the storm, is that it raises communities and showed us how powerful like caring for your neighbor is.

Everybody contributes something.

- Highland is fully open, the volleyball courts are still open, the disc golf course is open, live music is back.

So we're doing everything that we normally do and we'd love to have you share it with us.

- The state of Asheville, we still need your help.

We want you to come.

There's so many volunteering opportunities across the board in Western North Carolina.

But come in, come support, spend some money, come visit us downtown.

We are open, we're back up for business and we look forward to seeing you soon.

- I think that if anybody deserved your attention and you're looking for inspiration and curiosity, this is the place to visit.

[gentle music] - For updated travel information and to learn more about Asheville's craft brew scene, go to exploreasheville.com.