Immediately pivoting to a water and supply distribution center placed DSSOLVR Co-owner Vince Tursi in the midst of a community devastated by Hurricane Helene. Seeing the significant need of not only community members, but also others working in Asheville’s craft beer scene, spawned a nationwide effort to support WNC’s breweries.

DSSOLVR began a collaborative initiative involving multiple breweries offering a similar recipe with the same name — Higher Calling — with each partner contributing to fundraising efforts. All proceeds from Higher Calling will go directly to the NC Craft Brewers Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit managed by the NC Brewers Guild. The funds will be carefully distributed to those in greatest need, with the initial grants dedicated to WNC Helene relief efforts.

Tursi previously worked with a company that hosted a website for previous charity fundraiser brews, and understood the framework of what that type of project entailed. Reaching out to the individuals at the former Craftpeak company, he was offered free website hosting, came up with a hazy IPA recipe, and began spreading the word about Higher Calling.

“We kept getting texts from everybody saying ‘what can we do’ or ‘can we host y’all for a tap takeover’ or ‘can we buy some beer’,” Tursi said. “I got tired of saying ‘I don’t know’. There have been projects that have been successful with this sort of thing before, and it doesn’t take much outside of reaching out to vendors. This seemed like the most logical answer in order to get money to the people that needed it the fastest.”

With many established relationships with other brewers, participants in this collaborative initiative grew quickly. Brewers have a general recipe to follow, and can tweak that recipe to make a unique limited-edition beer if they choose. DSSOLVR provides a label, list of suppliers, and social media assets, and some ingredient vendors are donating things like malt.

Brewers guilds in other states are helping to spread the word. Participants are located from California to Vermont to Florida, and Harris Teeter joined in the distribution effort to make this beer even more accessible to the public.

“At a minimum, we’ve got 130 breweries now and counting,” Tursi said. “If we get $1,000 from each of them, that’ll be $130,000, but we’re guessing each brewery will be doing more than that. We know a couple of breweries that are doing much bigger batches, so the goal is realistically set at a quarter of a million dollars. That’s a low goal to set; we’re hoping that we do significantly more than that.”

Net profits from this brew are donated to the NC Craft Brewers Guild Foundation, and the Foundation will distribute grants to help rebuild the WNC beer community. Grant applicants will be reviewed by a Board, though Tursi’s goal is to help every brewery that was impacted in some way.

Some nationwide partners have committed to having Higher Calling on tap through January of 2025, and Tursi hopes this can be continued well into the new year. Other partners unable to commit to brewing Higher Calling have hosted fundraiser nights, donating a certain amount of proceeds to the initiative. With the economic turndown that happens in WNC’s winter season, the more that can be done to support beverage businesses until the spring, the better. 

“A lot of people have reached out, and I think we’ll see more things like this,” Tursi said. “I think that we’ll see this platform be a functional way of helping to drive some change. It’s not about being able to give a lot, it’s about being able to give what you can. It’s going to make a lot of difference for a lot of people.”

Learn more at HigherCallingBeer.com.