Politicians grab Henderson county a Brew.

• Position: Western

Last summer, the N.C. Department of Commerce asked Andrew Tate, president and CEO of Henderson County Partner-ship for Economic Development to join Project Fishbowl. An anonymous company was considering the county--along with, he discovered later, about 200 other locations along the East Coast--as the site for a new plant. Tate submitted two possible spots that fit the parameters, which included at least 40 acres zoned for industrial use. He was quickly notified that one site didn't make the cut. The other, however, was a maybe.

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So began the state and county's combined wooing of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The Chico, Calif.-based company, which was founded in "1980 and is the sixth-largest craft brewer in the U.SV announced in January that it would build its second brewery--featuring a restaurant and gift shop--in Mills River, bringing Henderson high-paying jobs and millions in capital investment. But the story behind the announcement shows how far politicians will go to lure new business.

The most pronounced example of this came in October, when Sierra Nevada and government officials discovered that state law prohibited brewers making more than 25,000 barrels of beer a year from serving it on-site. It would have been a deal breaker for Sierra Nevada, whose business model relies on tourism and brewery tastings. But Rep. Chuck McGrady and Sen. Tom Apodaca, who represent Henderson, helped push a bill repealing the restriction through the General Assembly in late November, and Gov Beverly Perdue signed it into law...