Got through the thread.
SN has also said that they know that beers they have bought in the Northeast and overnighted back to the brewery show signs that they are not in top condition. If you can cut out some of the time in distribution, the beer will be fresher. This is also a reason to have a brewery closer to the Eastern markets.
The water is not a big deal, as Carl says. That part of NC has soft water to beging with. They can adjust to what they want, for the beer they are brewing. Saw the big pallets of gypsum bags when I was at beer camp, just saying.
They get the base malt from Canada by the multiple rail cars at a time. Do you think there will be a rail spur/siding on site? I do.
The hops will be shipped in from the same sources. They might need bigger contracts in the future.
Ken Grossman owns the company. His kids are in line to run it, and both work there now. There are plenty of great people to run the brewry in Chico when the new one is being built. How many days a year do you guess Ken Grossman is on the road now? I would say a large fraction of the year, and things run fine when he is out on business.
One final thing on the SN quality. If you saw the talk Ken Grossman gave at the Oakland NHC, the first batch they brewed was good, but they dumped the next 12 until they found out that the yeast needed more oxygen. He said they were not bad, but not to the quality they wanted. That is some dedication to quality.