The South Slope neighborhood is growing like a weed on a sunny, south-facing slope. The up-and-coming neighborhood — and subject of last week’s Xpress cover story — will be home to Twin Leaf Brewery.
Steph and Tim Weber, husband-and-wife co-owners, announced their new address at 144 Coxe Ave. this morning. They hope to open by the end of 2013.
They’ve been scouting Asheville locations since they moved here from a suburb of Philadelphia in July, Steph says. In their 5,000-square-foot space, they hope to open a brewery and tasting room, and still leave room to grow. “We just like that section of town,” Steph says. “Things are picking up there, and I think it’s going to be an area of town where there’s a lot going on in the coming years.”
The Webers plan to serve five core beers and a rotating cast of small-batch brews, for a grand total of 12 to 16 beers on tap. Steph says the tasting room will host live music, games and community activities. “We’re not going for anything certain demographic or any certain type of person,” she says. “We want it to be a really fun and inclusive place where people can come with kids and people can come to hang out with their friends.”
Twin Leaf’s location is just around the corner from Greenman and Asheville Brewing as well as the just-announced location of Burial Beer. Steph says she’s not worried about over-saturation of the brewery market, even with the December closing of Craggie Brewing on nearby Hilliard Avenue. “If anything, it’s an advantage to have that many breweries within walking distance, because beer lovers are pretty promiscuous,” Steph says. “I think to have that many in one area will work to all of our advantage because people can go on a little brewery tour.”
Bill Drew, owner of Craggie Brewing, says a deal is still in the works for the 197 Hilliard Ave. brewery. “We’ve basically got an agreement in place; we just have to get it signed,” he says. The new tenant will take over by March 1 if the changeover goes as planned, he says.
As of today, there are a dozen breweries with Asheville addresses, including Twin Leaf and Burial Beer. But that number could change any time. In September, Scott Pyatt of Catawba Valley Brewing in Morganton told Xpress he’s looking for an Asheville location.
For more information about Twin Leaf Brewery, see twinleafbrewery.com or the brewery’s Facebook page.
(Photo from twinleafbrewery.com.)
My question about this proliferation of brewers is about sustainability. Specifically, how many breweries can the market here actually handle? We’ve already seen the loss of one (Craggie), surely to be followed by others, especially when the big boys (S.N., N.B., O.B’s) become fully established.
It may seem a bit naysay-ish to point this out but I urge everyone to look at the bicycle shop market in this area as an example. Every time a new shop opens, the other shops have to cut margins just to make rent, eventually laying off already underpaid employees, and then closing up shop. All because the market is completely saturated to begin with.
That being said, I hope the beer-market reacts by decreasing the cost per pint of beer by a significant margin.