Giant brewhouse tanks rolling through the streets of Western North Carolina are nothing new. Oskar Blues shipped in plenty of large ones to its space in Brevard, and Sierra Nevada closed roads from the coast to the mountains bringing its tanks into Mills River. However, when New Belgium brings in its oversized brewhouse and fermentation vessels, […]
If someone told you an Asheville brewery was expanding by opening a second location in the center of town, whom would you think of first? Highland would make sense. Or wait, maybe Pisgah? Both of those breweries have been around and growing for years, and they might want a second location closer to downtown. Yet […]
Hard as it is to believe, Wicked Weed is less than two years old — well, at least until Dec. 28. The brewery plans to ring in its second anniversary by releasing a special beer one day early, Terrible 2’s Centuplicate IPA, on Saturday, Dec. 27. This beer is the company’s biggest and hoppiest IPA […]
If you’re one of the many who wake up on Sundays only to find lines at all your favorite brunch spots, there’s a new option in town. Burial Beer is now offering a low-key, order-at-the-bar jazz brunch every Sunday. The brunch features New Orleans-inspired food from Gary Sernak (Zambra, Admiral) and Josh Dillard (Zambra, Asheville […]
If your favorite way to shop is at home in your pajamas, there’s some good news this holiday season: You can now buy beer from Bruisin’ Ales that way as well. “We’ve shipped beer for years, but it was becoming unmanageable to keep doing it by email and phone,” says co-owner Julie Atallah. So when […]
In September, Hi-Wire announced it had grown 135 percent since opening its doors just over a year before. In order to keep pace, the company was planning to enter a contract brewing agreement with Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co. in Mississippi. The contract brewing arrangement meant that Hi-Wire would pay Lazy Magnolia and work with that […]
If Simcoe, Citra and Cascade all sound familiar, chances are you’re either a brewer or a really, really big fan of IPAs. But while some hops gain household name status — at least in some houses — not all hops are so lucky. Many hops varieties never break past the competition in the commercial breeding […]
When I walked into Open Brewing a few weeks ago, the wall behind the bar had just been repainted, but the rest of the space was clearly a work in progress. As a reporter, it isn’t unusual to sit for an interview amid piles of boxes, with signage waiting to be hung. But this time, I […]
You could say they came for our apples. Virginia-based Bold Rock Cider recently announced it was making two new varieties of cider: Carolina Apple and Carolina Draft. Bold Rock describes Carolina Apple as “a crisp and light craft cider,” while draft is “a smooth and mellow sessionable variety.” However, as a proud resident of the great […]
Whether it’s a traditional turkey with 50 of your closest relatives or a vegetarian spread for two, there’s no escaping the trappings of the Thanksgiving meal. It’s a holiday that revolves around food as much as it does family. Of course, there are also traditional beverages — a certain type of wine with dinner, a […]
You never know when winter will hit in Asheville. This year, with early November snow, it seems the upcoming release of Cold Mountain from Highland Brewery is right on time. Community liaison Drew Stevenson says there’s even more to look forward to this year as the company plans to expand the release celebration at the […]
At their original brewery in Chico, Calif., Sierra Nevada grows barley and hops. It’s on such a small scale that the brewery could never switch over to using only what it grows; it uses the crops instead for limited-edition estate ales. Until recently, brewing a beer the same way — sourcing ingredients from a single […]
If you follow New Belgium Asheville on Instagram, or even on Twitter, you might have already seen some of their photos of the construction site. If not, here’s the scoop in a nutshell: After a lot of foundation work, things have started to go vertical. At the Craven Street location, where about 500,000 barrels per […]
Since late 2013, it was clear the current Noble Cider facility on the edge of town in Arden would be a temporary home. “We’ve been working out of a shared portion of a commercial park. … Our production space is tight,” says Baker.
The Mountain Music Mash, a haunted house, ghost tours, a chili cook-off and a costume contest will all be part of this year’s Halloweenfest, hosted by Heart of Brevard. The fun on Brevard’s Main Street starts at 10 a.m. and officially ends at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25. But if you’re looking for the […]
What do Oskar Blues, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Cigar City have in common? They’re all award-winning craft breweries, and they’re all growing fast. Soon they might have another thing in common: a second brewery in Western North Carolina. Yet while the breweries have some similarities, Tampa’s Cigar City is closer to the size of […]
For the past few months, anyone has been able to tour the new Sierra Nevada brewery in Mills River — sort of. The tour, called a “hard hat tour,” was not the same as the standard Sierra tour at the home facility in Chico, Calif. You had to reserve a spot ahead of time. Part […]
As a kid, the public library was a magical place. It had endless shelves of colorful adventures, and it was a place to go for story time. As an adult, some of us still use the library for more than voting. They have those old-fashioned paper books and audiobooks, after all. However, not many of […]
The Wicked Weed Funkatorium opened on Friday, Oct. 10, and there’s no arguing that it’s the big news of the week for the South Slope. However, a few other South Slope breweries are busy expanding as we head into fall: Burial Beer (40 Collier Ave) has moved its new 10-barrel system into place and will […]
Pumpkin-spiced lattes, pumpkin Oreos, heck, even pumpkin croutons: If you can eat or drink it, someone is trying to make it with pumpkin. When it comes to beer, pumpkin ale tends to elicit a love-it-or-hate-it response. Some order a seasonal beer for the only time all year while others scoff at the style. Wherever you […]
My wife and I visited Portland, Ore., earlier this year. While we could only hit a small fraction of the city’s 50-plus breweries, we made sure to stop at Cascade Brewing, a legendary producer of sour beers, and Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. At Cascade, we found no fewer than a dozen sour beers […]