On Jan. 1, Christopher Arbor and his friends launched a quest to visit one Asheville brewery each week for all of 2025 in the order that they opened. Their most recent stop was Dirty Jack’s on the South Slope. For their previous visit, click here.
Somehow, I’ve lived in Asheville for more than a quarter-century but had never visited Green Man Brewing’s Dirty Jack’s taproom until my friends and I wandered in on a recent chilly Wednesday evening.
Dirty Jack’s is a wee bit different from the brewery’s downtown birthplace, Jack of the Wood. Jack of the Wood captures a sort of romanticized view of Ireland — almost Middle Earth — where every seat feels as if it’s tucked into an intimate corner. Dirty Jack’s is more of an Irish soccer bar with concrete floors, metal chairs, dart boards, an air hockey table and large televisions for the games.
You can almost hear the echoes of raucous cheers bouncing off the walls. As its website says, “Just dirty enough to feel like home!”
But the intimate space — our crew of 13 nearly filled it — definitely does have its charm. For example, the bar is a beautiful piece of what looked to me like raw maple, and the walls were covered in traditional Green Man faces interspersed with witticisms like “I’m so miserable without you, it’s like having you here” and “Indecision may or may not be my problem.”
According to Asheville Brewers Alliance records, Dirty Jack’s opened in 2005. Back then, it was both a brewery and taproom, and customers could watch the brewing process while they enjoyed a pint. A bartender informed me that in 2016, brewing moved to the building next door, an old photo studio. The beer is then piped over to the next building, the three-story Green Mansion, for bottling and packaging.
As one of the oldest breweries in Asheville, the company distinguishes itself with its simple, traditional flagship ales — the IPA, ESB and porter — which are brewed from just water, malt, yeast and hops. All three are smooth and balanced with nuanced flavors. When we were in, Dirty Jack’s also had some other traditional ales (blonde, white and Berliner weiss) and lagers (helles, Marzen, black lager) on tap.
While Green Man may be most famous for its mastery of traditional ales, the brewers also branch out into more innovative styles. For example, while the brewery’s main IPA is considered a British IPA due to its milder hops and more malt-forward flavor, Dirty Jack’s had five other IPAs on tap for us to enjoy that day (hazy, cold, imperial, session and American).
Usually, food is available at the brewery via Green Man Eats; however, the bartender informed us it’s closed for the winter. So I looked up Pie.Zaa, a pizza place just down the road. At first, I balked at the price — $50 for a pizza?!?! But then I saw the size of it. It’s about the dimensions of a tectonic plate. A single pizza fed the 13 of us just fine.
For our next stop, we’re heading to Thirsty Monk Brewery at Biltmore Park, since the downtown location is temporarily closed. We meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Here’s our schedule for this month:
Feb. 5 – Wedge Brewing either on Payne’s Way or downtown (weather depending)
Feb. 12 – Oyster House Brewing on Haywood Road
Feb. 19 – Wicked Weed on Biltmore Avenue
Feb. 26 – Burial Beer on Collier Avenue
Join us if you’d like. You can email me in advance at YearInBeerAsheville@gmail.com or just show up.
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