Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow is the one-stop home for Asheville-area beer news. Check back throughout the week for updates and send your own to wncbeertoday@gmail.com.
Bottle and can releases
- Highland Brewing Co. releases Zombie Story (6.8 percent ABV), a New England IPA brewed with Simcoe lupulin powder and Columbus and Citra hops, on Friday, Oct. 26. It will be available on draft and in six-packs of 12-ounce cans featuring a design by local artist Julie Armbruster. The draft will see limited distribution, but the cans will be available exclusively in the tasting room.
- Wicked Weed Brewing releases Dark Arts Rum Barrel-Aged Stout (15 percent ABV) on Friday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m. at the Funkatorium. It will be available in bottles and on draft.
- **NEW** Zebulon Artisan Ales releases Experimental Forest #2 (for Mika Vainio) on Saturday, Oct. 27. The second in the brewery’s series of “tree flavored” beers is a “raw” no-boil white beer (5.1 percent ABV) brewed with locally foraged spicebush branches, leaves and berries. It’s then fermented with a mixed culture of lactobacillus, brettanomyces and four strains of ale yeast. 750 milliliter bottles cost $13 and it will also be available on draft.
Small-batch beers and ciders
- UpCountry Brewing Co. taps a new batch of Soon To Be Named Porter (5.7 percent ABV) on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
- Catawba Brewing Co. releases Tangerine Sour, a soured wheat ale fermented with 125 pounds of fresh tangerine, on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
- **NEW** Oyster House Brewing Co. is currently pouring an English Mild (3.7 percent ABV).
- On Thursday, Oct. 25, 6-8 p.m., Twin Leaf Brewery taps a candy roaster squash beer, made in collaboration with Slow Food Asheville. Gardeners from across Buncombe County grew the heirloom squash, which were then fire-roasted at Rayburn Farms and transformed into the new brew.
- Mills River Brewery releases its Autumn Ale on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 1 p.m.
Special events
- Tasty Beverage Co. taps the recent Highland/Hi-Wire Brewing collaboration Plum Nectar Dry-Hopped Berliner Weisse on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 5 p.m. Also available will be Highland’s Vanilla Milk Stout (a special test batch for an upcoming beer) and Hi-Wire Hop Circus White IPA, the first release in its new rotating IPA series.
- Urban Orchard Cider Co.‘s combination 5th Anniversary, Grand Opening and Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 27, at its South Slope location also features fire flights of six craft chili ciders. Spice intensity ranges from the mild Hop-a-leño, made with local jalapeños, to the intense Scorpion King, featuring local Carolina Reapers.
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