Looking for beer on a budget, even locally made craft beer? There are deals out there, and here are some we’ve discovered. If you know of others, let us know by contacting brewgasmavl@gmail.com.
Mondays
French Broad Brewery: $2.50 for draught pints.
Rankin Vault: $2 for 20-ounce PBR draught.
Tuesdays
Tingles Café: $3 for any of their eight local draught pints.
Wednesdays
Craggie Brewing: Willi Wednesday: 21.5oz Willis for $3.25.
Burgermeister’s: $1 off all draught pints.
Thirsty Monk: Buy the beer and keep the logo glass. Different brewery featured weekly.
French Broad Brewery: $1 off all growler fills.
Tingles Café: Buy the beer and keep the Tingles glass.
Heinzelmannchen Brewing’s Wunderbar (Sylva): All growlers filled for $6.10.
Thursdays
Rankin Vault: $2 for 12-ounce local craft beer pours.
Marco’s Pizzeria: $3.25 for 16-ounce local craft beer pours.
Fridays
Neo Burrito: 10 cents (yes, you read that right) for 12-ounce regional and local draught pours. Offerings vary from week to week.
Saturdays
Neo Burrito, half price on all bottled and canned beers.
Most nights
Universal Joint: $3 for 16-ounce pint special, draught varies nightly.
Asheville Brewing (both locations): $3 for 16-ounce pint special, draught varies nightly.
Another Brewgrass has come and gone, but we’re still in training for the next local beer fest. Speaking of training, six local breweries are recruiting teams to compete in a number of contests that will take place during the Asheville Downtown Association’s Oktoberfest celebration on Wall St. on Saturday, Oct. 9th from noon to 6 p.m. Participating local breweries are Asheville Brewing, Craggie Brewing, Green Man Brewing, Highland Brewing, French Broad Brewing and Pisgah Brewing.
Beer lovers can sign up to be on any of these brewery’s teams by going to their tasting rooms and filling out an application. By Sunday, Oct. 3, each brewery will select a team of four to represent them in the Oktoberfest games. Team members must be over 21. The games will include keg rolling, stein races, Dizzy Gnome, a Bratwurst-eating contest and an alphorn-blowing contest. Points will be awarded for each category. Also, teams will receive additional points based on the most creative “uniforms.” At the end of Oktoberfest, the winning brewery team will be crowned. Tickets for the event are $25 and are on sale at ashevilledowntown.org.
This year’s annual Blue Ridge Brew-Off, hosted by local group Mountain Ale and Lager Tasters, took place at Highland Brewing Company on Sept. 11. There were 341 entries in 27 different categories, from IPAs to Strong Ales to Belgians to Meads. While most of the brewers came from the Southeast region, a few made the trek from as far as Utah and Colorado to showcase their home brews.
The top winners are: Best of Show, First Place to David Keller of Bat Cave, N.C., for his Old McBat, strong Scotch Ale; Best of Show, Second Place to Norm Pennof Asheville for his Hefeweizen; Best of Show, Third Place to Bobby Don Johnson of Maurice, La., for his Mob Barley’s Schwarzbier; First Place in the Mead/Cider category to Joel Masters of Cayce, S.C., for his The Helmet II; and the Dr George Fix Award to Ayuh we’re Mainers of Asheville, N.C., for their Blazin’ ESB.
I’ve said it before, but this area has an amazingly strong and diverse assortment of home brewers who really know their hops and barley. Keep it up, MALTers.
Oops. Here’s what Craggie’s really doing on Wednesdays:
Willi Wednesday: 21.5 ounce BIG Willis for $3.25.
Another good one I just heard about:
Jack of the Wood: Local Brew Tall for Small Tuesdays: All local beers: get a 20oz Imperial Pint for the price of a 14 oz pint – $3.75
Wednesdays: $1 off selected Green Man pints ($2.75)
Another one sent to me (haven’t checked this one):
Ruby’s in Haw Creek has a local brew(maybe 2) every night of the week for 2.50.
Tupelo Honey (South location for sure, not sure about Patton) has $2 local pints on Tuesdays.