Asheville Brewery Crawl

Asheville now boasts eight breweries with another opening in days. And if you include nearby Black Mountain, there is another. With my beer buddy and our wives in tow, we planned our crawl through the breweries with a stop in Black Mountain first. There the Pisgah Brewing Company opens at 2 in an unheated or barely heated taproom. Pisgah has quite a few of their own beers on tap along with a few guest taps. I enjoyed a half pint of their black lager.

From here we traveled to French Broad Brewing. Just in case you're wondering about the name, the French Broad River flows through Asheville. The brewery is located in a nondescript brick building near Biltmore Estate. I didn't get a picture of this, but the passage from one room to another is simply a hole busted through the sheetrock. I've visited here before so I took a few sips and that was it. I don't care much for the beer here. I think they lack body. The Rye PA does have a nice flavor.

We needed to make the Highland Brewery tour at 4pm sharp. We allowed plenty of time but poor directions and incorrect mapping meant we arrived a few minutes late, but not to worry, there are maybe 80 people milling around waiting for the tour. Our tour guide spoke non-stop for an hour. Actually, it was one of the most informative tours I've been on. We sampled all 5 of their regular beers. I really like the Oatmeal Porter. This is a very large micro or very small regional brewery. Their beers are geared to compete with the popular mainstream micros and thus tend to lack the boldness I crave in a beer.

Finding Wedge Brewery proved trying. We tried to find using the address. Then gave up and asked someone. Oh, it is in back of the building with no sign out front. I found the name appropriate. The brewery is wedged into a small space. The taproom wedged around it. The bathrooms wedged in right at the front door. It was crowded and for good reason. this place makes wonderful beer. I loved the Porter.

Now it is time to park the car at our downtown hotel and walk the rest of the way. First stop is Bruisin Ales beer store and then the Greenman Brewery. Greenman, not be confused with greenmon, is in what appears to be an old garage. Very small and with very limited seating, we found 2 empty bar stools and proceeded to enjoy their beer. I drank a wonderful double IPA and my buddy had a cask IPA. We ended up buying some Lusty Monk mustard from the bar tendress, who made it in her home.

It was a very short walk from here to Asheville Brewing. Here I had another nice porter. We spoke with a real estate agent at the bar. Not much selling right now in Asheville.

Another short walk and dinner with an IPA at Lobster Trap Restaurant (Oyster House Brewing). Oysters were $6 per dozen. So that was dinner.