Asheville visit #2

Take a tour...best way to see Asheville

 

I just realized ill be in asheville next saturday. Unless you ladies like a good ol shit-kicking, rowdy, redneck, ruckus, testosterone fueled rock show, stay away from the orange peel. The Drive By Truckers will be in town. However, if the bachelorette party is looking for a concert packed to the gills with dudes, this will be the best option on the east coast that evening.

 

Yeah, everyone in this town claims that Wedge makes the best IPA in Asheville but it just tasted the same as all the others I've had here so far. I really liked their Golem BSPA but everything else was just okay. That's sort of how it goes around here I've found. Just about every brewery has one standout beer with the rest of their lineup being pretty average: Asheville Brewing Co's Ninja Porter is great, rest of the stuff not so much. French Broad's Rye Hopper is very good, everything else is pretty standard. The only breweries I've encountered so far that are doing anything special are Wicked Weed and Burial. They are the only two breweries in Asheville (to my knowledge) that have a barrel program and Wicked Weed's BA beers are especially good. Burial has the best IPA (Surfwax) that I have found in the area so far and Wicked Weed has the most experimental beers I've seen so far. I have only tried one beer by Hi-Wire (Strongman Coffee Milk Stout) and it was very good so I'll be seeking out more of their stuff. Only beer I've had by Pisgah was their pale ale and I didn't like it but I attribute this to the fact that I've never had an organic beer that I liked and all their beers are organic. I also haven't had any beer by Green Man yet but will eventually try their stuff out. As far as atmosphere goes, the coolest brewery to hang out at is Altamont. They only have four of their own beers which are all kinda average but they offer bigger breweries' beers as well (Founders, Boulevard, etc.). They also have live music regularly and it's just a cool room to chill with friends and play ping pong and foosball. Oh and, as others have stated, Appalachian Vintner is definitely the best beer store in the area since they have somewhere around 16 taps and you can get pints and growlers of some pretty top-notch stuff. Bruisin' Ales has a great selection as well but they're a lot more pricey since they're downtown. Oh and I just found out about this place Asheville Growler that's in North Asheville. I haven't been yet but their list of beers online is pretty solid and you can get pints there as well. Hope this super long post has been helpful to someone.

 

Are you going to the rock show? We are coming into town Friday evening, ready to hit the Weed and rock our balls out to some DBT. Saturday is going to pretty grueling based on prior experience. I can almost guarantee one of the worst hangovers of my life if I drink any draft beer at the Orange Peel.

 

Oh yeah!! Coming in from Charlotte for just Saturday. I hope to make a full day of it, Vintner, Wicked Weed, Greenman, Burial, and Thirsty Monk. If we only hit one of those stops or all, it will be another great day in Asheville.

 

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I would see if they're running any Lazoom tours, that would be heck of a lot of fun with a bachelorette party, learn something about Asheville and have a side splitting good time, plus its byob, and across the street from the pick up you can purchase all the byob you need, its next to Wicked Weed to boot, the Beer/Wine store. If they're not running LaZoom tours, you could do a Beer Tour as well. Wicked Weed isn't that close to Burial, Green man is, there actually within 100' of each other. Probably a two, two and a half block walk from Wicked Weed. Around the corner from the Orange Peel (which is next to Wicked Weed), again a two block walk, is Hi Wire, not on the main street but on the side street that abut's Orange Peel.

If you're in that area of town, Barley's food is pretty good, rowdy type place. Could hit up Doc Shay's for good food as well. That whole street has some great food places, you really can't go wrong no matter the budget. Real nice eats is next door to Bailey's or inside the hotel that is right there, little more refined.

Enjoy!

 

I'll check out Lazoom! BYOB would be good since we have one pregnant girl w us.

I will have to check out this Orange Peel/DBT show. Pregnant girl isn't going to go out Sat night so the rest of us may be up for rowdy fun live music.

Thanks to everyone who cleared up how I can do a brewery walking tour and for all of the food suggestions! I haven't been to Asheville in 3 years so I am extremely excited!

 

I'm glad I found this thread. Wedge is the most overrated brewery in Asheville, and when anyone tells me their IPA is good I stop listening to them about "good beer". Asheville is very much about Asheville. I know when Thirsty Monk first opened with their focus on Belgian Beers to town bitched and complained that they didn't serve Asheville beer. I think it is great that everyone supports the local beer community, but most people don't realize their is tons of amazing beer being brewed other places.

 

I've maintained Asheville is main a cool bar town more so a great beer town. But that is changing rapidly.

 

I'd probably dispute that being an outsider that just visited. Wicked Weed was by far the best overall beer, but we went to Wedge twice because it was solid beer and it was a great experience. Hi-Wire was probably my next favorite after that.

 

In my opinion wedge is highly overated. Them and Pisgah were the first in town to make big beers which can be part of the reason Asheville digs them so much. Wedge is the hipster pbr of Asheville. In order to be cool, you have to like it.

 

I like Wedge and I'm not cool at all.

 

Maynard G. Krebs didn't think he was cool either. Boy was he wrong.

 

The only beer that I have ever remotely enjoyed from the Wedge was Gollem. That is it.

I will take Wicked Weed, Burial, Green Man, Hi-Wire, Asheville Brewing, or Highland any day of the week over the Wedge. The best part of the Wedge is that it is next to Bull and the Beggar.

 

The Wedge hate is a little surprising. I've always found it a great place to hang out, have a beer, and maybe catch a food truck - that's usually enough to make me happy. More times than not there's been something enjoyable available. For my preferences, the atmosphere is a strong suit. It's nice to have so many places to choose from for varying preferences and moods, and Wedge definitely fills a niche in that scene for me.

That, and the IPA is good.

 

Exactly. Asheville is for the most part comfortable cool beer bars kinds town, Iron Rail is good, but the vibe is what most people like.

 

I like wicked, but the crowds suck balls.

Now that they are releasing bottles, I only expect that place to raise in shit show status.