I am going to spend about a week at a house about 45 min. east of Asheville this summer, and will be coming to Asheville to stock up on food and beer before we head for the mountains. We'll then be bouncing back into town a few times as we wander around western NC. Which leads me to my question - what is can't miss among the beers available in Asheville mid-June? I will have my daughter and non-beer-drinking wife with me, so I'm not looking for places to hang and drink, although if there's somewhere that can accommodate kids and wine drinkers that I should try, please feel free to post about it. I am particularly interested in what may be cycling through on a seasonal basis and/or which may not already be on my radar. Growlers, bottles, bombers - if it's good and available in June, I'm interested. Thanks for your help.
Whatever sours are still available at Wicked Weed when you get there will be well worth picking up. They'll probably still have a few choices in June, based on how quickly they are burning through their batches.
Definitely pick up some growlers from Wicked Weed, the sours are really good as is the Freak of Nature DIPA. The best stores for purchasing beer are Appalachian Vintners (which also carries a pretty good selection of wine) and Bruisin Ales.
Well, shoot, 45 min. east would put you about 10 min from Pisgah Brewing (Swannanoa/Black Mountain area). If you can slip out of the house... ???? Maybe take the wife on a weekend night? They usually have a band playing for some adult time? For a place to pick up some brews, hit Appalachian vintners. Not hard to find, especially if you're hitting the Biltmore House. Bout a 1/2 mile from the entrance. They have growlers there plus local bottles/cans etc... Great place to stock up.
Almost all of the breweries in the area are kid (and dog) friendly, and some of them even stock some bottles of wine to serve to the non-beer drinkers. Off the top of my head I know Highland does this, and pretty sure there are a couple of others that do too. You might want to call around if your planning on trying to hit some breweries.
Wicked Weed - Awesome beer and great place to grab a meal and a drink. A must stop! 12 Bones BBQ - great BBQ and cheap local pints! Appalachian Vinter has a great bottle selection and beer on tap! they should have some beers from the following local breweries - Greenman - great sours and stouts in 750ml Pisgah - now putting out good 750ml's again Burial - Nano Hi Wire - tasty year round brews Old Hickory - Awesome stouts and BA beers NODA - Hop Drop N Roll
It is prudent to look around for some of the things that Appalachian Vintner carries. They certainly have a better selection than say the local Ingles grocery, but for those held in common, most of the bottles and 6-packs at AV are $2-3 higher.
Wicked Weed definitely has wine downstairs. My wife can only drink GF beer so she had a few glasses of wine until she realized they stock some GF beer bottles as well when they don't have GF Freak on tap. The outside tables are perfectly fine for a kid to hang out. The best spot for taking your kiddo though is Asheville Pizza and Brewing on Coxe. Huge huge patio and we have spent a few hours there with our kid. There are typically 4 billion dogs there so that keeps my daughter entertained for hours. Full bar for your wife, pizza for your kid, and some decent beers for you. You can also sneak around the corner to Hi-Wire.
I was scratching my head for a second trying to figure out why your wife was drinking your girlfriend's beer. Clearly i need a nap.
I've been to Wicked Weed with my daughters - no problem. Fish and chips app? Fuggetaboutit. Asheville Pizza and Brewing is totally kid friendly (they have a kids menu), and it's my go-to family place. Haven't been to the one on Coxe (downtown) but the one on Merimon.
My wife isn't a beer drinker either she loves wine, and she did well every place we went. 2nd 12 bones, BBQ and Shiva IPA hit the spot. Every place we hit would be kid friendly within reasonable hours too. Kinda partial to Barleys their pizza is as good as it gets, build your own by the slice if you want, Weed is about across the street. App Vintner and Asheville Brewing are very close together too.
If you consider Asheville Brewing close (which it is), then so is the Green Man tasting room (much better to me than Jack of the Woods), Burial, and Hi-Wire. Its ridiculously easy to stumble around Asheville now and hit a bar/brewery.
Asheville Ale Trail has also just put out a small little map you find around town that shows you where all the breweries are.
Yeah they do. One World isn't mentioned at all on the entire site and Thirsty Monk is listed in their Beer Bars & Taprooms section but doesn't show up on the map
Very helpful post. I'm coming through Asheville next week for 3 days before heading into the mountains for another 3, so I'm looking to stock up on provisions myself for the tail end of the trip. Any suggestions/updates to the above post would be appreciated, cheers!
I found most of the brewery options listed above at Appalachian Vinter, so if you are stocking up, start there. I do recommend going to Wicked Weed. It was my favorite place during the trip, and the beer was rock solid. Upstairs, with the food, is fun, but if you are serious about trying the beers, head downstairs. Great space. Growler options are numerous. I got one from Pisgah and one from Wicked Weed.
Good stuff. From what I've gathered it's a bummer about the growler refill policy (as if having 7 different growlers on my shelf isn't enough already!) but I still may have to take something from Wicked Weed since they are so highly regarded. I also plan on posting an ISO/FT for Chicago local shelf beers to spread the love and acquire some of Asheville's finest brews.
