Hey BA's, Headed to Asheville for a weekend with the wife, as well as my buddy and his g/f. Main idea here is to travel to some breweries and have some fun. What are the go to breweries in Asheville, obviously I've heard Wicked Weed is good, so we will most likely be checking that out. Any other recommendations? Also, I see online there are various "brewery tours" you can do which look to be about $55/person, last approx 3 hours, and cover anywhere from 3-5 breweries on the tour. Does anyone recommend these or do you think it's better to go at it alone and hit all the best? Any recommendations would be appreciated, never been to this city before..
Ive been to Asheville many times but have never taken any of the brewery tour packages. Wicked Weed is a definite MUST...upstairs is the restaurant part...tasting room is downstairs make sure you're there when it's open...WW also has a new location called the Funkatori which is a few blocks away...sour beers are there. Also in downtown the ones I like are Asheville Brewing, Green Man and Hi Wire. If you can drive a little ways outside of town Pisgah makes some really good beers. I always start with a flight usually aroun $5-10 then if one really stands out I get a full pour. Also IMO, Brusin Ales is a must stop...a really good bottle shop in downtown and has a great selection...you can order from them after you get home as well. If you want to hit up a great beer bar then try Thirsty Monk. When we come back we always go through Bryson City and stop at Nantahala Brewing...Ive liked all the beers Ive had there and its a very nice place to sit and relax for a bit on your way home. Enjoy the trip!
I think Appalacian Vitner (sp) is the best bottle shop in Ashville...plus they have a bunch of beers on tap as well.
I second pretty much everything KMitch said, but thought I'd add the following: Burial Brewing is pretty killer, too. They make some great IPAs, saisons, and have dabbled a bit in wild ales. They are also right around the corner from Greenman (literally), very close to Hi Wire, and within walking distance of Wicked Weed. Wedge is also great. They are very small, but put out some big, tasty beers. The last time I was there, the stouts they had really stood out. Wedge is a little bit further away from the rest, so I usually drive there to start the day off, then drive back to Green Man and hit the rest from there (Burial, Green Man, Hi-Wire, and Wicked Weed). I've never done a paid brewery tour, and probably never will. The better/best breweries are all in the same general area, so you can cover them on your own very easily. I think I remember that the paid brewery tours usually include Asheville Brewing and French Broad, which I'd skip if you can make the others mentioned above. Also, I hate to knock any brewery, but I'd generally steer clear of LAB … for both food and beer. Instead, get some food at Wicked Weed. I'm not sure which I enjoy the most there. As KMitch mentioned, after the breweries close, swing by the Thirsty Monk. Upstairs will have great locals/regional beers (plus some rarer beers) and downstairs will have some excellent Belgians. Lastly, if you time things right, you could hit the new Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues breweries on your way back to GA. I haven't been to either, but have heard good things about both. So just to recap, my itinerary usually looks something like this: Drive to Wedge Drive to Green Man (don't go there yet) Walk to Hi-Wire Walk to Burial Walk back to Green Man (now enjoy) Walk to Wicked Weed (eat upstairs, drink downstairs) Walk to the Thirsty Monk Get home responsibly Enjoy your trip!
FYI, the Sierra Nevada Brewery does scheduled tours but the brewpub won't open up till Spring. I typically tell people to eat and start with Wicked Weed (no flights on weekends). Mainly drink the Saisons, IPAs, etc. and stay clear off the sours (I will explain why later). Then walk to Green Man. Then to Burial. And then to Wicked Weed Funkatorium to get your sour fix. After that you can hit up Hi-Wire, Twin Leaf, Asheville Pizza, or Thirsty Monk. They also just opened up Vortex Donuts on the South Slope if you need a sweet snack after so much beer drinking.
I'm gonna piggyback on a lot of what has already been said. The Funkatorium is a must. I get all misty just walking through their Barrel aging room. Asheville brewing is a great place to catch a movie with some good munchies. Wicked Weed is already world class in roughly 2 years in existence. High-wire is a cool industrial feel set up. Burial is one to really watch in the future and a great place to visit as they don't can or bottle yet. For price and selection Appalachian Vintner is the place to go. Brusin ales sometimes has some rarer brews remaining, but with a average of about 15% increase in price. And make sure you eat breakfast at Biscuit Head. Many will probably recommend Early Girl, which is great but Biscuit Head is the best breakfast I have ever had.(Sorry Grandma)
Thanks guys - in terms of a bottle shop around, what's the best you recommend? You may have already recommended it and I wasn't paying attention, but of course looking to bring back some goodies. I'm praying we get to go to the funkatorium, my beer buddy, his g/f, and my wife all have no interest in sours . Hopefully I can persuade them to go.
Just came back from a 4 day trip. My recommendations are that you must go to the main Wicked Weed and the Funktorium, they are the best spots in town. After those the next coolest thing we did was a brewery tour at Sierra Nevada. Absolutely incredible experience. The place is massive, the tour is educational, and you get to sample 7-8 beers for free. Appalachian Vintner is bar far the best bottle shop and we we went to both. Burial is only open like 3 days a week, so don't miss it like we did. The point of our trip was to visit as many places as possible and try as many beers. My notes are below: Oyster House Brewing - This place was pretty neat, but small. GREAT food and we had some good beers there. Pints were like $3.75 and the BLT with fried oysters (BOLT) was probably best food I had in town. Wedge - Average at best. Weird crowd to me and the beers seemed average. Beer was cheap though. Barley's Pizza - Good beer bar, we watched a game here and enjoyed their selection of beer. Pizza was very good and the staff was great. Lookout Brewing - In Black Mtn area, super chill and relaxed place. Good beer and good prices. They fill growlers in mason jars, which was neat. Pisgah - Also in Black Mtn, one of the better breweries outside of the downtown area. A flight of 12 beers was $13, and I enjoyed most of them. Highland - Great venue just outside of town. Wooded with a huge deck to chill, this is a good afternoon spot if the weather is nice. They have 10-12 small batch brews that were pretty good. The Chocolate Cherry Stout was GREAT! Asheville Brewing - Seemed like a hole in the wall to me. Food was not great and the beer was average. I would not go back. WW Funkatorium - My favorite place in town, laid back environment that is really neat. Had some great sours there and they do have a few non-sour beers. Best place to buy your WW bottles also. Hi-Wire - Not impressed with the atmosphere. Beers were decent, but not worth a return trip. Ben's Tune Up - Next door to Hi-Wire is a restaurant and bar. Small beer selection but such a cool place to go. Bar has no roof, very neat. Dirt cheap prices. Jack of the Wood - Dive bar, good selection of brews including the Green Man lineup. Good late night stop when nothing else is open. Wicked Weed - Food was GREAT, but portions seemed small. Different beers upstairs and downstairs, so make sure you go to both. Brewery tour seemed cool, but we did not do it. Growler fills available and lots of merch. Price was reasonable for everything there. Twin Leaf - Lots to chose from and most were good, with a few standouts. Their Brown was very good. Pretty small place and literally right across from the WW Funkatorium. Lexington Ave Brewing (LAB) - One of the best food selections, which I enjoyed. Beer was average, nothing really stood out. Pumpkin beer was better than most. Better food costs a little more, but overall reasonable cost. Monday night was fun as they do trivia that was pretty entertaining. One World Brewing - Tiny place in a basement that was shady to get to. Only 4 beers on tap, none were very good. Don't waste your time. Thirsty Monk - I was not impressed. They have an upstairs and downstairs, with downstairs being Belgian beers. The downstairs was much better, but beer selection was not impressive at either. I think they have other locations and even brew their own beers out of one of them.
Lookout Brewing I have visited and really enjoyed it. It's also a homebrew shop and people would come in and have a beer while picking up ingredients. It is outside of downtown and that's why I didn't mention it before. We enjoyed Wedge. There were a lot of people and they have a large outside space. With it being so cool outside now I don't think there would be as much going on. It was nice to sit outside and get food from the food truck and relax with a pitcher of beer. The main reason I like Brusin Ales bottle shop is that once you do business with them you can order from them without the additional charge for setting up an account. If that is something that appeals to you just let them know while you're there.
