visiting Asheville 1/19 - 1/21

For hopheads, Wedge and Wicked Weed may have the cure, but I usually give anywhere but LAB a shot when in town. Look for Nantahala Noonday IPA on draft - it was on at Appalachian Vintner a few weeks ago.

 

Nantahala's Noonday is probably one of the better IPA's in the area. That and I think Catawba Valleys "Fire Water " IPA is good too. Comes in cans as well.

You can buy the Noonday in growlers around town I think. Dunno how fast it's turned over, unless you want to drive 45 minutes west and go to the brewery.

 

IMO if your a hop head prepare to be a little disappointed. The best IPA's available IMO are about equal to something like Hop Devil which isn't bad, but don't think your going to find a backwoods HT lying around locally. Asheville is a cool beer bar town first and foremost, good music, good food, a lively artsy town, it's just plain fun to spend a few days here. I do like Wedge, and Barley's tap room, one slice of Pizza will be good, and I ate two washed down with a French Broad IPA I believe. Noonday is decent, but if you have to drive to Nantahala forget it, it's a freaking haul to get there, not worth it, Bryson City is remote.

 

I was in Asheville a couple of weeks ago and was a little disappointed by the local hoppy offerings. I stopped by both Green Man and Wedge, and none of the hoppy stuff was all that impressive. None of the beers Green Man had on tap were all that good, but I bought a bottle of the Schadenfreude Berliner and it was incredible. The Raspberry Imperial Stout was the highlight at Wedge. My favorite place for a beer in Asheville was definitely the Thirsty Monk. They had incredible tap and bottle lists and a great mix of local stuff and harder-to-find beers.

 

Hopefully with the new breweries opening in Western NC they force the hoppy stuff bar to be raised. Have to say though that Death By Hops can be absolutely outstanding, but I've never seen it in Asheville on tap, and Foothills Jade can be very good as well. But IMO Jade is a batch to batch deal, some are average, some are bombs, just depends.

 

Hi OP. Transplanted Oregon hophead here. Death By Hops is definitely worth a shot. Best "west coast"-style IPA in the region IMO is from Sweetwater from GA. Grapefruit bomb when fresh. (And you'll know whether it's fresh since they date the bottles; "best by" date is 90 days after bottling.) This is the only beer from the area that's constantly in my beer fridge, and well worth seeking out if you're looking for sixers. Quite reasonably priced, too.
[Edit- Didn't realize you were from Charleston, so I reckon you are well aware of SIPA already, haha.]

My favorite breweries to hang out at in town are Wedge (good beer, no food) and Asheville Brewing Co (good beer and good food). I haven't checked out Wicked Weed yet, but look forward to doing so. Casual restaurants that'll have an impressive variety of NC and regional offerings on tap include Pack's Tavern, Barley's and Mellow Mushroom. Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

Great info here already. Just want to add that you should stop by Bruisin Ales before leaving. One of the better beer stores I've found. Great selection and a bunch of locals.

And on a pure foodie note- Salsas is awesome!

 

Don't listen to this guy about hops. Get yourself an Iron Rail at Wedge. Best IPA in town.

 

Iron Rail was certainly the best local IPA I had in Asheville, but given the competition, that's not saying much.

 

The IPA's are Eh... except Death By Hops and Jade.

 

Wicked Weed is now the place to go for hoppy beers. The zealot,freak,and tyranny are all very solid beers. The stouts are very nice as well. My burger with short ribs on top was quite tasty.

 

Neither of which are made in (or really near) Asheville!

Lot's of great beer to had, if you don't stumble into something you find enjoyable, you're doing it wrong

 

I thought we were talking about beers available on tap and not necessarily just brewed in Asheville. I can get Jade in Greensboro, I can buy Death By Hops in several places, so I assume both have or can be available in town. Foothills is 2 hours from Asheville, Hickory a lot closer, so they're not exactly remote, and Jade will also be bottled soon. I've had decent IPA's brewed in Asheville, but it stops at decent. I can't think of any IPA that I've had that even came close to blowing me away, IMO it doesn't exist. There are several that are better than others, but as I said even the best is just decent. If you want a Hop vacation you go to Waterbury VT, and there's 3-4 bars all lined up with some of the best stuff on the planet. I like Asheville, I hope the new brewery additions from the Big Boys up the ante on some styles, but Asheville IMO is still primarily a great beer town based on cool bars, music, and good food, not world class local breweries. Again just my opinion.

 

Wedge is great.