Beer around the World, Uncategorized

Beer in the blue ridge mountains: a well-spent week in Asheville

Posted by Sunshine on
The Blue Ridge mountains living up to their name.

Reconnecting with old friends, hiking, and beer hunting were the primary purposes of this March 2024 trip.

Vivek
Robbie
Keith

I am packing right now for another trip May 30-June 12. On paper Asheville seems like a place I might want to live. In my lived experience, I enjoy visiting but do not resonate within it as I do with other locales. Still, I love the vibrancy and creativity that positively sparkle here.

River Arts District

On this springtime trip, I spent only one evening in downtown Asheville. The rest of the week were spent in the outskirts.

Downtown Asheville and the River Arts district are attractive and well-heeled. Vibe reminded me a little bit of Austin and a little bit of Santa Fe.

Asheville boasts being one of the USA’s best craft beer destinations. Indeed per capita it ranks in the nation’s top three for the number breweries. But does quality keep pace with the quantity?

Highland has a huge event space
Fonta Flora is a farmhouse brewery about an hour outside Asheville. Their special bottlings are cellarable and make good gifts.
Funkatorium is Burial’s sexy barrel room with a fun array of sours, as well as IPAs.
On the way to Fonta Flora, Whaley Farm makes solid old world and historical styles. Two cask ales available! The pizza truck attached to the brewery makes outstanding pies and is a reason in itself to drive out that way.
Burial is a mainstay. Their IPAs are great, and their names are poetic genius.
We came across several freestyle poets busking.

Downtown has fabulous places to hang out and have fun, but the top beer spots for geeks are actually in Weaverville and West Asheville. Picking a top 3 for me was pretty easy.

Top Breweries:

  • Zillicoah
  • Cellarest
  • Zebulon

These three were all outstanding. Since options rotate, it would be unfair for a visitor to rank them any further.

The silver medal would be shared among several breweries including Burial, Whaley Farms, and Outsider.

What I found most surprising was the number of breweries making real beer: classic old world styles executed cleanly and served with knowledge, care, and respect.

One of the best breweries in Asheville.

Several breweries including Diatribe and Whaley Farms make a few cask ales/real ales. Several make low ABV styles with standouts being the light and dark milds at Outsider.

The best beer bar is The Whale in West Asheville. They actually had Andeschs maibock on tap 🤤and a kick ass NC grissette.

We visited the following:

  • Highland
  • New Origin
  • Cursus Keme
  • Diatribe
  • Cellarest
  • Outsider
  • Zillicoah
  • Zebulon
  • Whaley Farms
  • Fonta Flora
  • Burial
  • Funkatorium
  • Diatribe
  • Hi Wire
  • One World (where they had a killer disco party)
  • Terra Nova
  • The Wedge

We didnt eat out that much but what we had was noms, especially the pizza at Whaley Farms and the Indian food at Dilbar.

Dosa and pani poori are Dilbar

In between brewery visits we did some day hikes. I loved hiking a small portion of the Appalachian Trail. After the hike we went to the nearby town of Hot Springs, where you can rent a private mineral bath cabana.

Dance party at One World

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