A visit to “Beer City” Asheville (North Carolina) – Day 2

Day 2 of our visit to Asheville, North Carolina, had a full agenda in just the same way as Day 1 – see A visit to “Beer City” Asheville (North Carolina) – Day 1…

Bruisin’ Ales

In addition to visiting the breweries we had also had many recommendations to check out Bruisin’ Ales bottle shop which is located Downtown, so on Day 2 we decided to go and see what their beer selection was like… and we were not to be disappointed. Bruisin’ Ales stock a huge range of local beers, national beers and international ones including many from Belgium and Germany!

The store manager was very helpful and we had no problems filling 2 boxes and sinking almost $200 into various styles and brands of beer. Before we recommenced our brewery visits we popped back to the hotel to get the car to drive back to Bruisin’ Ales and collect our prized purchases. Well worth a visit if you go to Asheville – very reasonable prices!

Wicked Weed Brewing

We had passed Wicked Weed Brewing the previous day but with it being a Saturday there had been a large queue to get seated and a wait of about an hour so we decided to go on the Sunday which tends to be quieter according to one of the waitress staff. We managed to get seated at the bar in the Upstairs Restaurant and ordered lunch plus a sampler (starting left in photo and going round clockwise):

• Duke of Rochester – 32 IBU, 5.5%
• Infamous Porter – 40 IBU, 8.0%
• XIV Saison – 22 IBU, 5.2%
• XVII Saison – 11 IBU, 3.7%*
• Hibiscus Wit – 19 IBU, 4.7%
• Lucid Blonde – 21 IBU, 5.6%

* designates our favorite(s) from the above sampler.

After a great meal and enjoying our samplers we decided to head downstairs to see what ‘interesting’ beers were on tap and discovered the following:

• Oh My Quad – 24 IBU, 11.0%*
• Transcendence – 17 IBU, 5.5%
• XVII Saison (Petite Saison) – 11 IBU, 3.7%
• Cardinal Sin – 25 IBU, 7.2%
• Black Angel Cherry Sour – 18 IBU, 6.2%

* designates our favorite(s) from the above list of beers.

Transcendence was a 100% Brett beer which had a lot of ‘zing’. The Black Angel Cherry Sour had just kicked but we still managed to get a small sample. 🙂 The Petite Saison was what we had sampled upstairs but it proved such a sessionable beer that a 16oz glass was perfect for such a hot summer’s day.

Wicked Brewing has a great downstairs open area with the brewery equipment in full view. It is very clear that this brewery has been well funded and although they have been opened less than 9 months they have got off to a great start and are proving very popular.

Green Man Brewery

Next up was another short walk to Green Man Brewery which had already been mentioned to us by Tim at Burial Beer Company who explained how the breweries in Asheville are very willing to help one-another e.g. sharing yeast for pitching purposes.

The first thing we noticed about Green Man Brewery was their hops which were growing to the left of the building – these were full of cones and looking like they would produce a decent yield. Inside of the taproom was adorned with numerous figures and faces of the Green Man as well as Yoda from Star Wars with his light saber. Not sure what the story is behind Yoda…

Green Man’s Ambassador of Ales, Rachel, was behind the bar and served us our sampler of the following UK-inspired beers:

• Scottish 90/-*
• Porter – 6%*
• Cask conditioned British Summer Ale with Earl Grey – 5.8%
• Gold – 5.4%

* denotes our favorite(s) from the above sampler.

The Scottish 90/- had a smooth chocolate flavor with plenty of roasted characters on the nose, which was similar for the Porter, but the former was maltier and tasted like a slightly lower percentage of alcohol compared to the Porter. The British Summer Ale had a distinct Bergamot aroma and flavor.

Once finished with our sampler the staff at Green Man kindly gave us a recommendation of another brewery to visit, which was a couple of miles away, but first of all we had one more brewery in the downtown area to take in…

Lexington Avenue Brewery

The LAB, as this brewery is more commonly known, is located in the heart of downtown Asheville. As Day 2 of our visit had reached dinner time it was time to grab something to eat from The LAB’s interesting menu as well as another sampler (left to right in the photo):

• Cream Ale – 5.0%
• Hefeweizen – 5.0%
• IPA – 6.0%
• Imperial Rye – 7.4%
• Roggenbier – 5.6%
• Raspberry Nitro Porter – 6.4%*

* designates our favorite(s) from the above sampler.

Wedge Brewing Company

Our final brewery visit in Asheville took us a good mile or so out of the downtown area to Wedge Brewing Company. Initially we found what looked like a locked backdoor and thought they must be closed, but people kept walking past us and there were a number of parked cars so we continued walking and heard voices and music playing. We ventured down some steps and found a seating area with a fence made up of welded parts off vehicles and other metal items, and inside there was a band playing with people drinking, talking and dancing.

Inside the building we found the bar with the brewery visible through a window. During our visit we had the following beers:

• Flemish Style Brown Ale – wild yeast/oak – 7.2%
• Golem – Belgian Style Strong Golden – 10.5%*
• Witbier – Belgian Style Wheat – 4.6%

* designates our favorite(s) from the above beers.

This brewery definitely had a great atmosphere and is located next to the railroad with the odd locomotive going by (check out our You Tube video) and people were also playing Bean Bag Toss.

That wraps up our visit to Asheville which we thoroughly enjoyed and can certainly recommend a visit. Have you been to Asheville? If so, please let us know about your experiences and where you visited by commenting on either of the articles about our trip?