Asheville N.C. part 1; Breweries and Artists

We stayed in Asheville for six days and were able to have several days of being the tourists and a little down time as well.  The weather was a real mix too.  We had a few nice sunny, but cool days and and some cold and rainy days with a few snow flurries thrown in for good measure!  Here’s a quick recap of our week:

Breweries

The craft beer scene has exploded the last five years across the country.  As we travel around, even many of the smaller towns will now have one.  I remember that Roanoke had 3-4 small batch breweries when we left last year May.

Asheville is a similar sized city and has 38 craft breweries!  Link for more details here.  Most are very small operations, one was mid-sized and then New Belgium is a huge operation, but still has the feel of a craft brewery.  One would have to wonder if Asheville is at the saturation point?  They have more breweries per capita than anywhere in the USA.

As a former home brewer (that hobby is on hold for now), I find the tours fascinating since the processes are the same, just a much larger scale and fancier equipment.  And the smell of the wort being boiled is great!  Bringing back many memories of my garage based operation.  On many Saturdays, my brother-in-law Tom and I would be brewing at  the same time.  Him in Cleveland while I’m in Christiansburg.  We would compare notes on the process measurables via text.  That was a lot of fun!

New Belgium Brewery

New Belgium Brewing is the fourth-largest brewer of craft beer in the nation and the eleventh-largest brewery in the United States.  They sell beer in all 50 states and brewed just less than 1 million barrels last year.  This Colorado based company is very employee and eco focused.

The company turned over ownership to the employees a few years ago through an ESOP.  It appears to have given them all the mindset of an owner considering quality and waste.

Our tour lasted almost two hours, was very detailed, and included four free small pour samples.  Very nice.  The tour guide was very good.

The brewers make all kinds of different and wacky brews that are very small batch and are sold only here in their tasting room.  Sounds like product development to me.  Our favorite production beer was the dubbel.  Very tasty.

New Belgium invested 200 million in the Asheville operation.  They selected this town due to its location in the east, a good mountain water source, a similar artsy town vibe as the Colorado location, and an available workforce.

The site they selected used to be a toxic waste dump.  They spent something like 4-5 years just in the cleanup process recycling a large percentage of the wood and metal waste.

Highland brewery

Independent and family owned since 1994.  Highland Brewing Company claims they carved the path for the Asheville craft industry and is proud of their North Carolina roots.

This is a large brewery but is still classified a small craft brewer with an annual capacity of 60,000 barrels.  Link to their history.

The River Arts District

Asheville is known as a town with a large focus on the arts.  There are many galleries spread all over the town, but the focus is in the River Arts District.

There are 22 historic buildings, mainly old warehouses, that are now being used as studios for something like 200 artists.  These are working studios that you can just walk in, see them working, and review the art on display.  Anything from paintings, to pottery, glasswork, and about everything else.  Very cool.

We walked through a couple of dozen studios, stopped for coffee occasionally in small shops, and enjoyed the stroll.  Fortunately, due to living in an RV, buying a large wall hanging piece of art is not very practical, so no purchases made.

In my next post, I will recap our tour of the Biltmore Mansion and the grounds.  A study in contrasts to our tiny home!

Thanks for reading and riding along with us!  Leave a comment or question if you wish and be sure to sign up for updates.  Take care and God Bless.