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Highland also offers brewery tours for those who want to learn more about how some of the best beer in Asheville is made. Join us downtown Asheville in our second taproom space on the mezzanine of the S&W Market, Asheville’s first food hall. Enjoy a Highland beer and a taste of the city from local all-star food vendors on the market’s first floor. While the rooftop bar and events center were completed before 2020, the outdoor spaces now include popular volleyball, disc golf and cornhole areas.
Location
Wong and McDermott liked the balanced flavor of the English brown ale base but didn’t know the creation would be “it” as far as a flagship brew went. Wong says that status came along more naturally and actually dawned on him a few years into Highland’s run when he was ready to try new things and possibly take the brewery in a different direction. After visiting North Carolina for the first time, Senior Writer Jonathon Engels and wife Emma spent 2 years exploring Western NC in search of a homestead property.
The Meadow
None of the other Asheville NC breweries we’ve visited offer quite so much behind the scenes access. Their Asheville beer tour happens twice on Monday and Tuesday, and on four different occasions each afternoon for the rest of the week. Founded in 1994 by retired engineer Oscar Wong, Highland Brewing was the pioneer of craft brewing in Asheville. Which has, of course, since become the Blue Ridge Mountains’ hottest destination for serious beer connoisseurs. Highland Brewing got its start in 1994 as a retirement hobby for former engineer Oscar Wong.
HIGHLAND BREWERY TOURS
Not getting metaphorically flattened is part of why Wong Ashburn was brought in to succeed Wong as head of the brewery — though if she had her way, Highland would have been a true family business far earlier. Wong Ashburn made several attempts to join the company in the brewery’s first decade, including as a local beer seller, but Wong says he didn’t think it was the right thing for her to do at that time. The brewhouse has the third largest solar array of any craft beer brewery in the US, and the 13th largest brewery solar array in the world.
THIS WEEK'S
In December 1994, when downtown Asheville was sleepy, Highland rolled out its first kegs from the basement to the alley. Built almost entirely of retrofitted dairy equipment, our original brewery could produce up to 6,500 barrels of beer per year in about 12,000 square feet of space. So Highland Brewery, which many locals consider the founder of the Asheville NC craft beer scene, has been doing it for more than 25 years. And even now, after the big brands have stolen the media spotlight, it remains one of the best breweries in Asheville. Operations began in the basement of downtown Asheville’s Barley’s Taproom, where Wong used retrofitted dairy equipment to create his beer. He continued there for 13 years and over time developed the recipes for what would become regional favorites like the Gaelic Ale, Black Mocha Stout, and Oatmeal Porter.
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The packaging hall is where we put our beer into bottles and cans. Changing any of the form inputs will cause the list of events to refresh with the filtered results. Visit our hilltop brewery and see what else goes on beyond fermentation. Additionally, they repurpose spent grains as cow feed, use repurposed materials for some of their brewing systems, and have several mindful operating protocols to minimize energy usage and waste. But the Highland Brewing Company was the very first Asheville brewery.
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Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion. Her tenure has also overlapped with large enterprises such as Anheuser-Busch InBev and Kirin Holdings purchasing numerous smaller craft breweries. Wong and Wong Ashburn confirm that Highland has indeed fielded offers from so-called “Big Beer” and has received pitches to buy other breweries. Neither avenue is appealing to the Highland ownership team, and there’s also zero interest in establishing taprooms outside Asheville.
Limited Release Beers
It opened up shop in 1994, before the town’s revitalization really began to hits its stride. CloseEmbark on a new adventure on this first phase of walking trails that sprawl throughout our 40-acre campus. The trails are currently 1.2 miles and take folks through the woods and along Gashes creek. CloseThis is where packaged beer gets loaded onto trucks and makes its way out into the world. This wide front porch is a great spot to get your bearings, snap a photo, and enjoy a pint from the Taproom when the weather is nice.
Breweries
But unlike so many fly-by-night microbrewers gone rogue, the first of the many Asheville, NC breweries now has a quarter of a century to its name. Let us craft an authentic brewery experience for your next special occasion. Private event venues include the Rooftop, Event Center and Barrel Room. A vast tree-lined space with shady table seating and a lush lawn to bring your own chairs. The Meadow bar is open for the summer featuring our year-round and small batch beers; cider and wine also available.
The rooftop beer garden offers views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Create an industrial chic event in Highland Brewing’s bi-level Event Center with soaring ceilings filled with natural light. The main bar features Highland’s full line up of year-round and seasonal beers. The space is connected with stairs and an elevator and is also equipped with a catering kitchen, stage, and full AV equipment perfect for speakers or presentations. Today, Gaelic Ale can be found in nearly every area taproom, grocery store and even most gas stations. And considering how IPAs have come to dominate the craft beer industry, it’s all the more remarkable that such an unusual style helped put Asheville on the map.
Highland Brewing likes to see itself as a business incarnation of the American dream. Of all the myriad North Carolina breweries, it’s the largest “native” craft beer producer, and remains one of the top breweries in Asheville. Close The Meadow is our tree-lined outdoor space featuring a seasonal bar, live music, and special events. CloseOur Event Center houses three levels of industrial chic private event space with soaring ceilings, expansive windows, a stage, a mezzanine, two bars, and more.
As a perennial feature on Asheville beer tours and one of the city’s best breweries, Highland Brewing Co doesn’t really need to do much more to get noticed. And yet they do, with their many community-minded and environmentally aware initiatives. In 2020, Highland will also be opening a second site in downtown Asheville, at the S&W Cafeteria.
You can take your pup for a hike on Highland's hiking trail, play a game of volleyball, or challenge a friend to a round of disc golf. And when you need something to toast your victory with, you’ll have around 20 options to choose from. There, they created such beverages as Celtic Ale (later Gaelic Ale), St. Terese’s Pale Ale and Oatmeal Porter, which were served upstairs at Barley’s and bottled by hand for local distribution. The facility also has a concert stage, taproom, event venue, rooftop bar, and massive outdoor space.
After spending years owning and running a Charlotte-based engineering firm that designed nuclear waste facilities, Wong bought a house in the sleepy mountain town of Asheville and was ready to settle into a slower-paced life. Instead, his home brewing hobby snowballed, and next thing he knew, he was opening a brewery. That mix of consistency and innovation has proved key to Highland’s sustained operations in an ever-changing industry. One notable exception is the popular Cold Mountain Winter Ale, which intentionally evolves slightly from year to year with different ingredients. Highland is now the largest family-owned brewery in the Southeast, and currently run by Oscar’s daughter, CEO Leah Wong Ashburn. Visiting Highland should be a big draw for anyone doing Asheville tours.
Located in a rehabilitated manufacturing facility in East Asheville, the brewery affords space for visitors to enjoy limited release beers, walking trails, volleyball courts, and live music. In spring 2021, the brewery opened their second taproom and returned to downtown Asheville. The Downtown Taproom within the S&W Market, Asheville’s first food hall, is a great spot to try a taste of the city.
Spacious & friendly, the Taproom showcases our year-round beer lineup as well as our rotating small-batch brews. CloseFrom concerts to fitness classes, our stage is home to talent from Asheville and beyond. Asheville-based food truck serving Southern inspired & locally sourced fare!
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