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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.
Brewery Taproom
“But I changed my mind when I visited New Belgium [Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colo., circa 2000]. They said, ‘Fat Tire [Amber Ale] is 87% of our business.’ At the time, Gaelic Ale was two-thirds, maybe just over 50% of ours. These humorous recollections and other memories are on Wong’s and Wong Ashburn’s minds this year as Asheville’s longest-running brewery celebrates its 30th anniversary. Ashevillebreweries.comthrives to provide an ethnography of the beer scene surrounding the Asheville area. Wong says that the company began as a hobby in the basement of Barley’s Taproom.
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The future is family
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.
Highland Brewing Company Is The South's Best Brewery In North Carolina
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.
Breweries
Asheville’s craft beer footprint has grown exponentially since Highland came onto the scene in the mid 1990s. When Wong began his craft beer journey, he was largely brewing alone. Almost 30 years later, around 40 other Asheville breweries have joined the party. In 2006, Highland moved operations to its current East Asheville location, where they’ve since expanded their footprint to include a multifaceted brewing campus and all-around entertainment destination. Now in addition to grabbing a pint or flight in the taproom, you can also have a brew at The Meadow, where there’s a second bar, plus a stage for live music, shady table seating, frequent food trucks, and a lush lawn.
For more information, visit Follow Highland on Twitter at @HighlandBrews and Instagram at @HighlandBrewing. Highland Brewing Company was founded in 1994 by retired engineer and entrepreneur Oscar Wong. As the first craft brewery to open in Asheville, NC since Prohibition, Highland became known as the pioneer of the city’s now-booming craft beer industry. Highland's commitment to quality and sustainability boasts the sixth largest solar array in an American craft brewery.
Limited Release Beers
Asheville’s breweries list is not only extensive, but choice, from nationally recognized brands like Sierra Nevada and New Belgium to local stars like Wicked Weed and Hi-Wire. Highland has five professional-grade, sand Volleyball courts that are located in the Meadow, our outdoor guest space. Join a league or check if pick-up games are available on our Recreation page. Close Sign in for volleyball or ask a question at the Outpost, our outdoor store and check-in point. CloseOur production brewhouse is a 50-bbl system with 26 fermentation tanks. This is where we brew Gaelic, AVL IPA, and our whole portfolio of beers.
Complimentary guided walking tours of the facilities are available every day of the week. They last around 45 minutes, and include a beer tasting to celebrate the occasion. Amongst the many Asheville brewery tours we’ve taken, the Highland Brewery tour ranks right up there with the best.
HIGHLAND BREWERY TOURS
They first lived in Brevard, where Jonathon taught writing at Blue Ridge Community College and extensively explored the Blue Ridge Parkway and Pisgah National Forest. For the last several years they have lived just off the BRP near Elkin, Southwest Virginia, and the NC High Country. The couple also volunteers with the Surry Old Time Fiddlers Convention, the Elkin Valley Trail Association, and Reeves Downtown School of Music. The S&W Cafeteria is an art deco-style architectural space that’s part of a move to help revitalize Asheville’s downtown (which Highland helped to do back in the 1990s). In addition to their public offerings, Highland Brewery Asheville also has two venues for private events.
ClosePosh without being stuffy, casual without being boring – The Barrel Room features racks of barrels, skylights, glass garage doors, a catering kitchen, and a private bar with views of our barrel-aged beer production space. We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. These spaces promise to be hopping on Saturday, May 4, for the brewery’s Big Bash celebration, during which multiple new beers will be available on draft, including OG Dub IPA, named in honor of Wong, and The Long Game tropical lager.
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.
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.
Highland Brewing was founded in 1994 by retired engineer and entrepreneur Oscar Wong, establishing it as the pioneer of Asheville, NC’s now booming craft beer industry. Proudly regional, Highland’s beers are distributed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Highland is committed to quality and sustainability, boasting the sixth largest solar array in an American craft brewery. Today, the company is led by Wong’s daughter, Leah Wong Ashburn, and serves as the largest independent, family-owned, and operated brewery native to the Southeast.
