Hydration

Guide to Great Beer in Asheville

Asheville is one of the best beer cities in the country, with more than a dozen breweries, numerous great beer bars, and a few serious beer retail outlets.   Most of the ones listed below are within walking distance of MTMS headquarters. Go for the half-pours and try lots of beers during your stay!

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Click here to open a printable PDF of this Beer Guide to Asheville:  Asheville Beer

Jack of the Wood: Located nearly across the street from the MTMS hotel in downtown, this place may serve as the unofficial HQ for the MTMS. Jack of the Wood serves numerous Green Man beers, also offering a dozen other great beers. Dart boards, and live music at night. Also has a secret stairway up to the Laughingseed Café and other restaurants on Wall Street.

The Thirsty Monk:  Also located only a block from the MTMS hotel, this two story bar serves serious beer. Upstairs is boisterous, and serves American craft beers, while downstairs is cozier, pouring mostly Belgian style ales (from both the U.S. and Belgium).

Barley’s Tap Room: Located on Biltmore Ave, this place has more than 50 NC beers on tap.  Highland Beers used to be brewed in the basement before they got their own digs. Great pizza and bison burgers, with an upstairs area with even more beers, and a half-dozen pool tables and dart boards.

Hi-Wire Brewing:  Very popular with the locals, and a lively tasting room. Try the life-size Jenga game if you don’t mind an audience. The Bed of Nails Brown Ale is special.

Asheville Brewing and Pizzeria:  A few blocks from the MTMS hotel, offers a traditional slate of IPAs, ambers, pale ales, etc., and some really good pizza. Sports on numerous TVs. Sometimes they show interesting movies in the restaurant. On the same block as Twin Leaf and Hi-Wire, too.

L.A.B. (Lexington Avenue Brewing):  This place brews decent beer – sometimes really good beer, as well as solid food, and provides a loud, party atmosphere, that is more bar than brewery. Their Porter is usually a good bet. Great dining deck on warm days.

Twin Leaf Brewing:  One of Asheville’s newest breweries, and off to a good start. Large tasting room with lots of seating, and a predilection for Belgian and English styles. At corner of Coxe and Banks, a few blocks down the hill from the Downtown Asheville Inn on in the Brewery District of the South Slope.

Wicked Weed Brewing: Located on Biltmore, next to the Orange Peel – this brewery specializes in big beers, with lots of hops, barrel-aged brews, thick malts and over-the-top flavors. Dinner is upstairs; the big beers are in the tasting room downstairs.

The Wedge Brewing: West Asheville’s best IPA, only a short drive or ride from the MTMS hotel, with a great riverside location on Clingman Ave overlooking the French Broad. Ask for a half-pour of their IPA and you might get a nearly full glass.

Green Man Brewing:  The 2^nd oldest brewery, with a dozen great beers to choose from. Nice outdoor seating, local food trucks, too. Try the ESB.  On Buxton Ave, in the South Slope district.

Burial Brewing: Small boutique brewery, specializing in malty beers like Porters and Stouts. Just around the corner from Green Man, on Collier Ave.

One World Brewing is a small-batch microbrewery, located in the back of an alley next to Salsas Caribbean at 10 Patton Avenue. In addition to a dozen of their own brews on tap, the tasting room is also a speakeasy that serves as a really cool bar and meeting area. They open at 4 PM Wednesday through Sunday.

The Funkatorium is Wicked Weed’s new bar for showcasing their great work with sours and saisons.  Bretts, farmhouse beers and more.  Across the street from Twin Leaf on the South Slope.

Catawba Valley Brewing’s new tasting room is located across the street from Twin Leaf, and its a great space. Their bourbon aged brown ale is stellar.   32 Banks Ave

French Broad Brewing is located in Biltmore Village, a few miles south of downtown, not far from Biltmore Estate.  Try their Wee Heavy and Wee Heavier scotch ales.   101 Fairview Road

Big Breweries: Asheville is also home to Highland Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium breweries – none of which are walkable from downtown – although New Belgium is just across the river from the Rivers Arts District in West Asheville.   And Oskar Blues Brewery is a couple towns south in Brevard.

Bruisin’ Ales is not a bar or brewery, but a retail store offering more than 1,000 different beers – sold one at a time. Great selection of local beer offerings, including some mountain grown mead. On Broadway, at the bottom of the hill near I-240.

Weinhaus is a retail shop just a block from the hotel that sells a huge variety of local beers, wines and ciders.

Click on the map to see the locations of the beer bars, breweries and stores listed above.