Quote:
Originally Posted by mullen
Spider,
Omg Avery is I think my favorite brewery experience in the US. So ridiculously good. Between that, Bissell Brothers, and Wicked Weed.
I did Asheville this weekend - Wicked Weed/Funkatorium is an absolutely world class brewery. Medora is one of the best sours I've ever tasted, Freak of Nature is west coast DIPA perfection, great space and people. My only mistake was only checking one bag which limited how much I could bring home.
I did visit a bunch of breweries and none of them stuck out to me besides WW and Burial. Really cool places to hang out though and the proximity is good for brewery hopping. Think I'm spoiled by the ridiculously good quality in NYC these days.
I could have saved you some time.
Wicked Weed and Burial are definitely the best breweries in downtown Asheville. Hi Wire has just recently started producing a sour, barrel-aged series which has been pretty close to the WW stuff.
Bhramari Brewing has some interesting beers and a solid food menu. Asheville Brewing Co has a few decent pale ale variations (haven't been too impressed by other styles there), but their pizza is pretty good.
Most of the ther options in the downtown area include Greenman, Catawba, Twin Leaf, One World, and Lexington Avenue are all pretty meh. Sometimes these places will have a decent beer here or there, but I don't visit them much if at all.
Non-brewery options:
Thirsty Monk is a great beer bar with plenty of local and national choices in their upstairs bar, but IMO their best asset is the Belgian bar downstairs which has an amazing bottle and tap selection.
Bruisin Ales is a cool small bottle shop with a ton of variety. I go there many Wednesday nights for a bottle share, so I enjoy the people there too.
Tasty Beverage is another bottle shop that has about 10 taps and those taps are typically filled with beers from all over.
I think that's the best run down of downtown AVL beer locations I can give, since I have only lived here ~6 months. There are quite a few other really good options if you're willing to drive a little bit (Wedge, UpCountry, Zebulon Artisan Ales, Blue Ghost, Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues) or even up to an hour (referring specifically to Fonta Flora).