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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.
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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: Visiting the First Asheville 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. Located in a rehabilitated manufacturing facility in East Asheville, the brewery affords space for thousands of visitors to enjoy limited-release beers, tours, and live music. In 2021, Highland will make its return to downtown Asheville to open doors on a second taproom within the city's first food hall – The S&W Market. “City on a Hill”—that’s what Highland Brewing Company is to Asheville’s prolific craft beer scene.
Location
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.
Explore The Brewery
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.
PRIVATE
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.
Year-Round 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.
Aside from their original scenic location, Highland is also making a move towards being among the downtown Asheville breweries, opening a second location at S&W Cafeteria. We have a 3-BBL Pilot Brewhouse where we test new brews that are only available on draft at our brewery Taproom and Downtown Taproom. The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate.
Asheville music club scene this week - Citizen Times
Asheville music club scene this week.
Posted: Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:00:00 GMT [source]
COMMUNITY/SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES
The moniker also represents the pioneering brewery’s 40-acre hilltop campus that includes a taproom, performance stage, grassy meadow, volleyball courts, hiking trail, and disc golf course. In a city that has more breweries per capita than anywhere else in the U.S., it’s a testament to the beer and the people behind it that Highland is still the local favorite. In 2015, she took over as CEO, and the man often referred to as Asheville’s godfather of craft beer finally got his long-awaited retirement wish—just 10 years and one multimillion dollar company later.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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