Our first stop on Saturday morning was east coast headquarters of Sierra Nevada brewing, just west of the Asheville airport. The company truly spared no expense on this place. We didn’t get to take the tour, so I’m not 100% sure what size system they have, but their pilot system is a 20bbl system… which is as big as or bigger than many other breweries’ full production systems. It’s an impeccably clean facility, which you’d expect from one of the nation’s largest craft brewers.
In their taproom (well, more like full scale restaurant) they’ve got the standard Sierra Nevada seasonals on tap, as well as a bunch I’ve never seen. I of course did a flight consisting of their various barrel aged beers… two stouts and a hopped up old ale. All were very good, and I’d especially recommend the aged Narwhal.
We grabbed a table and got an order of the pretzels and beer cheese and “just fries.” The fries were tasty, I think cut in house. The pretzels were okay, a little cold and therefore not quite as soft as we’d like, but it was okay… because that beer cheese. It didn’t really matter what we were dipping in the cheese, because it was awesome. Somehow light and fluffy, yet creamy and satisfying at the same time. We finished off the pretzels and finished off the cheese with the remaining fries. Just get the beer cheese if you go here. You won’t be sorry.
If you’re going to do a tour, make sure you look online a month or two in advance. Weekend slots fill up fast, and even the weekdays only had one or two morning slots available. There is a self guided option, but you don’t get the free samples (we got no free samples) like you do on the actual tour. This was quite a way to start our Asheville brewery adventure… with probably the largest brewery in the area.
