On Tuesday of our week off in Asheville, I pretty much had the whole day to myself, since Casey had flown back to NY for an appointment. I decided to walk from my friend’s place toward downtown Asheville to see what I could find.
First of all, sidewalks seem to be pretty much optional in this part of town. It was not a real fun walk, as sidewalks and shoulders were either under construction, or absent altogether. The odd thing about walking down a busy road is that I feel more alone than I did out in the woods. There’s a strange solitude in walking a busy road not intended for pedestrians, cars rushing by so fast it’s unlikely that the drivers even know you’re there.
I was relieved to finally reach my intended destination… Sweeten Creek Brewery. The building would be difficult for a person whizzing by in a car to find, as it’s kind of tucked back behind a storage place and an auto repair place. On foot, however, I had plenty of time, and no problems locating the place. The brewery had pretty much just opened for the day, so there was no one inside, just the bartender and a few people brewing in the back. I bellied up to the bar, and perused their tap list, pretty standard offerings for a microbrewery (or really a nano-brewery in this case), pale ale, ipa, Porter, a seasonal spring ale, a black ipa. While it reads as a typical tap list, each beer I tried was very well done… with the pale probably being my favorite. It’s just a good, solid pale ale with nice hop aroma and flavor, but very little bitterness… just enough to balance it out… one of the best American Pale Ales that I’ve had in recent memory.
The brewery is quite new, as it just opened up in mid-December of 2015. They don’t do tasting flights yet (which is why I ended up drinking 3 pints), but that’s fine since you can get a little sip of something to make sure you’ll enjoy your pint. It’s a little 1bbl brewery, and all of their fermenters are in individual refrigerators, which allows for much tighter control over fermentation conditions for the different beer styles. They’ve also got a sandwich shop attached to the brewery. I didn’t try any of the food, but the sandwiches that I saw come out looked very tasty. I ended up spending a good amount of time here, having a good chat with the bartender Sean, who gave me some other ideas for the day.
After Sweeten Creek, and another 2.5 miles of walking, I arrived at French Broad brewery, which is just on the outskirts of Biltmore Village. I didn’t end up spending too much time here, nor did I really chat with anyone. I ordered a Kolsh, since I needed something light and refreshing after my walk in the sun. I’ve also previously tried their 13 Rebels ESB (thanks to some trail magic), which was also tasty. I took up a seat overlooking the canning line in their small taproom, and watched the workers package up some of the Kolsh. I kind of enjoyed just sitting there on my own, mid-work-week, pondering what it would be like to work full time at a small brewery.
The rest of the day was spent walking the rest of the way into downtown, where I stopped at Barleys, a local taproom/pizza place, and a recommendation from earlier. Apparently this place kind of helped out the craft beer movement in Asheville, and they still predominantly feature local beers on draft. They have a huge, wide open space, and I guess multiple floors (I only saw the main floor and bar). I ordered a calzone, which was really good. They use a homemade sourdough crust. The service was fast and friendly at the time I was there, about 4:30 or so, but I’d be willing to bet during peak times you might have to be patient, as I’m pretty sure they made my calzone fresh when I ordered it. It would be worth the wait.
