Region & History

Why is Asheville called "Beer City USA"? The title comes from an online vote among beer lovers: in 2009 the city in the Blue Ridge Mountains tied with Portland, Oregon, for first place and went on to win or share the title for four years running. It's not an official award, but the city still wears the name with pride. Tourism sites count more than thirty breweries within the city limits, home to around 94,000 people.

It all began in 1994 with Highland Brewing Company, founded by Oscar Wong and still known today as the city's first craft brewery. In the US, "craft" follows the Brewers Association definition: small, independent, and holding a brewer's license. Small means no more than 6 million barrels a year, about 7 million hectoliters, and independent means that less than 25 percent of the brewery is owned by a larger company that is itself not a craft brewer.

Starting in 2012, brewers from the West Coast moved in. Oskar Blues of Colorado opened a second location in nearby Brevard that year, Sierra Nevada of California fired up a brewery in Mills River in 2014, and New Belgium took over a site at the edge of the River Arts District in 2016. Suddenly beer from three of the country's ten largest craft brewers was brewing right on Asheville's doorstep.

On May 3, 2017, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced the purchase of Wicked Weed Brewing, a brewery that at the time had four locations in Asheville. It was the tenth American craft brewery the conglomerate had acquired since 2011. The move sparked controversy in the scene, since under the craft definition Wicked Weed no longer counts as independent.

On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene struck the region. Floodwaters submerged parts of the River Arts District, and several breweries ended up underwater. Rebuilding still shapes the scene today.