TWICE AS NICE Breweries and cideries open second locations

BREWERIES AND CIDERIES OPEN SECOND LOCATIONS

DSSOLVR

PHOTO COURTESY OF DSSOLVR

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

The Asheville craft beverage industry continues to land on lists produced by nationally distributed publications, resulting in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Thanks to the steadily increasing attention for the already popular scene, local businesses have been able to expand their reaches with additional locations to better serve their customers.

• The Enka/Candler area is growing fast and now has a shiny new taproom where neighbors can gather. Wicked Weed

Brewing’s production brewery, aka Wicked Weed West, offers a wide selection of beers on tap that can be savored while seated in chartreuse and rose-gold chairs amid plentiful plants overlooking the shiny brewing equipment below.

• While experimental brewery DSSOLVR brings in visitors from the Lexington Avenue side of the historic downtown Tyler Building, the Noble Cider and Mead Taproom provides

plenty of allure from the top floor, which fronts on Rankin Avenue. The purveyor of the popular Village Tart cherry cider and a recent line of hard cider spritzers continues to produce its gluten-free products at its Leicester Highway facility, but the downtown spot provides a classy central location for sampling the beverages.

• In 1994, Highland Brewing Co. was famously born in the basement below Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria, back when downtown Asheville had about as much going for it as a flea circus. Over a quarter-century later, after thriving at its location in East Asheville and expanding its distribution throughout the Eastern U.S., the brewery that put Asheville on the craft beer map has returned to its downtown roots with a taproom in the historic S&W Cafeteria building on Patton

Avenue. Welcome back!

• Arguably the most remote brewery in Buncombe County,

Turgua Brewing has been quietly operating out of brewer/ owner Phil Desenne’s rural Fairview property since spring 2017. While Turgua’s variety of styles made with locally sourced ingredients will continue to be brewed at the original location, they are now available to imbibe at the new

Turgua on the Creek location, a little over 3 miles away on

Cane Creek Road. The 2,400-square-foot taproom features a custom copper-top bar, 24 taps and space for live music and movie screenings.

• Burnsville’s first legal brewery, Homeplace Beer Co., got its humble start in the Burnsville Town Center building in summer 2017. Owner/brewer John Silver’s approachable beers quickly caught on and necessitated an expansion, which occurred mere blocks away in the former Banco Lumber space. The three-story structure houses the Homeplace brewhouse, plus plentiful indoor and outdoor room for enjoying brews and

Hog Hollow Wood-Fired Pizza’s grub.