Highland Brewing Trip in Asheville

The first place I stopped when I got to Asheville was Table, where my good friend Connie Coady works as a manger. It's a great restaurant with great cocktails. I missed Connie Coady a lot. It is one of the great tragedies of living a peripatetic life that one rarely gets to spend time with the he people he loves. But it's also, then, even more wonderful seeing long-lost friends across chasms of time.

Minouche is kind of lady in charge over at Highland Brewing Company. She's a wonderful person who is a credit to the industry. She gave Connie Coady and me a tour of the brewery. We'll get to that later. First we tried a bunch of wonderful beer. I love this brewery. They're the best-selling craft beer in North Carolina, and I'd really like to see them do more up here in Virginia.

Asheville is filled with breweries. You can just wander around the town and find something cool to check out if beer is one of things you find cool, and why wouldn't you? Above is a picture of Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB). LAB makes some good beers, but what I like about their brewery the most is their streetside outdoor eating area. I met some new friends out there, and they drove me to the next brewery--people are really nice in the south.

The next brewery we I went to was Asheville Brewing Company. They had a firkin going. I'm always trying to get more spots to do firkins. It is a one-of-a-kind beer every time, and it's the perfect reason for a person to go out and visit a bar or restaurant instead of sitting at home. If you're looking to give your guests a special experience and get more folks to pay attention to your beer program, talk to your vaeagle rep about firkins today!

Then a friend from Staunton, VA came to meet me there. Nuit is a person who's full of awesome energy, so she was up for continuing my adventure with me. . . after a few drinks, of course.

More beers need to get ninja.

After hitting a drum circle and a couple more breweries, we made it back to Table. We hung out with Coady's S.O., Alex Matisse, and he took a picture of me with his friends from Texas. Upstairs, there's a great cocktail bar. We closed the bar.

Ornate entrance to the brewery.

Taps at Highland.

Giant Papier Mâché Scottish Highland mascot.

Master brewer on a lift.

Even the coffee bars have craft draft in Asheville. Fantastic. I hate it when people tell me they don't have the space for draft beer. This is a tight space pictured, and it works fine.

A cup of coffee was the last thing I drank with Conn Coady and Alex Matisse. I wish it were in one of his incredible cups.

If you haven't been to Asheville yet, go. It's a lovely town filled with lovely people and lovely beer. There are great restaurants, cool bars, and even a store that only sells belt buckles. I bought one that says JACK because I was told that was a thing in the south back in the 70's or something.

I can't wait to go back.