Asheville Trip Report

[Chris of thebeergeek.com]

We visited North Carolina in both 1993 and 2007 but our beer knowledge of the Tar Heel State was limited to only two brewery additions to The List.

We recently journeyed back to North Carolina to make our first serious exploration of the state, centering on one of the country's hottest beer scenes, Asheville. Over five days, we explored not only Asheville's bustling downtown, but also walked, hiked and drank the best beer that Western North Carolina had to offer.

We added 15 breweries on this trip. Current totals are 660 for Chris, 659 for Merideth.

Look for the One Pint at a Time episode in December.

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The Road to Asheville
We began our latest beer adventure by landing in Greensboro, North Carolina, several hours east of our final destination. While not the most convenient, flying into Greensboro did give us the opportunity to visit a few breweries on the road to Asheville, North Carolina’s beer mecca.

Thanks to a red-eye flight from San Francisco, Merideth and I arrived in North Carolina at noon a bit tired but ready to drink some beer...

Read the complete post...
http://thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=5948

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Asheville Urban Beer Hike
It was our first full day in Asheville and what better way to introduce ourselves to its beer scene than an Urban Beer Hike. With six breweries located in the downtown area, Asheville is perfect for a walking brew tour.

We began our hike just past noon in the heart of downtown Asheville at Lexington Avenue Brewery. We never like starting a beer hike with a glitch but glitches happen...

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http://thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=5950

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Hike-n-Beer: Great Smoky Mountains NP Edition
People often ask me how I stay so slim drinking as much beer as I do. After LMAO at the idea of being considered “slim,” I generally answer something about not eating fast food, watching what I eat, and exercising. Admittedly, that last part is often a challenging routine to maintain, but we’ve developed something we like to call “Hike-n-Beer.” Basically, it’s a hike followed by a session of beer drinking. During the summer Chris and I hike with the dogs and drink beer afterwards almost every weekend, but it doesn’t really become Hike-n-Beer unless we’re joined by friends...

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http://thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=5973

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Completing Asheville
In three days on our short North Carolina visit, we visited almost a dozen breweries. But we still had a few more to go to complete our journey. On our last day with our fellow beer travelers, Matt and Michelle, we tackled the last remaining targets in Asheville and just beyond.

Since none of the breweries opened until the afternoon, we had a relaxing start to the day in downtown Asheville. After a leisurely lunch, we were ready to finish our important work...

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http://thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=6042