On Jan. 1, Christopher Arbor and his friends pledged to visit one Asheville brewery each week for all of 2025 in the order that they opened, then share the experience with Mountain Xpress readers. To read about their recent visit to Burial Beer Co., visit avl.mx/eml.
Ever made rock candy? All you do is boil a heck of a lot of sugar in water, maybe add some food coloring, put a stick in the solution and let it sit for about a week. The sugar will crystalize on the stick, and you’ll have a mighty unhealthy snack. Voila. But without the stick, all you’ll have is a syrupy mess.
Rock candy, dear reader, is the most excellent metaphor I can imagine for this yearlong brewery crawl. Bear with me.
For our last meetup, we drove down the hi-way, past the hi-rises to Hi-Wire Brewing’s original location on the South Slope. I was immediately smitten with the taproom’s industrial vibe and circus theme. Before Adam Charnack and Chris Frosaker launched Hi-Wire in 2013, it was Craggie Brewing Co. (Read about Craggie at avl.mx/emk.) Before that, it was a mechanic’s garage, as evidenced by the high ceiling, concrete floor and bay doors.
The circus theme shows up in beers with names such as Bed of Nails Brown Ale and Strong Man Coffee Milk Stout. Hi-Wire tends to dodge hi-falutin branding to embrace a sense of hi-flying fun and frivolity with the use of bright colors and whimsical names. I ordered a mighty fine dunkel from the bartender/ringmaster.
As noted, we met at the original location, but Hi-Wire opens new taprooms about as often as I open new browser tabs. There are four in Asheville, including the Tiki Easy cocktail bar and one at the River Arts District headquarters, which was flooded by Tropical Storm Helene.
Four others … wait … five … no, now six — Hi-Wire has 10 taprooms, including spots in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. There will probably be more by the time this article gets published. It’s like watching clowns piling out of a car.
Anyway, my compatriots arrived like a crowd shot from a cannon. Twenty of us. With all the new faces, I felt like a trapeze artist, somersaulting through the air from conversation to conversation — from music to current events to local history.
Our numbers have steadily risen over the course of this endeavor, and that’s what I really want to hi-light today.
On the surface, it’s simple, right? Drink a beer. Any of us could do that in the comfort of our own homes, any night of the week. But those showing up to Year in Beer meetups say they’re interested in this journey not because they’re thirsty for beer, but because they’re hungry for community.
Many folks in our crew don’t even drink, or they show up even when taking a break from alcohol for Dry January, Free February or Miserable March. (Admittedly, I made up that last one.)
It’s as if we’re a syrupy solution, just waiting for a stick so we can become rock candy. There it is. There’s the metaphor. Thanks for bearing with me.
Our yearlong brewery crawl is one stick, but the pages of Mountain Xpress are filled with events and ventures that bring people together, from running clubs and volunteer opportunities to film festivals and town halls. This paper is a choose-your-own-adventure book, and you’re the hero.
Join us on our next adventure. We gather at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. You can email me at yearinbeerasheville@gmail.com or just show up.
March 19 — Field trip to Pisgah Brewing Co. in Black Mountain
March 26 — *Spring Break*
April 2 — Twin Leaf Brewery on Coxe Avenue
