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 stop at Twin Leaf Brewery, visit avl.mx/eq0.
It occurs to me that some of our regular readers might be operating under the misconception that we’re just a bunch of dudes who sit around, drink beer and discuss the world’s problems. But that’s only true for most of us. A few of us are athletes, and the grand open space at Sierra Nevada was the gladiatorial arena where we had our chance to prove it.
But before I get to our heroic deeds of derring-do, I’ve got to take a moment to rave about the location. Imagine your mountain climbing buddy, the visionary one who is always planning the next adventure, the restless one who must reach exhaustion during the day in order to relax at sunset. Now imagine that friend wins the lottery and decides to create a space for people to gather. What that friend would make is — boom — Sierra Nevada’s taproom and brewery in Mills River.
Inside, there’s an enormous, beautiful taproom downstairs and a glorious event space upstairs. Outside, there’s plenty of patio seating, a giant hearth, a playground, an amphitheater and a bocce ball court.
Bocce may be the world’s best sport, in part because you can play it while drinking. I’ve actually got a theory (Look out! Dude with a theory!) that I play better with a beer in one hand. It balances out the ball in my other hand.
If you aren’t familiar with bocce, here’s the short of it: A player throws a white ball, then everyone throws their colored balls at it, and whoever is closest wins. Come to think of it, that’s the long of it as well. So simple an idiot can play. And I do.
But a bocce ball court? A court is to bocce what a treadmill is to a trail runner, what a pool is to an open-water swimmer, what a rope is to a free climber, what water is to a beer lover. That is to say: It’s confining and unnecessary.
For adventurous athletes like us, we forgo the dull rectangular walls and boring level ground of a bocce court, daringly playing what folks (i.e., me) call cross-country bocce — alternatively known as backyard bocce, mountain bocce, free bocce, parkour bocce, X-treme bocce or Calvinball bocce, depending on how many beers I’ve had.
Cross-country bocce fully embraces the messiness of life by playing anywhere and everywhere. Players have to navigate rocks, roots, sidewalks and small children hellbent on toddling right between the players and their target.
To fully appreciate the heroic majesty of it all, I’d encourage you to grab one of Sierra Nevada’s classic pale ales and play in the sun while listening to Julius Fučík’s “Entrance of the Gladiators.”
Cheers to unappreciated athletes and time outside.
Come join us on another adventure. We gather at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. You can email me at yearinbeerasheville@gmail.com or just show up.
April 23: Sweeten Creek Brewing
May 3 (a Saturday!): Zebulon Artisan Ales
