Beer Here: Asheville Brewers Talk Challenges and the Future of Craft Brewing

Few places in America have experienced the craft beer renaissance quite like the picturesque mountain metropolis of Asheville, North Carolina. Over the last 30 years, the city has welcomed the arrival of nearly 40 breweries, becoming a mecca for beer lovers. With its breadth and diversity of craft beer options, Asheville won the coveted Beer City USA title four times, attracting the attention and investment of prominent, large-scale breweries like New Belgium and Sierra Nevada, both of whom established East Coast campuses in or near Asheville in the last decade. 

Asheville’s brewing industry has tracked closely with the country’s craft beer boom, from the explosive energy of the aughts and early teens to the pandemic fizzle and now something decidedly in between. I recently sat down with an early pioneer of Asheville’s craft brewing movement and one of its newest arrivals to talk about how their portfolios have evolved, the rise of Ready-to-Drink (RTD) options and other challenges, and their personal predictions for where Beer City, and the broader craft beer industry, goes from here. 

The following interviews have been lightly edited for readability.

Highland Brewing

Leah Wong Ashburn, President/Family Owner

Highland Brewing is widely considered the original Asheville craft brewery and the pioneering force that paved the way for dozens of other breweries in the region. Founded in 1994 by a retired nuclear engineer, Oscar Wong, the brewery grew from a small operation in a downtown basement to its current home on a sprawling 40-acre campus five minutes outside of the city. That location is a destination unto itself, housing a 50-Barrel brewery, expansive tasting room, and several event spaces. There are even hiking trails and volleyball courts available for patrons. Still family-owned, the brewery maintains an impressive, year-round portfolio distributed in four states. Lisa Wong Ashburn began working at her father’s brewery in 2012 and currently serves as President. 

Santé: What styles of beer do you produce? What styles have fallen out of favor with consumers or are gaining ground now?

Leah: Our first beers in the ’90s were very European in style and malt-forward. Even our pale ale was malt-forward. Over time, obviously hops took over, and currently lagers are gaining ground. All the branches of lagers, in fact, some combined with characteristics from India Pale Ale. Playing with that has been really fun. It’s all up to the customer to tell us which way to go. Our Wishing Star Cold IPA is our newest expression, and we’re excited about the early response to that beer.

Santé: What were some of the challenges you faced as a young brewery?

Leah: The distinct hurdle to move from our first small space to the larger campus we have now was to prove that the demand was there for beer. We actually contracted for a short time with a brewery in Pennsylvania. We didn’t want to, but that was the wisest path to prove demand existed before we made the investment in a larger facility.

Santé: What kinds of challenges did the pandemic present? What obstacles remain?

Leah: Supply chain hit us with the can shortage during the pandemic. Can storage has become crazy here. We have cans where we never thought we’d store cans. Prices for everything have gone through the roof. It’s not supply chain as much anymore; we can get things. It just costs more. It’s harder to be profitable. That’s going to play out across the country. A lot of us got PPP money and ERGC money. But after that you have to make everything work. And that is just harder now, so everybody’s choices about what they’re buying at the grocery store and drinking at the bar is making a difference for us. 

Santé: How do you balance innovation with consumer demand and business fundamentals?

Leah: We have to take two approaches to that because what works in the tap room doesn’t necessarily work in the market. We can take more chances on what we serve in the taproom, which makes it fun to visit the taproom. But every beer that goes into the broader market, even though it has more limitations, still has to delight people in some way. 

Santé: How has the local industry been impacted by the rise in RTDs and hard seltzers?

Leah: In North Carolina, you can’t buy RTDs at the grocery store right now, so it hasn’t impacted our business the way it maybe has in some other areas. The number of distractions for consumers has definitely increased, but I’m not sure I would place that blame entirely on RTDs. It’s also partly spirits growth and people not drinking at all. We’ve talked about doing it. Never say never. But I would like to do a few things really well and right now that thing is beer. 

Santé: What are your predictions for the industry going forward?

Leah: I do believe in the timelessness of beer, but it’s not an easy industry to be in right now. I have no clue if these prices are here to stay. We want to win in the four states that we’re distributed in right now. We’ve got three new beers coming out soon and great plans for our future. 

Santé: What’s your personal favorite New Origin beer? What’s your favorite from another brewery?

Leah: It depends on the moment, but our new Wishing Star Cold IPA has me really excited. For a beer we don’t make? I’ll go super traditional, and it’s always amazing: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

New Origin Brewing

Dan Juhnke, Brewer/Owner

New Origin is, as their name implies, new to the Asheville brewery scene. Very new, in fact. They opened their doors in August 2021 just as the pandemic had started to abate and thirsty beer lovers were once again flocking to their favorite watering holes. At just 7-Barrels in size, New Origin is part of a growing trend of small-scale breweries offering contemporary styles, including seltzers. They sell exclusively from their modern taproom and beer garden near Asheville’s Biltmore Village neighborhood. Brewer and owner Dan Juhnke had already founded one brewery in rural Minnesota in 2013, but he decided that Asheville was the perfect fit for his next beer venture. 

Santé: What styles of beer do you produce? What styles have fallen out of favor with consumers or are gaining ground now?

Dan: We offer contemporary styles like smoothie seltzer, big barrel aged stouts, and New England IPA. Basically, we try to stay on the cutting edge with techniques and processes. We also do quite a few lagers because we really like to drink them, and the water in Asheville suits the styles very well. The kind of styles that are popular vary greatly across the country. In Minnesota, pastry sours were extremely popular, but down here in Asheville, it seems to be a different vibe entirely. It’s a more mature beer market down here. A lot of the breweries here started in the 1990’s and are still around, where as in a lot of the country those early breweries went out of business. I think that’s changed tastes, and what you find down here is there are a lot of people that prefer classic styles like lager, pils, stout, porter, etc.

Santé: What were some of the challenges you faced as a young brewery?

Dan: The biggest challenge was the extremely challenging city regulations when developing a property and the extremely slow pace it moved at. The other big challenges were opening during a pandemic and getting our name out there in a part of the country where the beer world didn’t know me or the brewery I came from. It was a humbling experience. 

Santé: What kinds of challenges did the pandemic present? What obstacles remain? 

Dan: It was a weird time for the industry. It forced a lot of people to buy canning/bottling lines which was usually a big benefit to their business. I know there were plenty of breweries getting ready to shutter when the PPP money saved the day. So, we could have staved off quite a few closings, for better or worse. Most people who were making a good product and doing a good job taproom wise did great during the pandemic, especially with package to-go sales.

Santé: How do you balance innovation with consumer demand and business fundamentals?

Dan: Throughout the last 20 years of brewing history, most of the time the brewer’s innovation and personal taste has led customer demand. Especially now, with all the small brewers popping up everywhere. One of the large advantages to being small is being nimble and able to innovate. Brewers start making things they are excited about, and consumers answer the call. I think the important part when innovating is just making sure you as a brewer are happy with the product and excited about it. 

Santé: How has the local industry been impacted by the rise in RTDs and hard seltzers?

Dan: I think it’s overall a good trend. More and more people are gluten sensitive it seems, so having a beverage that can include those people is important to us and probably the industry as a whole. I get excited about the fruit combinations in our seltzer and enjoy making it. 

Santé: What are your predictions for the industry going forward?

Dan: I think lager is going to continue its surge in popularity. Since the pandemic, the brewing industry has been lagging in growth, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Santé: What’s your personal favorite New Origin beer? What’s your favorite from another brewery?

Dan: My favorite New Origin beer is probably Potato [New England IPA], since the name, label, and hops are all personally special to me. My favorite other breweries in Asheville in no particular order are Zillicoah, Dssolvr, Cellarest, Burial, Eurisko, and Cursus Keme.