Brewpub
Date and time reviewed: Thu, 01 Dec 2016 19:21:22 EST
Overall Score: 90.0
Selection: 4.5 | Service: 4.5 | Atmosphere: 4.5 | Food: 4.0
Reviewer: Curmudgeon
“Hops are a wicked and pernicious weed” – so said King Henry VIII.
Henry believed hops would ruin beer…remember in the king’s days, beer would have better described as mead.
So he was wrong.
On a year-long journey across the country in 2016, wife Persimmon and I found ourselves leaving friends in Franklin, North Carolina intending to drive over the Great Smokey Mountains to Knoxville. Unfortunately, the road was closed due to fires on the northern side near Gatlinburg. This required an end-around…heading East then North then West to our destination.
Around Waynesville, we saw the sign for Ashville, one of the country’s best beer cities, was a scant 22 miles away.
Well, we did what any beer geek would do…we made a detour to Wicked Weed brewing, listed as one of the Top 10 Breweries in the state.
Their beer “garden” faces the heavily trafficked Biltmore Street…their beers tend to be a bit on the adventurous side with loads of hops (they like the West Coast / Stone / Ballast Point styles) and Belgians…but found a nice chocolate stout (El Paraiso) and porter (Infidel)
The food looked good but it was too early to partake…however several were chowing down in what was once an old Gulf Gas station.
The bottle shop is attached and you can find a nice selection of beers not necessarily available on tap; Milk & Cookies Stout, Dark Age, La Bonte Pear (and Plum), Napoleon Complex, Old Fashioned, and more.
Hops are to beer what chills are to tacos. You really can’t have one without the other.
Of course, you can also overdue.
Some prefer that style…we don’t.
But Wicked Weed has enough beers to satisfy almost every taste.
It deserves to be in the North Carolina Top Ten
Source:Wicked Weed Brewing