Pisgah Brewery

On our recent trip to Asheville, we decided to fly to Raleigh and drive there since it seemed easier than catching a connection. This meant that it was super easy to stop at Pisgah since it is right on the way into town, just off route 40 (I think it was 40.) Very convenient. Even being that close to the highway, though, it's still somehow sort of felt in the middle of nowhere. Funny. Like a lot of breweries it's located in an industrial park and pretty nondescript. Upon entering the building, it looks like a warehouse as you find your way to the bar area. The bar area itself, though, was pretty neat looking with a decent number of taps and lots of room.

On the left are their house taps and the right are a few guest taps. Pretty cool that they have both though I imagine (hope?) most people stick to Pisgah's own beers since why else visit a brewery.

We got there around six and it was already pretty full with only a couple seats left at the bar. As I drank a couple beers, the place actually mostly filled up and, considering this was a Thursday, I'm guessing that happens every night. Here's a shot of the room from where we were sitting.

There was a show planned that night too which may explain some of the crowd.

After looking over the taps, I decided to start with their imperial stout, Vortex II. Big surprise, I know.

Big chocolate nose, pretty nice and smooth considering the ABV. Body followed with a nice chocolate and coffee roastiness and finished with a little bitter roast. As I drank more, the bitterness lessened and more of a sweet fruitiness appeared. Probably a mix of getting used to the stronger flavors plus it warming up. This was quite good and a great start to our trip in Asheville.

After that I ordered a sampler with four of their beers. I was partially deciding what to get in a growler plus I always like trying as many beers as I can when at a brewery.

The most memorable one of the bunch was the Benton's Bacon Snout which was ridiculously smoky. Not quite bacon flavored but tons of campfire and toasted wood. The Valdez was a nice coffee stout and the chocolate stout was decent. Basically a good little sampler with lots of different flavors.

And that was our short trip to Pisgah. With a pregnant wife, she only suffers my obsession for so long when there's nothing for her to do. Crazy, I know, she really should just let me drink forever, right? I ended up getting the chocolate stout growler as it seemed the most interesting of the ones available. Nice little industrial brewery and a very cool spot. During the summer when it isn't like 30 degrees, they apparently have stuff to do outside too. Seems like a great place where a lot of people hang out which seemed like a theme for the breweries in and around Asheville. Fun first stop for sure.