Asheville breweries, such Adventure Tours, Vietnam Tours, Vietnam travel, Journey Mekong as Wedge, draw a crowd of tourists and regulars. Numbers are expected to increase with the opening of Sierra Nevada’s Mills River brewery and the arrival of New Belgium’s brewery in West Asheville. Matt Rose / Special to ac-t
(Photo: Matt Rose, Special to ac-t)
Tourism Adventure Tours, Adventure Travel, Journey Mekong has long been a powerful economic force in the mountains, but more and more, beer is helping to fuel that engine.
Craft beer drinkers have been coming here for years to sample the city’s nationally famous brew scene. But even bigger crowds are expected this summer with the opening of the new Sierra Nevada brewery in Mills River and several notable new beer festivals. Next year, New Belgium will open its massive $175 million brewery in West Adventure Tours, Vietnam adventure tours, Journey Mekong Asheville along the French Broad River, likely revving up even more beer tourism.
Local breweries are also feeling the bump. “I would say that 75 percent of the people who are coming to our bottle release days are not local,” said Wicked Weed Brewing co-owner Walt Dickinson. “They are from Charlotte and Raleigh and Richmond and we’ve had people come from Chicago. People are willing to travel for craft beer.”
Asheville’s newest brewery, One World, which just opened off Pack Square, has fielded inquiries from around the country, said owner Jason “Jay” Schutz. “People have been calling from Colorado, Kansas, Connecticut, Michigan and Florida,” he said.
The summer beer season may hinge on two big festivals. Sierra Nevada will host its Beer Camp Across America festival on Aug. 3 at Mills River. Sierra is doing seven big festivals nationwide, but the Mills River event is the only Southeastern date, said brewery spokesman Ryan Arnold. It’s the first public peek at the brewery and could pull up to 5,000 visitors.
In Brevard, the Oskar Blues Brewery will host the Burning Can beer fest July 5, the first beer festival in that town, company spokeswoman Anne-Fitten Glenn said. It might draw 1,000 fans or more, she said.
Asheville click here Beer Week festivities, now underway, are also drawing visitors, said organizer Mike Rangel. The May 31 Beer City Festival will pull a crowd of 2,200, he said. “Asheville already had the table set,” he said. “It has been a tourist destination since the 1800s and we have this infrastructure of hotels and restaurants. And now people will come to Sierra and New Belgium and discover all these gems. It’s a game-changer for sure.”
Sierra Nevada is “bouncing around” ways to handle visitors to Mills River, said Arnold. He didn’t know if tours would be offered at the Beer Camp festival. “Having 5,000 people on the site, we are still determining if (tours are) feasible,” he said. But sometime this summer, the brewery will open a small tasting room where tour groups can sample beer. Later this year the brewery hopes to open a big restaurant and pub.
At Sierra’s Chico, Calif., Plant, tours are a key part of the operation, he said. “Asheville and its breweries have made such a name for themselves and since we are joining that community, we would love for (tourists) to come down and visit us. We anticipate a good number of visitors here.”
Oskar Blues will offer brewery tours during its smaller Burning Can festival, which will showcase canned craft beer, Glenn said. “About 40 percent of the visitors who come through the taproom are visitors, especially during the http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/hidden-northwest-tour-12-days-11-nights/ summer,” she said. “We send a lot of them to Brevard Brewing downtown, near the restaurants.”
Asheville’s Brews Cruise tour service has built its business around visitors looking to explore local breweries. Last year, it took 5,000 passengers on brewery tours and general manager Shawna Hart said that will grow greatly this year. “When I started, we had one 12-passenger van and now we have two 32-passenger buses and one 14-passenger short bus,” she said. “We fill up almost every seat on the weekends. Every time I talk with out-of-towners, they ask when Sierra will be opening (for tours),” she said. “People are coming here just for the beer.”
Wedge Brewing in the River Arts District will be a neighbor to New Belgium’s big brewery. “We are definitely seeing more tourists,” said owner Tim Schaller. “And we will get even more when New Belgium Adventure Tours, Vietnam Tours, Vietnam travel, Journey Mekong gets here.”
Highland Brewing, which sells beers in nine states, can grow bigger sales through beer tourism, said vice president Leah Wong Ashburn. “Having that personal Adventure Tours, Adventure Tour, Journey Mekong connection with any product is a good thing,” she said.
Beer tourism has become a statewide movement, said Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the N.C. Brewers Guild, who previously worked with the state Department of Commerce’s tourism http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/combined-adventure-tours-northern-landscapes/ division.
“We are seeing it in pockets across the state,” she said. “(Beer) might not be the number one reason people visit North Carolina, but more and more are visiting craft breweries while they’re here.”
The arrival of Sierra and New Belgium is making North Carolina a beer “Mecca,” she said. “And that can only help the existing breweries.”
SUMMER BEER EVENTS
May 31: Beer City Festival, Asheville Beer Week
July 5: Oskar Blues Brewery Burning Can beer fest, Brevard
August 3: Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America festival, Mills River
Source : Citizen Times
