The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [167]
PHILOSOPHY
Originally launched under the banner of “plow-to-pint beer from the beautiful South,” Fullsteam is brewing beers that seem unusual not only in said sunny region, they’re newfangled for the whole Craft Beer Nation. There are three categories: Workers’ Compensation, a group of session beers led by Fullsteam Southern Lager (5.5% ABV); Apothecary, for “radical, farm-focused” beers including Hogwash, a hickory-smoked porter, and Summer Basil; and the Forager series, which utilizes fruit and other fermentables that members of the community are invited to sell to the brewery at a fair market price in exchange for some of the finished beer (and bragging rights, of course). Local persimmons and pears have already made it into the rotation. Other brews either already out or in development make use of parsnip, kudzu, rhubarb, and sweet potato, even grits. All these adjuncts, of course, are part and parcel of the Southern abundance, and one has to wonder, what next?
KEY BEER
Summer Basil, the first beer brewed on Fullsteam’s commercial system, is a 5.5% ABV summer seasonal with fresh local basil added. The idea was born when Wilson plunged a grip of fresh leaves into a can of Budweiser while at a house party. The resulting beer is a hazy, peachy gold ale with a bready body and green herb overtones.
BEST of the REST: NORTH CAROLINA
JACK OF THE WOOD PUBLIC HOUSE
95 Patton Ave. • Asheville, NC 28801 • (828) 252–5445, ext. 105 • jackofthewood.com
Asheville-go-bragh. A hippified Celtic beer bar in downtown Asheville, Jack of the Wood was the original location of Green Man Brewing and still serves five of its beers, with a small selection of brews from beyond town (even Brooklyn!). There are popular jam sessions on Wednesdays (from 6 p.m.), Thursdays (bluegrass, after 9 p.m.) and Sundays (Irish, starting at 5 p.m.), and frequent weekend bands for little or no cover charge.
GREEN MAN BREWERY
23 Buxton Ave. • Asheville, NC 28801 • (828) 252–5502 • greenmanbrewery.com
A hard-to-find, soccer-friendly brewery first established in 1997 at the current location of Jack of the Wood and later moved to its current, garage-like incarnation, Green Man is also known as Dirty Jack’s. With a wide blond-wood bar, a range of well-made, American-inflected British-style ales (pale, bitter, IPA, ESB, stout, etc.), its light industrial setting is leavened by a roll-up garage door for nice days, along with a covered side porch for al fresco sipping.
THE BIER GARDEN
46 Haywood St. • Asheville, NC 28801 • (828) 285–0002 • ashevillebiergarden.com
A family-friendly, casual, and sports-oriented bar established in 1994, the Bier Garden features about ten North Carolina beers among its thirty taps and some two hundred bottles, one of the best selections in all of Asheville. It’s not an actual biergarten, though, being housed partly in an atrium-like space in an office building. Still, it’s a good place to try a selection of beers, upscale pub grub, and take in a ball game.
South Carolina
Greenville
THE COMMUNITY TAP
205 Wade Hampton Blvd. • Greenville, SC 29609 (864) 631–2525 • thecommunitytap.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
A top-tier bottle and growler station for beer (and wine, on tap!) that has helped usher in a new era of craft brew appreciation for the city of Greenville, the Community Tap opened in 2010 with ten taps, some 150 breweries in the arsenal, and weekly tastings. It’s helping expose locals to an incredible selection of American and imported beers, all carefully kept and displayed. Unlike a lot of bottle shops, it’s clean and well organized, not chaotic and dusty.
PHILOSOPHY
Beer shopping should not be like going to a garage sale, with dusty stacks of boxes. Beer shopping should be exactly like this.
KEY BEER
What’s freshest? Look for South Carolina brewery R.J. Rockers, which makes the intensely flavorful Black Perle (9%