Asheville South Slope: One More Lap Before We Go

More to Explore

You can set out for a day of brewery visits and somehow end up wandering through art galleries, where you find a one-of-a-kind gift that absolutely has to come home with you because, naturally, someone on your Christmas list needs it. You can have a spectacular dinner at The Terrace at the Grove Park Inn and, on another day, take a walk through the historic Montford District and stop for lunch at the Montford Corner Store, where Sista's on Montford served up soul food good enough to make us wonder why we hadn't discovered it sooner.

We visited the graves of Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry, which was a particularly meaningful stop for me as a former literature student and teacher. We also visited the Smith-McDowell House, where we learned more about Asheville's history and its remarkable architectural legacy, including the fact that some of America's most accomplished architects came to this mountain city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to design and build some pretty extraordinary things.

The Basics

Location: South Slope District, just south of downtown Asheville, roughly centered around Coxe Avenue, Buxton Avenue and Hilliard Avenue

Parking: Street parking and paid parking garages. The South Slope is particularly convenient for walking, but parking can get tight during busy periods.

Website: Explore Asheville's South Slope Guide

Social media: Visit Asheville Facebook, Visit Asheville Instagram

Vibe/Atmosphere: walkable, lively, colorful, eclectic, artsy, beer-centric, social, funky, historic, energetic

Important NC Beer Explorer Tip: When consuming alcohol, always have a designated driver. Be safe out there, friends! Follow these simple tips for safer consumption.

So no, we weren't spending the entire trip drinking beer.

But we were spending a fair amount of it drinking beer.

And eventually, after exploring the other corners of Asheville, we arrived at the South Slope.

South Slope Speed Tour

South Slope is the place many people have in mind when they picture Asheville's beer scene: a compact downtown neighborhood where brewery after brewery seems to appear around the next corner, mixed in with restaurants, murals, old brick buildings, patios, music and the general happy chaos of a place where a lot of people have independently decided that an afternoon in Asheville would be improved by beer.

We knew there was no possible way to experience every brewery on the South Slope in a single afternoon, and frankly, we weren't interested in trying. A brewery crawl conducted with military precision can be impressive, but it can also turn a pleasant afternoon into an endurance event. We'd already learned something important during this trip: sometimes the best way to experience Asheville is to stop trying to get everything done.

So we made a very fast lap.

I mean really fast.

Saving the Slope for Last

When people think about Asheville breweries, they probably think about the South Slope.

And that's exactly why we didn't start there.

For the first part of our Asheville adventure, Ben and I deliberately wandered a little farther afield. We visited Black Mountain Brewing, spent time at Cellarest and Archetype, and made our way to Zillicoah along the French Broad, each stop giving us another glimpse of the wonderfully varied beer culture around Asheville. We wanted to sample the city from the edges inward before returning to the place most closely associated with Asheville's brewing reputation. There was something fun about saving the obvious destination for later.

Besides, Asheville has a way of messing with your plans

We savored many spectacular views while in Asheville, such as this mountain sunset.

We ducked into breweries, looked around, took in the murals and architecture, watched the neighborhood move around us and generally tried to absorb as much of the South Slope as possible without pretending that one afternoon could do it justice. There are simply too many breweries packed into those few blocks, and even the most enthusiastic beer explorers have to acknowledge the laws of time, distance and liver function.

Besides, we had favorites.

Two Long-Time Favorites

Burial Beer Co. and Wicked Weed have long been among the places we most enjoy in Asheville, so those were the breweries where our quick tour became considerably less quick. We could have treated the South Slope like a checklist, moving from one taproom to the next simply because it was there, but that's not really how we travel. If we've found a place we genuinely like, we're perfectly happy to stay awhile.

And that's part of what makes South Slope so much fun.

It's not just the breweries. It's the neighborhood between them—the old buildings and colorful murals, the sidewalks crowded with people wandering from one taproom to another, the patios and restaurants, the conversations and music spilling out into the afternoon. The breweries may be what brings you there, but once you're there, the whole neighborhood becomes part of the experience.

Which is also why South Slope felt like such a fitting place to finish this particular part of our Asheville adventure. We'd spent the preceding days discovering that Asheville's beer culture extends well beyond its most famous district, visiting breweries in different neighborhoods and nearby towns and finding that each had its own personality. By the time we returned to South Slope, we weren't seeing it simply as the place where a lot of Asheville breweries happen to be located. We were seeing it as one piece of a much bigger city.

And Asheville itself had been doing the same thing to us all week.

Ben has special laser vision for locating the best beers in Asheville and beyond.

But Wait – There’s More

Everywhere we went, there seemed to be something else to discover. Beer led to food, food led to neighborhoods, neighborhoods led to architecture and history, and history occasionally led me to the grave of a writer whose work I'd once taught. We came to explore breweries, but somewhere along the way we had also collected art, history, excellent meals, beautiful buildings and several things that will eventually emerge from a closet on Christmas morning with a story about how we found them in Asheville.

That's the trouble with Asheville.

You don't really finish a visit.

You leave with a list.

There are breweries you didn't get to, restaurants you didn't try, galleries you walked past because you were already late for something else, historic buildings you meant to investigate and neighborhoods you haven't wandered through yet. Even when you've been there before—and we have—you can leave with the distinct feeling that you've only scratched the surface.

Which is probably why nobody really visits Asheville only once.

We know we'll be back. We don't know exactly when, and we don't know what we'll do when we get there, although there will almost certainly be beer involved. There will probably be a brewery we've never visited, a restaurant we've never tried, a gallery we somehow wander into, and some interesting old building that makes us stop and wonder why we hadn't noticed it the last time.

For now, though, we'll leave Asheville with the South Slope still buzzing behind us, knowing that our fast lap was never really intended to be a farewell. It was simply another pass through a city that seems to reward coming back to it.

We'll be back.

We'll probably start with beer.

We usually do.

This mural at Burial Beer Co. might cause some people to think - and drink.

Next time you're in Asheville, pay a visit to the Museum of History in the Smith-McDowell House.

NCBE's Beer Notes - Burial Beer Co. and Wicked Weed Brewing

Burial Beer Co.

• Shadow Clock Pilsner, 5.5% ABV

  • Appearance: yellow, transparent

  • Nose: bread, biscuity, floral

  • Taste: classic representation of style; clean, crisp, a little funky

  • Mouthfeel: light-medium, high carbonation

  • Finish: balanced

  • Overall: a faithful, delicious rendering of the style

• Fest Octoberfest Lager, 5.9% ABV*

  • Appearance: gold, clear

  • Nose: bread, caramel, malt, toasty

  • Flavor: malt, light caramel, toasted grain, baking spice, hint of green onion; very balanced

  • Mouthfeel: medium body, medium carbonation

  • Finish: hoppy, toasted bread

  • Overall: excellent!

• Whether By Sporadic Dumb Decisions Or Habitual Ritualism DIPA, 8.3%*

  • Appearance: yellow, hazy, short head

  • Nose: tropical, grapefruit, pineapple, pine

  • Flavor: grapefruit, pineapple, mango, blood orange, alcohol

  • Mouthfeel: medium body, pillowy

  • Finish: tangy, tropical

  • Overall: excellent!

• Draped in Ashen Cloaks DIPA, 8.5% ABV

  • Appearance: yellow, hazy, short head

  • Nose: tropical orange grapefruit bread

  • Taste: grapefruit, lemon, sweet, stone fruit, very juicy, alcohol

  • Mouthfeel: medium body, pillowy

  • Finish: lightly bitter with grapefruit, blood orange, herbal
    

Wicked Weed Brewing

• Watermelon Morte Sour, 8.5% ABV*

  • Appearance: hazy, light foam, gold

  • Nose: fresh basil, watermelon, fruit, citrus

  • Taste: fruity, watermelon, basil (like a delicious watermelon-basil salad)

  • Mouthfeel: slightly astringent, refreshing

  • Finish: astringent, dry, tangy

  • Overall: crushable, ideal summer beer

• Kolsch, 5.2% ABV

  • Appearance: yellow, clear, brilliant, minimal head

  • Nose: stone fruit, biscuit

  • Taste: biscuit, malt, balanced sweet-turning bitter, overripe fruit

  • Moutfeel: light/medium with light carbonation

  • Finish: light and short

• Festbier, 5.6% abv*

  • Appearanc: golden, clear, light lacy foam

  • Nose: floral, fruity, malty

  • Taste: honey-wheat bread, malty, caramel, lightly bitter, baking spice

  • Mouthfeel: medium body, medium carbonation

  • Finish: sweet and bitter balance

  • Overall: very tasty, balanced in multiple dimensions

• Boysenberry Morte, 5.5% ABV

  • Appearance: brown/black, light head

  • Nose: jammy, boysenberry, sweet-tart, light baking spice

  • Taste: very tart, boysenberry, astringent burn, sour, tingly, lemon zest

  • Mouthfeel: high carbonation, light body, puckery

  • Finish: strong sour berry flavor

• Angel of darkness Barrel-Aged Sour, 11% ABV*

  • Appearance: purple-black,

  • Nose: pruney, jammy, goaty

  • Taste: very sour, funky, earthy, sour grape

  • Mouthfeel: medium, astringent, velvety

  • Finish: sour and astringent

  • Overall: puts the funk in funkatorium; intriguing and evocative; the related visual is grandma making sour cherry preserves in an old gingham apron on her ancient stove

*NCBE Two mugs up!

What do you think about the South Slope? Burial? Wicked Weed? All-things Asheville?