Whistle Hop Brewing
Fun for the whole family
For a family day, few places in the region do it better than Sierra Nevada Brewing, the California pioneer's sprawling East Coast home, just south of town near the airport. When Sierra Nevada went looking beyond its original Chico brewery in the early 2010s, it built something closer to a wooded park than a factory: roughly 180 acres of gardens, forest, and stroller-friendly trails that wind down to the French Broad River, plus a beer garden, fire pits, and an outdoor amphitheater that hosts free live music on many weekends. Kids can roam the grounds while the adults settle in.
Lunch is easy here, and a cut above the usual pub fare. The huge taproom restaurant runs a chef-driven, farm-to-table menu built partly from the brewery's own organic gardens, paired with a couple dozen taps that include North Carolina exclusives you won't find in stores. Curious how it all works? Both self-guided and guided tours walk you through what was the first production brewery in the country to earn LEED Platinum certification.
A Quick Trip to Fairview
Fairview, southeast of the city, is home to one of the most delightfully original brewery spaces in the region, and one of the most family-friendly. The Miceli family opened Whistle Hop Brewing Company in 2016 after restoring a pair of retired railcars by hand, and the whole place is built around them: a cherry-red 1969 Norfolk and Western caboose, where you can climb up into the old cupola to drink, joined to a 1941 Southern Railway boxcar by a covered deck. You order from inside the train, then spill out onto three terraced acres overlooking Cane Creek Valley.
It's engineered for a family afternoon. Kids get a hillside slide, a six-hole putt-putt course, mini-bowling, bocce, and room to run, while the grown-ups work through small-batch, award-winning ales and lagers around a train-car fire pit. Leashed dogs are welcome too.
Who doesn't love Pizza!?
Wrap up the day in North Asheville at Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company, which opened as the third brewery in the city, back when the scene was still just finding its feet. It set up inside the old Merrimon Twin movie theater, and that origin still defines the place: you can catch a second-run film or an old classic from a seat in one of the in-house theaters with a house-brewed pint and a pizza in hand. A fake UFO crashes into the facade out front, funhouse mirrors and an arcade fill the lobby, and the tater-tot "totchos" have a following of their own. It's gloriously unpretentious, and pure Asheville.
Their long-running Shiva IPA delivers bright grapefruit and classic West Coast bitterness, while Perfect Day IPA leans citrusy and tropical from Citra and El Dorado hops. Rocket Girl Lager, a crisp Kölsch-style brew, keeps things light and easy alongside pizza, and Ninja Porter brings smooth roasted chocolate notes for something darker.