Experience the unique contrast between Asheville’s intimate downtown taprooms and expansive destination breweries. Discover which craft beer experience suits your style.
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Asheville’s Beer Scene: A Tale of Two Worlds

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville has rightfully earned its nickname as “Beer City USA” by offering two distinct craft beer experiences that complement each other perfectly. On one side, you have the charming urban taprooms tucked into the city’s historic downtown – small, intimate, and deeply connected to the local community. On the other, you have the impressive destination breweries that draw visitors from across the country with their sprawling facilities and picturesque settings. At Hillman Beer, we’ve carved our own niche within this vibrant landscape, offering the best of both worlds with our Asheville and Old Fort locations.

The Urban Taproom Experience: Hillman’s Asheville Location

Urban breweries like our Asheville location at 25 Sweeten Creek Road represent the heart and soul of the city’s craft beer scene. These smaller-scale operations offer a more intimate experience where you can often chat directly with the brewers and truly feel the family-owned atmosphere. Our 5-barrel brewhouse allows us to experiment with rotating taps while maintaining consistent quality in our award-winning staples like our ESB (Extra Special Bitter).

What makes urban taprooms special is their accessibility and integration into daily life. After work, locals gather at these community hubs to unwind over fresh pints. Visitors can easily hop between several breweries in a single afternoon, experiencing a variety of brewing styles and pub atmospheres without needing transportation. The focus here is on creating comfortable spaces where conversation flows as freely as the beer, exemplifying our core values of service, comfort, and community.

The Destination Brewery Model: Our Old Fort Expansion

When we opened our second location in Old Fort in July 2020, we embraced elements of the destination brewery model while maintaining our family-owned character. With a larger 15-barrel system, our Old Fort brewery allows us to increase production while offering a different kind of experience – one where visitors can escape the urban environment and enjoy craft beer against a backdrop of mountain views.

Destination breweries transform beer drinking into a complete day trip. They typically feature more extensive food programs (though both our locations pride themselves on locally-sourced pub fare served daily from 11am-9pm), outdoor spaces for relaxation, and additional activities beyond just sampling beer. These facilities often become attractions in themselves, drawing tourists who might plan their vacations around visiting these brewing landmarks.

How These Models Complement Each Other

Asheville’s beer scene thrives because these two models don’t compete – they complement each other perfectly. Urban taprooms provide accessibility and variety, allowing visitors to experience multiple brewing styles in a single day. Meanwhile, destination breweries offer depth of experience, allowing guests to fully immerse themselves in a single brewery’s vision and philosophy.

For craft beer enthusiasts, this dual approach creates a perfect beer vacation: spend a day downtown hopping between intimate taprooms, then dedicate another day to exploring a destination brewery like our Old Fort location, where you can savor beers while taking in mountain vistas.

Finding Your Perfect Beer Experience

Whether you prefer the energy of an urban taproom or the relaxed atmosphere of a destination brewery depends entirely on what you’re looking for in your craft beer experience. At Hillman Beer, we’ve created spaces that honor both traditions while staying true to our commitment to quality beer and food in welcoming environments.