Behind the Scenes at Hillman Beer: An Insider’s Brewery Tour Experience

Most people walk into a brewery, order a pint, and never think twice about what happened before that beer hit the glass. At Hillman Beer, the story behind each pour is as layered as the beer itself. From a Brooklyn homebrewing habit to a GABF Gold medal, the behind-the-scenes brewery tour experience at Hillman is one of the most honest windows into craft brewing you will find in Asheville, North Carolina.

This is not a polished marketing story dressed up as authenticity. It is a family business that started in a garage on Greig and Brandi Hillman’s property after Brad moved from New York to Asheville in 2015. That first beer, the Dingaudamnit Dunkelweisen, set the tone for everything that followed: a commitment to doing traditional styles properly, with warmth and no pretension.

How a Garage Beer Became an Award-Winning Brewery

Brad Hillman’s homebrewing passion started in Brooklyn in 2006, long before craft beer became a cultural shorthand for urban cool. When he relocated to Asheville, the hobby quickly became something more serious. Together with his brother Greig and Greig’s wife Brandi, the family opened Hillman Beer in 2017 near Biltmore Village on Sweeten Creek Road.

The growth was not accidental. The team built their reputation on quality and consistency in an era when novelty often wins more attention than craft. According to the Brewers Association (2023), there are now over 9,500 craft breweries operating in the United States, making genuine differentiation harder than ever. Hillman Beer’s answer was straightforward: make fewer styles, make them better, and treat every guest like a regular.

That approach paid off fast. Their Four Fat Baby took Bronze at the Great American Beer Festival in 2017. Their ESB followed with Silver in 2018 and Gold in 2019. The GABF is widely considered the most prestigious beer competition in the country, judging thousands of entries across dozens of categories. Winning Gold in that environment is not luck.

A second location opened in Old Fort, NC in July 2020, offering over 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor seating across the Catawba Avenue property, along with 32 taps and the same pub-style food program that made the Asheville location a local anchor.

Hillman Beer’s behind-the-scenes brewery story begins with a genuine homebrewing background that scaled into an award-winning operation through discipline and family commitment. The GABF Gold-winning ESB remains the clearest proof that traditional styles, executed with care, outlast any trend.

Inside the Brewing Process: Tradition Over Trend

Step into the production side of Hillman Beer and the philosophy becomes immediately clear. There are no gimmicks here. The brewing process is grounded in traditional techniques that prioritize balance, clarity, and repeatability over shock value.

Their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) is the crown jewel. The style itself has roots in English pub brewing culture dating back centuries. Hillman’s interpretation earned back-to-back GABF medals, a feat that reflects how tightly controlled their brewing process is. Consistency at that level requires precise water chemistry, disciplined fermentation temperatures, and a deep understanding of malt and hop character.

“The best breweries aren’t chasing what’s new. They’re mastering what’s proven.”

According to NC State University’s Fermentation Sciences program, small-batch craft breweries that focus on a tighter core lineup tend to produce higher-quality results because their teams can dedicate more attention to each recipe rather than spreading resources across dozens of rotating styles.

Hillman’s behind-the-scenes production reflects exactly that. Their brewing team works with locally-sourced ingredients where possible, maintaining the same connection to the Western North Carolina region that shows up in their food menu. Grass-fed beef patty melts, house-made Reubens, falafel wraps, and fresh kale salads all tie back to the same sourcing philosophy that informs the beer program.

The Asheville location’s creekside setting on Sweeten Creek Road adds a sensory layer to the whole experience. Sitting alongside the water with a Gold-medal ESB in hand while understanding what went into brewing it changes how the beer tastes. That is the value of a behind-the-scenes brewery tour: context makes every sip more meaningful.

The behind-the-scenes brewing process at Hillman Beer is built on traditional techniques and tight recipe control rather than novelty, which is what produced consecutive GABF medals. The brewery’s commitment to fewer, better styles is reflected in both the quality of the beer and the consistency of the guest experience.

What to Expect During a Visit: Pub Style Meets Brewery Culture

Visiting Hillman Beer is not a sterile industrial experience. Both locations were designed around the principle of bringing pub style to the brewery setting, creating spaces that feel lived-in and genuinely welcoming rather than staged.

The Asheville location on Sweeten Creek Road sits near Biltmore Village, offering creekside dining that makes it one of the more distinctive outdoor seating situations in the city. Dogs on leashes are welcome, families are welcome, and the atmosphere consistently skews toward neighborhood gathering place rather than tourist stop.

The Old Fort location on Catawba Avenue operates on a larger footprint, with over 10,000 square feet spread across indoor and outdoor areas and 32 taps to work through. Old Fort itself sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge, making Hillman Beer a natural stop for anyone traveling between Asheville and points east along I-40.

According to a Visit NC (2023) report on craft beer tourism, North Carolina ranks among the top ten states for brewery visits, with Asheville consistently cited as a primary destination. For visitors building a craft beer itinerary, a behind-the-scenes look at how Hillman operates adds real depth to what could otherwise be a surface-level tour of tap handles.

The food program at both locations is not an afterthought. Full kitchens serving locally-sourced pub fare mean guests can settle in for a proper meal rather than a quick tasting. That decision reflects the same thinking that shaped the beer program: do fewer things, do them well, and make people want to stay.

The brewery’s four guiding principles, quality, service, comfort, and community, are visible in how both locations run. Staff treat new visitors with the same enthusiasm they bring to regulars. The experience is designed to convert a first-time guest into someone who comes back not because there is nowhere else to go, but because this place earned that loyalty.

A behind-the-scenes brewery tour at Hillman Beer delivers more than a look at tanks and equipment. It connects visitors to a family-owned philosophy built around pub-style comfort, locally-sourced food, and community-first hospitality across two distinct Western North Carolina locations.