Discover the family-owned brewing process at Hillman Beer, from ingredient selection to award-winning craft beers at their Western North Carolina breweries. Learn about their brewing philosophy, signature styles, and quality control methods.
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From Grain to Glass: Hillman Beer’s Craft Brewing Journey

When you sip a cold beer at Hillman, there’s a story in your glass. Every pint represents a family’s dedication to quality brewing and bringing people together. At Hillman Beer, brothers Brad and Greig Hillman along with Greig’s wife Brandi aren’t just brewing beer – they’re crafting experiences that celebrate tradition, quality, and community in Western North Carolina.

What makes Hillman different in today’s crowded craft beer world? It’s their unwavering commitment to brewing balanced, approachable beers that stand the test of time rather than chasing fleeting trends. This guide takes you behind the scenes of their brewing process, from selecting the finest ingredients to pouring that perfect pint at their Asheville and Old Fort locations.

The Hillman Brewing Philosophy

In a craft beer landscape often dominated by extreme flavors and trendy ingredients, Hillman Beer stands apart with a refreshingly straightforward approach: brew exceptional traditional beers that bring people together.

“We’re not trying to reinvent beer,” you might hear from one of the Hillman family members if you chat with them at their taproom. “We’re focused on making classic styles really well – beers that you want to have a second pint of.”

This philosophy is rooted in the Hillman family’s genuine love for brewing. Brad Hillman refined his craft through years of homebrewing before the family decided to turn their passion into a business in 2017. Their approach emphasizes:

Quality Over Novelty

While many craft breweries race to create the most unusual or extreme beer, Hillman focuses on perfecting time-tested styles. Their Extra Special Bitter (ESB) – which earned gold at the Great American Beer Festival – exemplifies this approach. It’s a traditional English-style ale crafted with such precision and care that it stands out in blind tastings against hundreds of competitors.

Approachability Without Compromise

The Hillman team believes great beer should be welcoming. Their taprooms feature beers that both craft enthusiasts and newcomers can appreciate. You won’t need an advanced beer vocabulary to enjoy what’s in your glass, though beer aficionados will appreciate the technical excellence behind each brew.

Community-Centered Brewing

For the Hillman family, brewing isn’t just about what goes into the tank – it’s about creating spaces where people connect. Their pub-style approach to their breweries in Asheville and Old Fort reflects this, with communal tables and layouts designed for conversation rather than just consumption.

Ingredient Selection & Sourcing

Every great beer starts with quality ingredients, and Hillman’s approach to sourcing reflects their commitment to excellence without pretension.

Malt: The Backbone of Beer

The Hillman brewing team selects malts that provide the perfect foundation for each beer style. For their award-winning ESB, they use a combination of English malts that create the characteristic biscuity, caramel notes essential to the style. Their Four Fat Baby Brown Ale showcases a complex malt bill that delivers notes of chocolate and toffee without overwhelming sweetness.

When possible, Hillman works with regional maltsters who share their values of quality and consistency. This partnership approach not only supports the local economy but also ensures fresher ingredients.

Hops: Finding Balance

Unlike breweries that might load their beers with trendy hop varieties for maximum impact, Hillman’s approach to hopping is thoughtful and style-appropriate. Their IPA uses American hop varieties that provide the expected citrus and pine character, but with a balance that complements rather than overwhelms the malt character.

For traditional European styles like their Kölsch and ESB, they source authentic European hop varieties that bring subtle, classic characteristics to these beers. The brewing team works directly with hop suppliers to select lots that meet their exact specifications.

Water: The Unsung Hero

Western North Carolina’s water provides a good starting point for brewing, but the Hillman team doesn’t leave it to chance. They analyze and adjust their water chemistry for each beer style, ensuring that an English-style ale has the mineral content that would be found in classic brewing regions of the UK, while German styles benefit from water profiles that might be found in Cologne or Munich.

These subtle adjustments might go unnoticed by the casual drinker, but they’re essential to creating authentic representations of classic beer styles.

Local Partnerships

Where it makes sense, Hillman incorporates locally-sourced ingredients. Their kitchen’s farm-to-table approach extends to special brewing projects, with seasonal releases sometimes featuring local fruits, honey, or other regional specialties. These collaborations strengthen community ties and create beers with a true sense of place.

The Brewing Process Unveiled

Behind every Hillman beer is a methodical brewing process that combines time-honored techniques with careful attention to detail. Here’s how they transform those quality ingredients into the beers that have earned them a loyal following and national recognition.

Mashing: Setting the Stage

The brewing process begins with milling the selected grains to crack open the kernels without pulverizing them. The milled grains are then mixed with precisely heated water in the mash tun, where enzymes convert starches into fermentable sugars.

The Hillman team pays close attention to mash temperature and duration – small variations here can significantly impact the finished beer’s body and fermentability. For their lighter styles like the Kölsch, they might use a lower temperature to create a highly fermentable wort that will finish crisp and dry. For something like their brown ale, a slightly higher temperature leaves more complex sugars for added body and mouthfeel.

Lautering and the Boil

Once the mash is complete, the liquid wort is separated from the grain through a process called lautering. The wort then moves to the brew kettle, where it’s brought to a rolling boil.

The boil serves multiple purposes: it sterilizes the wort, drives off unwanted volatile compounds, and provides the platform for hop additions. The timing of these hop additions is crucial – early additions provide bitterness, while late additions preserve the aromatic oils that give beer its distinctive hop character.

For their ESB, Hillman uses a traditional English approach with specific hop timing to achieve the perfect balance of bitterness and aroma. Their IPA sees a more complex hopping schedule with multiple additions to build layers of hop character.

Fermentation: Where Beer Comes to Life

After cooling the wort through a heat exchanger, the Hillman team transfers it to fermentation vessels where they add carefully selected yeast strains. Each beer style uses a specific yeast variety chosen for its flavor contributions and fermentation characteristics.

Temperature control during fermentation is critical. Hillman monitors and maintains precise temperatures for each beer style – their Kölsch ferments cooler than their ales, bringing out the clean, crisp character essential to this hybrid style.

Fermentation isn’t rushed at Hillman. Their beers are given the time they need to develop fully, even if that means tying up tank space longer than might be commercially expedient. This patience pays dividends in flavor development and clarity.

Conditioning and Packaging

After primary fermentation, Hillman beers undergo appropriate conditioning periods. For some styles, this means cold conditioning to improve clarity and flavor integration. Others might receive dry-hopping during this phase to enhance aroma.

When the beer has reached its peak condition, it’s carbonated to style-appropriate levels and packaged. At both Hillman locations, much of their beer goes directly from tank to tap, ensuring maximum freshness. Some selections are also canned for to-go sales, with careful attention to minimizing oxygen pickup that could compromise quality.

Signature Beer Styles & Award Winners

Hillman’s brewing philosophy comes to life in their core lineup of beers that showcase their commitment to quality and tradition. Here’s a closer look at the beers that have put them on the map in Western North Carolina and beyond.

The ESB: Hillman’s Gold Medal Winner

The crown jewel in Hillman’s portfolio is their ESB (Extra Special Bitter), which earned gold at the Great American Beer Festival – one of the brewing industry’s most prestigious competitions. This traditional English-style ale showcases a perfect balance of malt sweetness and hop character, with notes of biscuit, light caramel, and earthy, floral hops.

What makes this beer special isn’t flashy ingredients or extreme flavors – it’s the technical precision and balance that makes judges and customers alike come back for more. At 5.5% ABV, it’s both flavorful and approachable – exactly what an ESB should be.

Four Fat Baby Brown Ale

This American Brown Ale has become a customer favorite at both Hillman locations. Named with the Hillman family’s characteristic warmth and humor, Four Fat Baby offers a complex malt character with notes of chocolate, nuts, and caramel, balanced by just enough hop bitterness to prevent it from being cloying.

It’s a versatile beer that pairs beautifully with many of their kitchen’s offerings, particularly their popular grass-fed beef patty melt. At 6.2% ABV, it’s substantial enough to satisfy without overwhelming the palate.

Hillman Kölsch

Demonstrating their respect for brewing tradition, Hillman’s Kölsch is crafted in the style of the classic beer from Cologne, Germany. Clean, crisp, and subtle, this beer showcases the brewery’s technical skill – there’s nowhere to hide flaws in a beer this delicate.

Fermented cool with a specialized yeast strain, the Kölsch offers subtle fruit notes and a gentle malt character that makes it exceptionally refreshing. It’s become especially popular at their Old Fort location, where outdoor seating along Mill Creek provides the perfect setting for this summer sipper.

IPA Offerings

While some breweries might offer a dizzying array of IPA variations, Hillman takes a more focused approach. Their flagship IPA delivers the citrus and pine notes that hopheads crave, but with the balance and drinkability that defines all their beers.

For those seeking something a bit different, they occasionally release variations that explore different hop combinations or brewing techniques, but always with an eye toward quality rather than novelty.

Darker Offerings

Rounding out their core lineup are darker options like their Porter, which delivers classic notes of chocolate and coffee with a surprisingly light body that makes it more versatile than many examples of the style. It’s another showcase of how Hillman interprets traditional styles with respect while making them accessible to modern palates.

Seasonal Creations & Special Releases

While Hillman’s core beers form the foundation of their offering, their seasonal and special releases allow the brewing team to showcase creativity while responding to the changing seasons in Western North Carolina.

Seasonal Rhythm

Hillman’s seasonal releases follow the natural rhythm of the year. As summer temperatures rise in Asheville and Old Fort, lighter options like wheat beers and fruit-infused variations provide refreshment. A Watermelon Wheat has become a summer tradition, offering subtle fruit character that complements rather than overwhelms the base beer.

When fall arrives in the mountains, Hillman’s brewing schedule shifts to amber ales and harvest-inspired creations that match the season’s cooling temperatures and changing colors. Their Autumn Ale incorporates subtle spicing that evokes the season without falling into pumpkin spice clichés.

Winter brings heartier offerings, with a robust Winter Warmer appearing annually to combat the mountain chill. Rich with specialty malts and warming alcohol, it’s the perfect companion for the cozy indoor seating at both Hillman locations.

Spring sees the return of lighter options that bridge winter and summer, often highlighting fresh, bright hop varieties that complement the season’s renewal.

Collaboration and Community

Beyond their regular seasonal rotation, Hillman occasionally creates special collaboration beers with other local businesses and breweries. These limited releases strengthen community ties and allow for creative cross-pollination.

A collaboration with a local coffee roaster resulted in a Coffee Porter that perfectly married the roaster’s signature blend with Hillman’s balanced brewing approach. Another partnership with a regional farm produced a fresh-hop ale using hops harvested just hours before brewing – a true taste of Western North Carolina terroir.

Experimentation with Tradition

Even when creating seasonal specialties, Hillman maintains their commitment to quality and drinkability. Their experimental releases aren’t about extreme flavors or high alcohol content – they’re thoughtful explorations of brewing traditions from around the world, often highlighting lesser-known styles.

A recent example included their take on a traditional German Altbier, which offered taproom visitors a taste of this copper-colored, clean-finishing ale that’s rarely seen in American craft breweries. Another special release featured a Grisette – a lighter cousin to Saison that historically refreshed Belgian miners after their shifts.

These special releases not only provide variety for regular customers but also serve as educational opportunities, with staff sharing the history and context of less familiar styles.

Quality Control & Brewing Standards

Consistency is one of the greatest challenges in craft brewing, especially as a brewery expands to multiple locations. Hillman’s approach to quality control ensures that whether you’re visiting Asheville or Old Fort, you can count on the same excellent beer experience.

Laboratory Testing

Behind the scenes at Hillman, regular laboratory testing forms the foundation of their quality control program. Each batch of beer undergoes testing throughout the brewing process:

During fermentation, specific gravity readings track sugar conversion and alcohol development. After conditioning, finished beers are analyzed for key parameters including pH, dissolved oxygen, carbonation levels, and microbiological stability. These technical measurements ensure that each batch meets the exact specifications developed for that beer style.

Sensory Evaluation

While laboratory testing provides objective data, the human senses remain irreplaceable in quality assessment. The Hillman brewing team conducts regular sensory panels where beers are evaluated blind for appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall impression.

This sensory training helps identify subtle variations that might not show up in laboratory tests but could impact the customer experience. It also ensures that all brewing team members have a shared understanding of what makes a Hillman beer meet their standards.

Process Standardization

As Hillman expanded from their original Asheville location to Old Fort, they developed detailed process standardization to ensure consistency across locations. Every aspect of brewing is documented with standard operating procedures that specify exact parameters:

Water chemistry adjustments are calculated precisely for each beer style. Mash temperatures are monitored within tight tolerances. Fermentation profiles track temperature progressions through specific time periods. This documentation allows for reproducible results regardless of which team member is brewing or which location is producing the beer.

Ingredient Management

Quality control begins even before brewing starts, with careful management of incoming ingredients. Malt deliveries are inspected for proper moisture content and other specifications. Hop lots are evaluated for alpha acid levels and sensory qualities. Yeast is monitored for viability and vitality with each generation.

The brewery maintains climate-controlled storage for sensitive ingredients, ensuring that hops and specialty malts don’t deteriorate before use. This attention to ingredient handling prevents quality issues before they can affect the finished beer.

Continuous Improvement

Perhaps most importantly, Hillman embraces a culture of continuous improvement. When variations are detected – whether through testing, sensory evaluation, or customer feedback – the team investigates root causes and implements process improvements.

This commitment to learning and refining has allowed them to maintain their quality standards while growing, ensuring that their award-winning approach extends to every beer they produce.

Experience Hillman Beer

Understanding the craft and care behind Hillman’s brewing process enhances the experience of visiting their locations, where the brewery’s philosophy comes to life in welcoming community spaces.

Two Distinct Locations

Hillman’s original Asheville brewery opened in 2017 near Biltmore Village. This intimate space offers a cozy, pub-like atmosphere with creekside seating that’s particularly popular in warmer months. The brewing system is visible from the taproom, connecting visitors directly to the process behind their beers.

In 2020, they expanded to Old Fort, where a more spacious 10,000+ square foot facility allows for both increased production and an expansive taproom and outdoor area. Situated along Mill Creek, the Old Fort location offers a different but equally welcoming vibe, with more room for families and larger gatherings.

The Gold Medal Experience

Visitors to either Hillman location can participate in their Gold Medal Tastings, which highlight their award-winning ESB alongside other beers that showcase their brewing range. These guided tastings provide insight into what judges look for in competition beers and how Hillman achieves these exacting standards.

The tastings are approachable for beer newcomers but offer enough depth to engage even experienced craft beer enthusiasts. It’s an educational experience that enhances appreciation for the subtleties in each glass.

Perfect Pairings

Both Hillman locations feature full kitchens serving scratch-made pub fare designed to complement their beer offerings. The culinary team applies the same philosophy to food that the brewers bring to beer: quality ingredients, thoughtful preparation, and a balance of tradition and creativity.

Popular pairings include:

The grass-fed beef patty melt with their ESB, where the beer’s balanced bitterness cuts through the richness of the beef and cheese. Their house-made falafel wrap with the Kölsch, a lighter pairing where the beer’s subtle fruitiness enhances the fresh herbs in the falafel. The buffalo chicken wrap with their IPA, where hop bitterness balances the spice of the buffalo sauce.

Community Connection

Beyond beer and food, Hillman creates spaces for genuine connection. Both locations feature communal tables and conversational layouts that encourage interaction. Regular events from trivia nights to live music provide additional opportunities for community building.

The family’s presence is felt throughout both locations, with owners often on-site engaging with customers and sharing their brewing story. This personal connection transforms a visit from simply consuming products to participating in the ongoing Hillman story.

Whether you’re a dedicated beer enthusiast interested in the technical aspects of their brewing process or simply someone looking for a welcoming place to enjoy quality food and drink, Hillman offers an experience grounded in authenticity and craftsmanship.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Hillman’s ESB award-winning?

Hillman’s ESB (Extra Special Bitter) earned gold at the Great American Beer Festival through its perfect execution of this traditional English style. The beer showcases balanced malt character with notes of biscuit and light caramel, complemented by earthy, floral hop notes and a moderate bitterness. The judges recognized its technical precision, appropriate mouthfeel, and exceptional balance – all hallmarks of Hillman’s brewing philosophy that emphasizes quality over novelty.

Does Hillman offer brewery tours?

While Hillman doesn’t offer scheduled production tours, their brewing systems are visible from their taprooms, particularly at the Asheville location. The brewing team is often happy to answer questions about their process when they’re not actively brewing. For those wanting a more in-depth experience, their Gold Medal Tastings provide insight into their brewing approach and beer styles.

Are Hillman beers available outside their taprooms?

Hillman focuses primarily on serving beer fresh at their Asheville and Old Fort locations, which allows them to maintain strict quality control. Limited distribution is available to select accounts in Western North Carolina. They do offer crowlers and cans to-go from both taproom locations, allowing visitors to enjoy Hillman beers at home.

Visit Hillman Beer

Ready to experience Hillman’s craft brewing firsthand? Their commitment to quality, community, and creating welcoming spaces makes either location worth a visit for beer enthusiasts and casual drinkers alike.

Stop by to taste the results of their grain-to-glass philosophy, where family ownership and brewing tradition create beers that bring people together. Whether you’re sampling their award-winning ESB, exploring seasonal creations, or pairing their beers with scratch-made food, you’ll discover why Hillman has become a beloved part of Western North Carolina’s craft beer community.

Asheville: 25 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC
Old Fort: 78 Catawba Avenue, Old Fort, NC
Phone: (828) 505-1312

Whether you’re a local or just passing through, they’ve saved a seat for you.