Hillman Beer partners with local WNC farms like Hickory Nut Gap to bring scratch-made, farm-to-table food to both taprooms. See who grows what’s on your plate.
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Farm-to-Table at Hillman: Meet Our Local Food Partners in Western North Carolina

Why Farm-to-Table Sourcing Matters at a Craft Brewery

Farm-to-table sourcing at Hillman Beer is not a marketing angle. It is a direct extension of how the brewery approaches everything it makes. The same reasoning that pushes the Hillman family to perfect a classic ESB rather than chase trends is the reasoning behind building real relationships with the people who grow their food.

Western North Carolina has one of the most active regional food systems in the American South. According to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2017), North Carolina has over 46,000 farms covering roughly 8.4 million acres, with a strong concentration of small and mid-size operations in the western mountain counties. That infrastructure makes authentic farm-to-table sourcing possible in ways that larger metro areas often cannot replicate.

For Hillman, sourcing locally means knowing who grew the produce in your burger, where the beef on your plate was raised, and how that connects back to the community sitting at the communal tables around you. Food and beer share the same building, the same values, and increasingly, the same supply chain.

Craft beer culture has always overlapped with food culture, but few breweries formalize that connection through consistent sourcing partnerships. Hillman does, and the result shows up in dishes like their scratch-made Reuben and signature burgers, where ingredient quality is the point rather than an afterthought.

Farm-to-table sourcing at Hillman Beer reflects the same quality-over-novelty philosophy that drives their brewing. Western North Carolina’s dense network of small farms gives Hillman the infrastructure to make those sourcing commitments real and consistent across both taproom locations.

The Farms Behind the Food: Hickory Nut Gap and Mountain Foods Farm

Two farm partnerships define much of Hillman’s food sourcing identity in Western North Carolina: Hickory Nut Gap Farm and Mountain Foods Farm. Both are rooted in the same mountain region where Hillman operates, and both share a commitment to raising and growing food without cutting corners.

Hickory Nut Gap Farm, based in Fairview, NC, is one of the most recognized names in WNC sustainable agriculture. The farm raises pasture-based beef and pork, with animals raised on open land in the Blue Ridge foothills. Their approach to animal welfare and land stewardship aligns directly with the kind of sourcing story Hillman wants to tell at the table. When a guest orders a burger at either Hillman taproom, the beef has a traceable origin and a clear philosophy behind it.

Mountain Foods Farm brings a complementary range of produce and proteins into Hillman’s scratch kitchen, reinforcing the seasonal, regionally-driven menu structure. Working with farms at this scale means Hillman’s kitchen team operates in close contact with growers, adjusting what goes on the menu based on what is actually available and at its best.

According to USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, the number of registered farmers markets and direct-to-consumer farm operations in the U.S. has grown significantly over the past decade, reflecting a broader shift in how food-conscious consumers expect restaurants to source their ingredients. Hillman’s partnerships place them squarely within that movement, not as a trend, but as an operational standard.

These are not sponsorship arrangements or label placements. They are working relationships built on shared geography, shared values, and the practical reality that food tastes better when the person cooking it knows the person who grew it.

Hillman Beer’s farm-to-table sourcing relies on grounded partnerships with Hickory Nut Gap Farm and Mountain Foods Farm, two Western North Carolina operations that share Hillman’s commitment to quality and land stewardship. These relationships directly shape what ends up on the menu at both the Asheville and Old Fort taprooms.

Kitchen Philosophy: Scratch-Made With a Purpose

Hillman’s kitchen runs on a scratch-made philosophy that mirrors the brewery floor. Nothing is pre-made, outsourced, or assembled from commodity ingredients when a better, local option exists. The scratch kitchen is a direct commitment to the guest experience, not a differentiator for its own sake.

Pub-style comfort food has a reputation for being heavy and generic. Hillman takes that format and runs it through a different filter. A kale salad appears alongside a Reuben because both deserve to be done well. A burger built on Hickory Nut Gap beef is treated with the same respect as the ESB sitting next to it. The kitchen team is not working around the beer program. It is working with it.

“The best brewery food programs treat the kitchen as seriously as the brewhouse. Locally sourced, scratch-made food doesn’t just taste better. It creates a sense of place that national chains can’t replicate.”

That sense of place is exactly what Hillman builds. At the Old Fort location, with its 32-tap system and over 10,000 square feet of space along Mill Creek, the kitchen has room to breathe and execute. At the Asheville location near Biltmore Village, the food matches the energy of a busy taproom that draws both locals and visitors to Western North Carolina.

According to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), locally sourced food systems can reduce transportation-related emissions significantly compared to conventional supply chains, making scratch kitchens with regional partnerships a practical sustainability choice as well as a culinary one.

Hillman’s scratch-made kitchen philosophy treats food with the same seriousness as its award-winning beer, using locally sourced ingredients to build pub-style dishes that reflect the flavors and producers of Western North Carolina. The approach connects culinary quality to genuine sustainability rather than branding.

Seasonal Menu Offerings and the Sustainability Loop

Seasonality at Hillman is not a buzzword. It is what happens when you build your menu around what farms actually produce month to month. When Hickory Nut Gap has specific cuts available, the kitchen uses them. When local produce is at its peak, it shows up on the plate. When the season shifts, so does the menu.

This creates a dining experience that changes genuinely across the year, giving regular guests something new to return to and giving first-time visitors an honest snapshot of what Western North Carolina grows. Seasonal menu offerings are inherently tied to the region’s identity, and for a brewery that has always emphasized place and community, that alignment is intentional.

The sustainability loop goes one step further. Hillman sends spent grain from the brewing process back to local farmers for use as livestock feed. That connection between brewhouse and farmstead is not incidental. It reflects a genuine effort to reduce waste and keep resources circulating within the regional food system. The grain that made the beer nourishes the animals that supply the kitchen. Few farm-to-table dining experiences can claim that level of integration.

Spent grain reuse is a well-documented practice in sustainable brewing. According to Brewers Association Sustainability Benchmarking Report, spent grain diversion is one of the most common and measurable environmental practices among craft breweries, with the majority of surveyed breweries reporting grain reuse through animal feed or composting programs.

For guests who care about where their food and drink come from, Hillman’s seasonal menu offerings and closed-loop grain program provide something concrete to point to. It is not a pledge or a policy statement. It is what the brewery and kitchen actually do.

Hillman’s seasonal menu offerings reflect direct collaboration with Western North Carolina farm partners, with dishes built around what is genuinely available and at its best. The brewery’s spent grain return program extends that farm-to-table commitment into a measurable sustainability practice that connects the taproom back to the land.