Highlands Tart, Ginger Beer Among New Offerings

The mountain beer scene continues to grow, with more than two dozen breweries now in the Asheville area and around 60 in Western North Carolina.

Asheville’s new Ginger’s Revenge brewery has opened with an award-winning alcoholic ginger beer. 

The beer is made with organic Hawaiian grown ginger, cane sugar, spices and lemon and lime juice. 

It was first introduced at the Just Brew It beer festivals in 2013 and 2015. 

To start, it’s draft only at the tasting room located at the Ramp Studios, 829 Riverside Drive at the intersection with Broadway Street. 

But the idea is to get 12 ounce bottles in the Asheville market by summer. The brew is 5.2 percent alcohol and owner/brewer David Ackley also has a pear and rosemary ginger brew and a chamomile honey version 

Habitat Brewing, one of the city’s newer breweries, occupied and renovated an old building at 174 Broadway St., next to Moog Music just outside downtown. 

After starting with guest beers, it now has a line of its own house brews. 

They include IPA, ESB, and Oatmeal Pale Ale. 

This small brewery is becoming a favorite with customers from the nearby neighborhoods. 

Park on the street, or after business hours, in the Moog Music lot, or a gravel lot just up Broadway Street. 

Highland Brewing of Asheville has long named its seasonal beers for area mountaintops or geographical locations. 

The latest of these brews, Big Briar Raspberry Tart, is now out in 12-ounce bottles and on draft and can be found throughout Highland’s distribution area including North and South Carolina and Tennessee.

Visitors to the Highland Brewing taproom got to taste an early version of this brilliant red beer which pairs berries with El Dorado hops. It goes well with both savory and sweet foods.

It is named for Big Briar Cove, a conservancy easement along the French Broad River in the Sandy Mush area near Asheville.