Wicked Weed to open new Coxe Avenue sour beer tasting room on Asheville’s South Slope

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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wicked_weed_new_logo_2014Wicked Weed Brewing, one of Asheville’s popular craft breweries located on Biltmore Avenue in downtown Asheville, is planning to open a second tasting room just for its sour beers at 147 Coxe Ave. on the city’s South Slope.

Wicked Weed spokeswoman Abby Dickinson said Friday that the new location will allow the brewery to move offices and its beer barrel storage all into one location, a 9,000-square-foot space. The building is across the street from the new Twin Leaf Brewing at the corner of Coxe Avenue and Banks Avenue. It is in the heart of what’s known as downtown’s South Slope, an area bubbling with new development action.

Dickinson said Wicked Weed’s barrel storage facility in Fairview is full with 350 barrels of sour beer. Wicked Weed’s sour beers are brewed and then must be aged in barrels for four to eight months, she said. The new location will also give the brewery much-needed office space.

The plan is to open in July or August, Dickinson said.

Wicked Weed is fast becoming well-known for its sour beers. The brewery won a prestigious gold-medal in a national competition for a beer in that style last year, and its new line of bottled beers are all sour beers.

“It’s more shelf-stable and it’s a great niche, a great place for us to get known,” Dickinson said.

She added that Wicked Weed is excited to be moving to the South Slope, where so much new development activity is happening.

 

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

21 Comments

  1. big ugly April 2, 2014

    Are you scared to post Corrections when you are incorrect?your headline still says banks. Fix it. You continually screw up real.estate deals with your erronius blogging.

    Reply
  2. roo March 30, 2014

    I think it’s kind of neat how WW came into a crowded marketplace and did something different from the other brewers. Seems like pretty respectful competition to cede ground to other brewers.

    Reply
  3. Das Drew March 28, 2014

    My God this town is full of haters.

    Reply
  4. Food Nerd March 28, 2014

    WW Walks the walk and talks the talk. Excellent beer, excellent food and a buzz on a national level that no other brewery native to Asheville has. And arrogant? You keep using that word, I don’t think you know what it means.

    Reply
  5. Norm March 28, 2014

    I wish Ashvegas would open a haters room so the rest of us wouldn’t have to listen to all your ignorant bitching.

    Reply
  6. FranknBeans March 28, 2014

    Probably not much of a gamble, considering the lines out the door and the fact that daddy has real deep pockets.

    Reply
    1. luther blissett March 28, 2014

      The current place feels like a corporate big city bar in a small city, which is fine enough for people who want to pretend they’re in Charlotte or Atlanta on an evening, seeing as it’s full to bursting, but it stands at a distance from the other Asheville brew/pubs, and I’m sure is a turn-off for people who are more about the beer than the city-bar atmosphere. Perhaps a beer-centric tasting room for people who don’t want extended conversations with short wide men at the door will change that perception.

      (I really don’t like bars with bouncers.)

      Reply
      1. smytty March 28, 2014

        Wicked Weed and the LAB offer a great way to concentrate all the Charlotte and ATL tourists together so the rest of us don’t have to deal with them.

        Reply
      2. indie March 28, 2014

        Your comments are clueless. WW has counters (required by the Asheville Fire Marshall), not bouncers. WW has more varieties of their beer available than any other local brewery.

        Reply
        1. luther blissett March 28, 2014

          WW has counters (required by the Asheville Fire Marshall), not bouncers.

          If it quacks like a bouncer and waddles like a bouncer, it’s a bouncer.

          WW has chosen the tone that it wants to project to the world, and did so from the moment it opened. It seems to be doing well enough having established that tone, and the ample publicity budget has clearly drawn in the visitors and the busloads of bros. I’m equally happy not giving it my custom.

          Reply
          1. indie March 29, 2014

            I’m more than happy you aren’t there. More room for people who enjoy the best beer in town. And, no, counters count, they don’t bounce, at least generally. You may have been a proper exception.

            Reply
          2. luther blissett March 29, 2014

            Touchy, aren’t you?

            If the only thing the “counters” are there for is counting, why are they all short wide men hired from Steroids ‘R’ Us?

            And best beer in town? Hmm. I suppose if you’re the kind of person who seeks out double-imperial barrel-aged sour snozzberry ale and treats wild inconsistency as a mark of artisanship, you might think that.

            Reply
          3. The Blunder Years March 30, 2014

            “I suppose if you’re the kind of person who seeks out double-imperial barrel-aged sour snozzberry ale and treats wild inconsistency as a mark of artisanship, you might think that.”

            Hah, that’s funny. But also kinda true. Somewhere lost in all the hype surrounding some of these newer breweries is the idea of consistency, and you’re right, if you make a bazillion beers that are hardly ever repeated it’s easy to be perceived as “pushing the boundaries.” Personally, I enjoy some of the older brewers like Highland, French Broad, Green Man and some of the larger breweries that are coming into town like Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada for being dependently consistent.

            And though I’ve always liked Pisgah, has anyone ever had a Pisgah Pale that was the same as the last one they had? Gotta be the most inconsistent beer in town…

            Reply
  7. Doug S. March 28, 2014

    Sounds cool.

    Reply
  8. Taking Shape March 28, 2014

    An arrogant move from arrogant owners.

    Reply
    1. Mike March 28, 2014

      I wouldn’t say arrogant, considering the lines out the door every weekend.

      But, maybe too fast. I’ve seen many business’ think expansion is the key, when it becomes the key to their downfall.
      They should keep to their core, keep it strong, give it some time. I could be wrong, but I envision the owners in a meeting 3 years from now saying ‘yeah, we shouldn’t of opened that sour tasting space’

      They should focus on increasing production: bottling/canning/kegging – have a production facility. – get taps around the state, think about going to TN, etc.

      If this place is just the ‘facade’ in the front, where the real purpose (more production) is in the back – then ok

      Reply
    2. Nate March 28, 2014

      It’s a larger storage/aging space that’s significantly closer to their primary location, which saves them money on inventory management and transportation. It’s in an area that already has several brewery spaces, bars and tasting rooms (with more to come!), so it’s not like they’re barging their way in to a spot that Twin Leaf had to itself in the first place.

      Are you bitter ex-employee or a bitter competitor (or competitor employee)?

      Reply
      1. Taking Shape March 28, 2014

        I have no issue with the offices or storage space, but I think opening a bar within 500 yards of your very successful gastropub (and in an area where other business are just finding their footing) is arrogant…just my opinion.

        Reply
        1. Fark March 28, 2014

          Not arrogant at all. If anything this will help the gastropub even more by bringing in more people. Clustering as they (who are they anyways) call it; the more breweries/ gastropubs in a general area, the more it will become a destination spot and draw even more customers to the general area. I would expect that said gastropub will fare even better with it there.

          Reply
        2. Nate March 28, 2014

          It’s not a bar, it’s a tasting room. That means it probably won’t be open past 8 or 10 at night, even on the weekends, and it probably won’t offer anything *other* than Wicked Weed sour beers.

          Reply
  9. PBnJ March 28, 2014

    damn.

    Reply

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