Asheville brewery Wicked Weed announces plans for 15% ABV beer

Wicked Weed Brewing opened in downtown Asheville in December 2012, and its owners have been riding a rocket ship of success ever since. Brothers Luke and Walt Dickinson teamed up with their lifelong friend, Ryan Guthy and his parents, Rick and Denise Guthy, to open Wicked Weed and they haven’t looked back since.

Wicked Weed’s Biltmore Avenue location is mobbed, and the brewery is working hard to open get a new sour beer tasting room open on Coxe Avenue by next month. The brewery also continues to churn out an amazing array of beers. Here’s a quick look at four other reasons why Wicked Weed remains at the top of its game on the Asheville craft beer scene:

-Across the pond: Luke and Walk recently returned from England, where they were invited to brew 1,000 cask of Wicked Weed’s Freak of Nature DIPA at Batemans Brewery. The JD Wetherspoon pub chain invited the Dickinsons.

What is the Freak of Nature? From Wicked Weed: “Coming in at 7.5% ABV, this brew utilizes open square fermenters, a traditional means of fermentation rarely utilized in the states, a process that allows for a greater expression of flavor in the yeast.” The brewery describes the Freak of Nature double IPA as its “shrine to the hop.”

-Big, big beer: Wicked Weed just announced it’s “first North Carolina ABV cap beer.” In North Carolina, beer cant’ be more than 15 percent alcohol by volume, and it is rare to find such a beer. Wicked Weed says the beer, which will be released on Halloween, will have been barrel-aged for one year. It will be available in limited amounts on draught, with most of it going into bottles, Wicked Weed reports. Also: “It is an imperial stout with Brett so drier than your average 15% imperial stout.”

-Funkatorium: Wicked Weed is working hard on getting its new sour beer tasting room open by next month. It is located on Coxe Avenue on Asheville’s South Slope, right across from Twin Leaf Brewing. The sour beer trend is hot right now, and Wicked Weed has been capitalizing on it. Can’t wait to see the new space.

-Expansion: Just a couple of weeks ago, Wicked Weed announced a major expansion. The gist:

Wicked Weed Brewing will build a 40,000 barrel a year production facility in Enka-Candler and begin packaging its beers for sale outside of the Asheville area. This is the second expansion for the brewery this year, as their “Funkatorium” barrel aging facility and tasting room on Coxe Avenue is currently under construction and should be open for business later this year.