So, North Carolina Beer Month is underway, and that begs the question: what does that mean? Living in such a tight knit beer community as Asheville, we are surrounded by special beer events, beer dinners, release parties and more on a regular basis. What NC Beer Month does is help get the rest of the state as excited as we are, and also to bring more public attention to the industry. On top of that, there are a bunch of special beer events, beer dinners, release parties and more. Here are few events for this week that I thought looked cool.
Kinston’s 1st Annual Beer Weekend
April 2, 2014 – April 5, 2014
It’s a bit of a drive, but Kinston is holding nearly a full of week of events, including a kayak and canoeing “Brews Cruise” down the Neuse River, a farm to table beer dinner, an exhibit on drinking during the Civil War and more. Not your typical beer festival. More at: visitkinston.com
Biltmore Village: Beer, Bites & Bands
April 4, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
April 5, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Catawba Brewing has teamed up with Biltmore Village Restaurants and local bands for two evenings of activity. Sample awesome food, enjoy Catawba beer, and listen to some great music. Separate tickets are required for each night and are available at www.eventbrite.com.
Hop’n Blueberry Farm Tours
April 5, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
April 12, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Hop’n Blueberry Farm was one of the first hops farms in WNC. They’re inviting folks out this weekend to learn about hops and how they’re grown. Lookout Brewing is sampling some of their beer that used these hops and then offering tours of their facility in Black Mountain. Tours will be offered every Saturday in April starting at 2 p.m. at the farm.
Hi-Wire Brewing VW Bus Night
April 6, 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm
If you survived Friday and Saturday, Sunday is an easy day of relaxing at Hi-Wire and checking out old VW buses. The owners are inviting proud VW owners to park their buses at Keller Williams and come in to drink beer and geek out about all things VeeDub.
So, that should get you started. It’s going to be a long month, and there are a million things going on. Check back next week to see my next round of picks. As always, be safe out there.
Cliff Mori is the owner and operator of BREW-ed, which offers brewery tours and a variety of beer training in Asheville. He was the first Certified Cicerone in Western North Carolina (the beer equivalent to the wine world’s sommelier), then began working for the Cicerone Certification Program by traveling around the U.S. proctoring exams. Cliff also teaches a variety of beer-related courses at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.