Never really being one to post things in a timely fashion here are the pictures from our beer tour in Asheville, NC where we celebrated Will’s 40th birthday just over a week ago. In an afternoon that quickly became evening we visited Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company, Craggie Brewing Company, Jack of the Wood/Green Man Brewery, French Broad Brewing Company, The Lobster Trap, Lexington Avenue Brewery and managed to squeeze in Tupelo Honey the next day. We tried a lot of great craft beers with my favorites being the Ninja Porter from Asheville Brewing, Green Man Cask Porter and the unique Moonstone ‘Oyster’ Stout from the Lobster Trap.
It was a great trip and I learned a couple of things that are particularly important. 1) You can get great seafood in the mountains – the Lobster Trap was excellent and if you go there take my recommendation and order the Cioppino. I was beyond surprised – maybe the best version of this dish I’ve had. 2) A walking beer tour of Asheville is possible and really a lot of fun. 3) Watch out for the barley wine. No joke that stuff is strong. 4) Turning 40 probably won’t kill me. It has been great to see a few brave friends go first and I am excited that the prospect of surviving it looks better every day as I inch closer.
Happy Birthday Will – the trip was a blast and something we should probably do again before another 40 years passes. Of course by then we’ll probably have auto-piloted flying cars to take us to all the bars so there will be less to worry about.
And yes – those are Oyster Shooters in the last few pictures. I appreciate that Greg – you’ll notice that’s where the pictures end. Not a coincidence.
