With 11 breweries, Asheville has a beer scene unrivaled for a city of its size (about 74,000 people). Highland Brewing started it all in December 1994, using a system of retrofitted dairy equipment to produce 6,500 barrels of beer a year (it now produces three times as much). Its in-house tasting room has been expanded to accommodate concerts on weekends.

Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain is almost as famous for its music shows as it is for its Pisgah Pale, one of Asheville’s favorite beers. If you go to Wedge Brewing Co., a brewery and tasting room in Asheville’s lively River Arts District, you’ll enjoy not only its Super Saison and Iron Rail IPA, but you’ll also watch the trains go by on the track by the river.

Craggie Brewing, one of several breweries in downtown’s brewery district, has a tasty Belgian-style double ale and an English-Style Rye Ale among its many offerings. Further down Coxe Avenue in downtown Asheville is Green Man Brewery, one of the city’s oldest. Home to the city’s soccer community, you’ll find England’s Premier League games (among others), as well as its fine ESB, IPA, porter and pale.

Many of the city’s restaurants have built themselves around Asheville’s beer scene. Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria and Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, both downtown, and Universal Joint in lively West Asheville, have extensive rows of taps that include beers from all over the region.

And if you’d like to take some of that beer home with you, you might be tempted by the local, national and international selections at popular beer emporiums Brusin’ Ales downtown and Hops & Vines in West Asheville, near the Universal Joint.