Asheville Part 3: Highland Brewery Tour

Wednesday we visited Highland Brewery. It was a great trip and we were treated well by everyone we met!

When we first arrived, they were working on a new tasting room; despite being busy with construction they were happy to give us the tour.We had a great time at Highland; they gave us samples of every beer they had and showed us how everything worked. The process really isn't that different from home-brewing, but obviously they need some different equipment on this scale.

Our guide, Grant. Grant hardly drank anything other than Gaelic Ale before starting work at Highland. He's holding cascade hops and two row barley. Highland uses pellet hops for their boil and whole cone hops for aromatics.

















L: The mill, where the barley grains are cracked.
R: The container in the center is where the cracked grains are sent to be malted. Water covers the grains and they begin to germinate. The starches in the grains are converted to sugars and the sugars are washed out by the water, which becomes "sweet liquor": basically sugar water.
The next chamber to the right of center, in the background, is where the sweet liquor is boiled with hops. At Highland they do ninety minute boils. After boiling the liquid is called "wort". For some beers, such as the St. Terese's Pale Ale, the wort is sent to the hopback chamber after the boil, which is in the right foreground, where it is exposed to whole cone hops, which give the beer more of the aromatic qualities of hops. The chamber to the far left is where the wort is cooled after boiling.






L: Fermentation tanks, where yeast is added to the cooled wort. Yeast multiply and then convert the sugars of the wort into CO2 and alcohol. They then go into a dormant phase and settle to the bottom of the vats.
R: Old dairy tanks that Highland has converted into fermentation tanks. They used these to ferment there beer when they were located in the basement of Barley's Taproom downtown, because the ceilings in the basement were to low for conventional tanks. They still use these tanks in their new facility.


L: Kegging equipment
R: "The fist of justice" boxing equipment, designed and put together by Highland employees.


We also got to try all of the beers they had on tap. I'd had the Gaelic Ale several times (if you look closely you may notice it in the blog header), but all of the other beers I tried were new to me and did not disappoint. I will especially be keeping a lookout for St. Terese's Pale Ale, what a great, aromatic, well-balanced pale ale. Not shown in pictures: Gaelic Ale, Mocha Stout, and Kashmir IPA.
R: Clawhammer Oktoberfest



L: Brandon's Kölsch
C: Cattail Peak Organic Wheat
R: St. Terese's Pale Ale

I also got to meet and chat with Highland's founder, Oscar Wong. He was very friendly and even offered my new wife and I some advice: "marry for love, stay for life, but not for lunch."

Thanks to everyone at Highland Brewery! We had a great time and enjoyed your beer very much!