Tag Archives: craft beer

Catawba Brewing hosts another wildly popular 90 minute Beer and Chocolate Pairing on the South Slope during Asheville Beer Week at 7:00 PM on the evening of Wednesday, June first.

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Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza, the fast-casual artisanal pizza concept known for its chef-driven menu and casually hip restaurants, announced today that it will open its first Asheville location on Thursday, April 21. To celebrate the grand opening, the restaurant will offer FREE build-your-own artisanal pizzas on Friday, April 22 from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to anyone who follows Blaze Pizza on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. The highly anticipated restaurant, which features a 2,500-square-foot interior plus outdoor patio, is located in Gerber Village in south Asheville (1840 Hendersonville Road), off of Interstate 26. This will be the fourth Blaze Pizza location in North Carolina.

Blaze Pizza is a modern day “pizza joint” serving up artisanal pizzas that are both fast and affordable. Since its first restaurant debuted in 2012, Blaze has become known for custom-built pizzas, freshly made salads, blood orange lemonade and s’mores pies. Each restaurant features an interactive open-kitchen format that allows guests to customize one of the menu’s signature pizzas or create their own, choosing from a wide selection of fresh, artisanal ingredients – all for about $8. The generously sized personal pizzas are then sent to a blazing hot open-flame oven – the centerpiece of the restaurant – where dedicated pizzasmiths ensure that the thin-crust pies are “fast-fire’d” and ready to eat in just 180 seconds. Restaurants make their own dough from scratch daily using a recipe developed by critically acclaimed Executive Chef Bradford Kent (a.k.a. the “Pizza Whisperer”). For pizza fans with special dietary needs, Blaze Pizza offers gluten-free dough and vegan cheese. The Asheville restaurant will soon feature craft beers from popular Asheville breweries as well as a selection of wine.

“Our mission at Blaze is really simple – we’re taking pizza back to its roots,” said Jim Mizes, President & COO of Blaze Pizza. “By making dough in-house, carefully sourcing ingredients and cooking by fire, we’re giving guests a great way to enjoy artisanal pizza without the wait. It’s changing the way people think about and eat pizza.”  

Blaze’s attention to detail extends well beyond the food, with a carefully considered, modern approach to restaurant design. Driven by its commitment to “Intelligent Choices for Our Pizzas, People & Planet,” the restaurant is constructed with recycled and sustainable materials, uses eco-friendly packaging and features energy-efficient LED lighting. Additionally, many of the restaurant’s unconventional design elements were inspired by the company’s celebration of individual expression, including an oversized wall graphic, which was custom-built to suit the Asheville space.

Blaze Pizza is looking forward to continuing to build strong roots within the Asheville community. To that end, the company has developed a turn-key, in-restaurant fundraiser program that returns 20% of an event’s proceeds back to local organizations and will be partnering with local schools, sports clubs and other organizations to host fundraising events at the new restaurant.

About Blaze Pizza
The first Blaze Pizza® restaurant opened on Aug. 6, 2012, in Irvine, Calif., and quickly gained attention for its chef-driven recipes, thoughtful interior design, and a service culture that celebrates individuality. Now ranked as the overall #2 fast-casual brand in FastCasual.com’s annual Top 100 list, Blaze Pizza is building momentum and developing a cult-like following as it expands across the country. The company currently operates 124 restaurants in 28 states and Canada, including the major metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C. Founded by Elise and Rick Wetzel (co-founder of Wetzel’s Pretzels), the concept is backed by investors including LeBron James, Maria Shriver, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Boston Red Sox co-owner Tom Werner and movie producer John Davis. For more information, please visit blazepizza.com and facebook.com/blazepizza or click here to view a company video.

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Last week, Highland Brewing Company released Highland Pilsner, its second new year-round beer of 2016. Highland Pilsner is available now on draft at select retail locations throughout its nine-state footprint and will debut in six-pack cans in mid-May.

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New Belgium Brewing’s flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale is flowing from their Asheville brewery and heading toward draft lines and cold boxes across the eastern United States. With production ramping up over the next few years, the 500,000 barrel capacity, 127,000 square-foot brewery gives the country’s fourth-largest craft brewer 1.5 million barrels of total capacity.

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With the changing of the seasons comes two new seasonal releases in Hi-Wire Brewing’s lineup. Aerialist Hoppy Lager is being released for the first time on 4/1/16 as Hi-Wire’s Summer Lager Seasonal, and warm weather favorite Uprisin’ Hefeweizen returns as their Summer Ale Seasonal on 4/8/16. 

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Wicked Weed Brewing, now in their fourth year, is launching their forth expansion, a barrel house and brewery dedicated to the production of sour ales, brettanomyces farmhouse ales, and spontaneous ales located in South Asheville, North
Carolina. The temperature controlled 57,000 square foot facility on 17 acres, will house a custom 30 barrel brew house specific to brewing sour and wild beers, as well as a robust barrel program that will include wine barrels, spirit barrels, puncheons, 90 hectoliter (2,500 gallon) oak foeders and several custom designed horizontal fermenters.

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Last year Wicked Weed introduced Asheville citizens to their 40,000 square foot brewing facility in Candler, North Carolina. This new production facility was a vertical move to increase their distribution in Asheville, to support their large offering of beers. Wicked Weed proudly offers a minimum of 25 beers available at all times, taking an "ADD approach to brewing," chuckles Walt Dickinson. 

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Green Man Brewery, which has been a staple in the Asheville craft beer scene since its conception in 1997, finally has a canned offering available.  Wayfarer IPA is one of Green Man’s most popular rotating offerings that has been offered in 12 oz. bottles in the past.  This Citra-forward IPA will now be available in 12 oz. can 6-packs.

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Beer City Festival returns to Roger McGuire Green in downtown Asheville, NC for its seventh annual event on Saturday, May 28th, 2016. The full-day event features beer tastings from members of Western North Carolina’s prestigious Asheville Brewers Alliance (ABA) plus music from regional bands (TBA). Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 25th at noon ET.

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Going to a brewery in downtown Asheville on a weekend can be a little bit hectic sometimes.  Thankfully, the local craft beer scene has been expanding into the outlying towns.  In just a few weeks we’ll be able to sample craft beer made in Fletcher, about 15 minutes south of Asheville.

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