Highland Brewing Co

NOW AND THEN 

Highland Brewing Company is the largest independent, family-owned brewery native to the Southeast. With a portfolio of beers that honor tradition and blaze new trails, we are proud to be Asheville’s pioneer in craft and a leader in southern beer. Highland was founded in 1994 by retired engineer, Oscar Wong. We were the first legal brewery in Asheville since prohibition. Our brewing operations began downtown in a rented basement space under Barley’s Taproom. Built almost entirely of retrofitted dairy equipment, our original brewery produced 6,500 barrels of beer per year in a 12,000-square-foot basement.  We brewed in that basement for 13 years as beers like Gaelic Ale, Black Mocha Stout, and Oatmeal Porter grew into some of the region’s favorite brews. In 2006, Highland moved from the downtown basement to the former home of Blue Ridge Motion Picture Studios in East Asheville. When the movie studio folded, Highland was able to purchase the entire 40-acre property. Our production facility houses a 50-bbl brewhouse where we have the capacity to brew more than 60,000 barrels annually. Since then, the brewery has continued to grow and expand into the 180,000-sq-ft building, adding the Taproom, Meadow, packaging hall, Event Center, and Rooftop Bar.