Highland Brewing Co. – Winter Beer Release!
Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you’ve had a great weekend! For this special edition of Foodie Adventures, we’re taking you behind-the-scenes of the Cold Mountain Winter Beer Release event from Highland Brewing Co. in Asheville, NC last weekend! ❄🍻
We were super busy with traveling adventures this weekend, and have lots more fun in store for you all, as we have two blogs planned based on those coming up soon! One, for our Saturday trip to Boone and Blowing Rock, and one specifically for Asheville (will be a sister to our what to do in Greenville for 24 hours blog).
We’ll skip past Saturday for now and head straight to the fun part, the beer release! We wanted to stop to see a brewery in Asheville before exploring downtown, and Jamie suggested Highland Brewing Co., since we had both drank their beer before and it seemed to have a little something for everyone.
As we drove up, we saw a massive line, tents outside, etc., and were informed that we serendipitously happened to visit on their BIGGEST release date all year for their winter ale series. We were in for an afternoon filled with food trucks, live music, and of course, more beer! 😁🍺
Each section of the campus was broken up into what you could do or where certain beers could be served as you explored the area.
We started in the middle, at the taproom, to get the lay of the land and decide where we wanted to explore next.
The Event Center Ski Lodge was our next stop, as their flights sounded awesome and we loved the idea of drinking out on the rooftop bar, the view of the mountains surrounding us.
Their Cold Mountain flight options were listed here: The Cold Mountain, Imperial Cold Mountain (w/ chocolate 🍫), Coconut Cold Mountain, & the Barrel Aged Imperial Mountain.
The four above were the newest main ones they were debuting, however, they also had three or four of their older Colder Mountain beers from years prior on tap, in case you wanted to compare and contrast.
Out of the four new beers we tried, the first and third were the lightest, with holiday spice notes and the coconut lending a nice touch to the number three beer on the list. The second and fourth were a lot darker and richer, with big molasses notes on the #4 beer. I think the Coconut was Madison and my favorite, while Jamie enjoyed the #2 Imperial the best.
From here, we decided to explore the rooftop area, which also had another bar, and a spectacular view of the mountains from all sides.
We took a break next to listen to some live music in The Meadow, and checked out the food trucks as we walked by! Tin Can Pizzeria and Cecilia’s Kitchen were both there, the latter I’ve featured on the Instagram before as they frequently stop near UNC Asheville’s campus.
Cecilias Kitchen Food Truck 
Tin Can Pizzeria Food Truck 
Us heading to The Meadow for some live music (and more beer). 
There was a great cover band playing here too! 
Spaces for friends and family to gather, spaced apart. 
More beer with live music! 
More beer with live music! 
More beer with live music! 
More beer with live music!
We couldn’t leave without hitting up the Taproom to grab some merch! Jamie grabbed a new sticker for our cooler, which is now becoming a road map to all the craft breweries we’ve checked out together, and Madison got a cute hat with that awesome wolf logo.
And the celebrations don’t stop, they have awesome events going on all week for both adults and kids! The festivities include live music and DJs of all kinds, cookie pairings, a beer dinner, and much more! Check out all the remaining events here and make sure to show them some love. 💜🙌https://highlandbrewing.com/cold-mountain
So how was your weekend, Foodie Friends? Are you going to go check out the newest beer release when it hits stores, or stop by the brewery this week yourself? Sound out in the comments below to let us know your suggestions of what dishes to make or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗
