Are searing summer temperatures getting you down?
We have the solution: hop in your car and seek out some of the area’s best regional craft breweries. Sure, you can find plenty of craft beer in Greenville, but summer’s the time to take to the road—and the journey’s half the fun.
We’ve rounded up a selection of spots within easy driving distance, where you can raise a glass of ice-cold beer to the thrill of discovery.
Local Breweries Guide
RJ Rockers
Free beer for life—now there’s a good reason to start your own brewery. Especially if, like RJ Rockers’ founder Mark Johnsen, you became enamored with German beer during a military tour of duty overseas. When the New Jersey native came back to the states in 1997, the craft beer industry was just heating up. He landed in Spartanburg and opened RJ Rockers downtown in April 1997, in what he describes as a “home-brewing experiment gone out of control.”
Out of the twenty-five different types of beer that RJ Rockers produces, their signature—and most popular—beer is Son of a Peach. Every batch of this light wheat beer is distilled with a purée made from 150 pounds of South Carolina peaches. Though it started out as a summer brew, Son of a Peach is now made year-round. “It accounts for sixty-five percent of our total sales,” reports Johnsen, who plans to introduce Son of a Strawberry this summer.
226-A W Main St, Spartanburg. (864) 804-8047, rjrockers.com
Did You Know?
Solar panels on the brewery’s roof provide the power to heat sixty percent of the water that RJ Rockers uses in their production process.
Sierra Nevada
Located twenty miles south of Asheville (take the airport exit off I-26), Sierra Nevada is renowned for its hoppy brews. Founder and home brewer Ken Grossman was a pioneer in craft beer when he started experimenting in his hand-built brewhouse in California in 1980. His first successful brew, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale—still the brewery’s most popular—uses Cascade hops to produce its signature notes of pine and citrus.
Ken founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, in 1978. The business boomed, and in 2015, he launched a satellite in Mills River, North Carolina. Run by Ken’s son, Brian, Sierra Nevada merits a day trip. Take a tour (options range from a thirty-minute educational tasting to a ninety-minute deep dive into the company’s history, brewing process, and commitment to sustainability), treat yourself to a meal in the Taproom, and relax with a beer on The Back Porch.
100 Sierra Nevada Way, Mills River, NC. (828) 708-6176, sierranevada.com/visit/north-carolina
Don’t Miss the Food
Produce from the brewery’s organic garden and ingredients sourced from local farmers and ranchers make the seasonal menu at the Taproom a must-try. You can’t go wrong, whether you
order a wood-fired pizza or a hearty plate of malt-braised short ribs with Ashe County gouda grits. Open Thurs–Mon.
Highland Brewing Co.
The first brewery in Asheville since Prohibition, Highland was established by retired engineer Oscar Wong in 1994. Inspired by the area’s Scots-Irish heritage, Wong’s first brew was Gaelic
Ale, an American amber ale brewed in the British tradition. “Since then, we’ve taken that pioneering status and developed a portfolio that’s more representative of our love for WNC, and
of the flavors and ideas we find inspiring here,” says Eeva Redmond, Highland’s communication manager. Among the eight beers in their year-round portfolio are favorites AVL IPA, made in the West Coast style, and Daycation IPA, a hoppy, floral session with an appealing malt balance.
Today, the brewery—the largest independent, family-owned and operated brewery native to the Southeast—is led by Oscar’s daughter, Leah Ashburn. “Highland is special because it has always been a leader,” she says. “As Asheville’s original brewery, we were founded by an immigrant and are now woman-led in our second generation of family ownership.”
12 Old Charlotte Hwy, Suite 200, Asheville, NC. Taproom downtown at 56 Patton Ave (in S&W Market). (828) 299-3370, highlandbrewing.com
Stay and Play
There’s much more to do beyond sampling beer on Highland’s forty-acre campus, including playing volleyball on three professional-grade sand courts, challenging friends to a round on the
disc golf course, and hiking the trail that winds through the wooded section of the brewery’s land. In summer, the grassy space dubbed the Meadow hosts events from goat yoga to a regular
schedule of live music.
Oklawaha Brewing Company
Joe Dinan credits his father for introducing him to craft beer and igniting a passion that led him away from finance jobs in Boston and Chicago to a gig at Thirsty Monk brewery in Asheville.
After enrolling in the Craft Beverage Program at Blue Ridge College and earning a certificate from the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, the New Englander eventually ended up in
Hendersonville, where he launched Oklawaha Brewing Company in 2015.
Located downtown, Oklawaha produces constantly changing selections in its sixteen taps, including flagship brews Hop Pig, an American IPA; Bobby Beer, a light, crisp Kolsch; and full-bodied Puma Porter. “And at ten parts per million, [our beers are] essentially gluten-free,” notes Dinan.
He’s particularly proud of the brewery’s commitment to the Hendersonville community: each month, they donate a percentage of every pint they sell to a different local charitable
organization.
147 1st Ave E, Hendersonville, NC. (828) 595-9956, oklawahabrewing.com
What’s in a Name?
Oklawaha is a Cherokee word meaning “slowly moving muddy waters,” a reference to the eponymous creek—now called Mud Creek—that forms the eastern and southern boundaries of
Hendersonville.
Golden Grove Farm & Brew
Farm-to-glass best describes the brewing operation that Andrew Brown runs on the hundred acres of land in Piedmont where he was born and raised. “My farm is in the dead center of the Upstate. We’re in the middle of nowhere, but we’re fifteen minutes from everywhere,” says Brown, noting that his rural brewery enjoys a cult following. After learning his trade working at the now-shuttered Quest brewery in Greenville, Brown devotes himself to making what he calls “good, clean, easy-drinking beer” using water from the farm’s spring-fed well and hops he grows in his fields. Flagships Cold Beer, a light, golden ale, and Government Cheese, a juicy, tropical-fruit-forward American IPA, illustrate his devotion to simplicity.
Other perks? A disc golf course and a taproom that serves pizza and wings. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, Brown takes advantage of his background in music management to stage live bands.
115 Krim Rd, Piedmont. (864) 356-1097, farmandbrew.com
Harvest Hosts
To bring more folks to his brewery, Brown participates in Harvest Hosts, a program whose members have access to an online directory of hosts across the U.S. who allow RVers to stay for a night on their land. Among the 3,000 locations are farms, vineyards, and other unique properties. “It’s like an Airbnb for campers,” Brown says.
