Breweries (Asheville)

Surprisingly to most, Asheville NC boasts a high number of microbreweries per capita. Asheville seems to have more breweries per capita than Portland, Oregon (often considered the microbrewing capital of the US).

City	City Population	Urban Population	Breweries within City Limits	Residents per Brewery
Asheville NC	75,000	220,000	9	8,333
Portland	580,000	2,100,000	50	11,600

I visited a few of them and was pleasantly surprised. Of particular note were Pisgah (in Black Mountain) and French Broad. Pisgah is an all-organic microbrewery that makes a coffee infused porter (Valdez) that tastes like you're drinking a cold shot of espresso with alcohol and an in-your-face Belgian (Solstice) that has a very rich and floral finish. French Broad (named after a river that runs through the region) specializes in unique interpretations of European style beers like their Belgian Stout which is a light stout with a Belgian finish (thanks to the yeast used during fermentation). "What's up with that!?" Trust me, it's quite interesting.

I'm considering a trip down to Asheville for the Brewgrass festival in September...