USA, NC: Wedge Brewing to build second location in Asheville

Asheville’s Wedge Brewing will make a major expansion by adding a second brewery location in a former tannery building in Asheville's River Arts District. The new brewery will include both a seven-barrel brew house and indoor and outdoor seating and will let Wedge double its brewing production, owner Tim Schaller said. Wedge sells most of its beer at its brewery tasting room and does not distribute into South Carolina, Greenville Online reported on April 26.

The new brewery will probably carry the Wedge name but Schaller said he hasn't decided on a complete identity yet. The now empty 8,000 square foot structure is part of the Foundation property, once used for manufacturing and then for artists’ studios.

Schaller has long resisted the idea of expanding the original Wedge, a popular location in the lower back level of the Wedge gallery building facing a Norfolk Southern railroad line and the French Broad River. While Wedge draws big crowds in the spring, summer and fall, business drops off in the winter because the seating is outdoors. "I thought that if I don't do this (project) someone else will come in and do it," Schaller said. Even with a doubling of its brewing, Schaller does not plan to distribute beyond the few breweries that receive his beer.

He expects that a lot more visitors will head to the river area this summer and beyond to tour the New Belgium brewery.

The Asheville-area brewery scene continues to grow with nearly two dozen breweries in Buncombe County and about 50 in Western North Carolina.

26 April, 2016