Twin Leaf Brewery

With one Asheville brewery under our belt, we turned our eyes to one other. From my research I knew there were several in the immediate vicinity. After realizing a few had recently closed for the evening, we settled on a taproom a couple of blocks north of Burial Beer. With a decision made we entered the quiet taproom of Twin Leaf Brewery.

Only a single couple was seated at the bar when we arrived. While looking over their tap list I was struck with the smell of freshly cut wood, and I would spend the remainder of our visit trying to locate the source. If I had to guess, they had just made some tweaks to their bar area. With beers in tow we took a seat at one of their long, roughly hewn, community tables. With a good volume level for the music and only a smatter of people during our visit, it was perfect for holding a discussion and catching up with old friends.

One of my favorite features of Twin Leaf was their wall of original small frame windows flanking their fermenters and tanks. With the last remnants of dusk streaming through the windows combined with the natural stain wood ceiling and steel beams, it created a feel to their taproom that harkened back to a bygone era. Each color in the taproom was a muted earth tone: grays, browns, and greens. It painted a hazy feel to our evening which is a little hard putting into words.

I ordered a flight of five beers: Magic Hour Gose, Dry Hopped Strawberry Leaf, Double Helix, Old Gaffer, and Simple Machine. These ran the gamut from Gose, to Farmhouse, to English Style Old Ale, which stays true to their claim of focusing on Belgian, American, and English style beers. There were none that were too out there, and each hit their style notes quite well.

Out of the five I notched two in my notes as my favorites. The Magic Hour Gose was sweet and tart, with a bit of a salty, malty flavor. It bares mentioning that it paired fantastically well with Peanut M&M’s. If you happen to be in the taproom with the opportunity to give that pairing a shot I would highly recommend it! The other beer I noted was their Double Helix Blonde Ale. This was as Belgian style blonde which is typically a little outside of my usual favorites. I’ll chalk it up to the faint Belgian sweetness counteracted by a bit of fruitiness from the hops. It was smooth, sweet, and well balanced.

I would return to Twin Leaf if we made it back to Asheville if only to try to capture the nostalgia that I felt that night. It got busier as the night went on, mostly attributed to the fact that it was one of the only breweries open late that night. Their beers were well brewed and with styles all over the board it shows that their capable of putting out some inventive beers that don’t push the envelope into novelty territory. As the last drop of beer hit my lips I was saddened that our time in Asheville would be so short lived. If the other breweries in the area are anything like Burial Beer and Twin Leaf then it’s a spot to put on every craft beer bucket list.