Leap Frog Tours // Beer Tour 2018

This past Saturday, I had the pure pleasure to be accompanied by both some new and old friends and on a beer tour of three local breweries. Thanks to Leap Frog Tours and Kim Turpin for hooking us up with an awesome tour and tour guide, Chuck!

We were picked up by the Leap Frog Tours van where our tour guide, Chuck, hauled us along to three different breweries in the Asheville area. We began at Hillman Beer, a local craft brewery just outside of Biltmore Village that offered a fun, youthful environment. I tried a refreshing watermelon gose among a few other beers that got me off on a good mood for the rest of the trip.

Our second stop was at Ginger's Revenge Tasting Room on the way to Weaverville, NC. This unique brewery brews solely alcoholic ginger beer — it's fermented like regular beer but it's not made with any wheat (so it's actually gluten free!). They had many amazing flavors of beer that honestly tasted more like sodas than any adult drink that I've ever had. I tried their limited edition Arnold Palmer ginger beer and, uh, bought an entire growler of it.

We finished our tour at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., which needs no introduction. The brewery itself was described by someone on the tour as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, but for beer — and I can't help but agree. It was huge and shiny, complete with a breathtakingly beautiful outdoor space and garden.

Though the tour was incredible, Chuck made it all the better. You could tell that he really loves his job and is incredibly passionate about the process of brewing. Without Chuck, we wouldn't have ordered the duck-fat fries or seen the glowing hops on the lights along the driveway of Sierra Nevada. He added to the atmosphere of the tour, so I've included him in this blog — and in these pictures.

To view all the photos from the beer tour, view the Flickr album here.

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(c) 2018 Mia Renée Photography