ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville is a huge tourism driver for the state.

In an average year, 10 million people visit the area for the beautiful views, fresh air, and outdoor activities. But more and more, two things are topping the must-try list — food and beverage, specifically craft beer.

Explore Asheville says the brewery scene, combined with the culinary culture, makes the city a unique destination and is among the top five reasons people visit.

The city has more breweries per capita than any other city in the country. But the beer scene really only took off in the last decade.

So who led the way for the city to be named "Beer City USA" for many years?

"Gaelic Ale is Asheville’s first craft beer," says Leah Wong Ashburn, CEO of Highland Brewing Company.

She's a second-generation owner of the brewery.

In 1994, her father, Oscar Wong — a Chinese Jamaican — took a risk and opened the city’s first brewery. Prior to this, he was just a home brewer who had moved to Asheville to retire.

And now, he's referred to as the "Godfather" of "Beer City USA."

"I do remember one of his best friends told him he was going to go broke trying to sell this crap," laughs Ashburn. Call it luck, but that didn't happen.

Even though the idea wasn’t immediately accepted by the community.

It was only a few decades ago, the state actually outlawed breweries. Before 1985, it was illegal for a brewery to sell beer directly to a customer. There are still several dry counties in western North Carolina.

"So, there were people that were suspicious of what it was gonna be, like to have a brewery as a neighbor," Ashburn says. "And, you know, we're still in the Bible Belt, and that was not welcomed by everybody.”

Ashburn says even with that hesitation, it didn’t take long for the city to embrace Highland, especially with her father’s way of connecting to people and conducting business. In 2020, he received the Brewers Association Recognition Award for his outstanding contributions to the industry.

"I think my dad won't admit this, but I think he saw some of the characteristics in Asheville that were in the leading beer cities out West, like Portland, Boulder," Ashburn says.

Ashburn didn’t come on board until about 10 years ago.

"Well, the funny story is I asked for a job at Highland when I was in my mid 20s, and dad turned me down flat," she laughs. Then, some years later her dad approached her to come work with him, but she was successful in her own career and didn't want to leave it.

Finally, they came to an agreement and she became CEO and president in 2015. Since then, the view has changed with her leadership. Highland underwent a rebranding and revitalization that led to it being named the "South’s Best Brewery" by Southern Living in 2018. It’s the fifth-largest, female-led craft brewery in the country.

"I'm just proud we have a role in in it," she says of the city's beer scene now.

Since their start, beer pioneers like California’s Sierra Nevada and Colorado’s New Belgium both now have breweries in Asheville.

Explore Asheville says the city has around 50 breweries now.

"We always thought we would be part of a community, but we had no idea that community would be so large, we had no idea that community would include some of the largest craft breweries in the country," Ashburn says. "So now we have neighbors of all sizes but what that did is, it collected all of our impact and now beer tourism is the fifth largest reason that people come to Asheville.”

The brewery has a taproom, meadow, packaging hall, event center, rooftop bar, sand volleyball court, and trails all around it. It distributes beer solely to the Southeast region — North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.

This year, Highland is celebrating 27 years of business by opening its second taproom in the S&W Market.

For more information, visit www.highlandbrewing.com.