If you love Western North Carolina beer (or just want to understand why Asheville is basically the Napa Valley of craft brewing), Anne Fitten Glenn’s Western North Carolina Beer: A Mountain Brew History is an absolute must-read. This isn’t some dry textbook—it’s a love letter to the mountains told through hops, barley, and the stubborn dreamers who turned moonshine country into one of America’s greatest beer regions.
Glenn, a longtime Asheville beer writer, weaves together decades of stories with the perfect mix of nerdy detail and barstool charm. You’ll meet the pioneers who opened Highland, Pisgah, and French Broad in the ’90s when “craft beer” still sounded crazy to most locals, follow the explosive growth that put Asheville on the map with 50+ breweries, and discover hidden gems like the original homebrew shops and backwoods brewpubs that laid the foundation.
The book is packed with vintage photos, old tap handles, and quotes from the brewers themselves, making it feel like you’re sitting at the bar with Oscar Wong or John Garcia swapping tales over a cold Gaelic Ale. Whether you’re hunting for the origin story of Wicked Weed’s rise (and sale), the real reason Asheville has more breweries per capita than anywhere else in the U.S., or just a killer weekend beer-cation roadmap, this book has it all. It’s informative without ever being stuffy, and by the last page you’ll be ready to load up the car and hit the Blue Ridge Beerway. Bottom line: if you drink beer in WNC, you need this book on your shelf right next to your favorite pint glass. Five stars, zero hesitation. Cheers to Anne for capturing the soul of mountain brewing!
About the Author: Anne Fitten Glenn
Anne Fitten Glenn—affectionately known as AF to her friends and “Brewgasm” to her cheeky social media alter ego—is the undisputed beer historian of Western North Carolina, turning sudsy tales into bestselling page-turners that make you crave a flight of hazy IPAs mid-read. A longtime Asheville resident since 1997, Glenn’s hoppy journey kicked off in the early ’90s when she worked for George Stranahan, the eccentric founder of Flying Dog Brewery in Colorado, where her most memorable pint involved sharing a brew with the legendary Hunter S. Thompson. After raising a couple of kids, teaching college, and dipping into nonprofit work, she dove headfirst into beer writing around 2005, freelancing for local papers like the Asheville Citizen-Times and Mountain Xpress, where her “Brews News” column became a must-read for tracking the Blue Ridge’s brewing boom.
An award-winning journalist and North American Guild of Beer Writers member, Glenn’s bylines span heavy hitters like SevenFifty Daily, Vanity Fair, All About Beer, Edible Asheville, and CraftBeer.com, blending sharp business insights with folksy folklore. She’s authored two definitive tomes on mountain malt: Asheville Beer: An Intoxicating History of Mountain Brewing (2012), which chronicles the city’s suds-soaked saloons to its Beer City USA glory, and Western North Carolina Beer: A Mountain Brew History (2017), profiling 74 breweries across 18 counties and unpacking how moonshine roots evolved into a tourism-fueled empire. Beyond books, she’s hosted the beverage biz podcast Imbibe Asheville, taught “Beer 101” classes for thirsty servers and civilians, and served as Oskar Blues Brewery’s “Beer Communicatrix” (yes, that’s a real title). A founding force behind Asheville Beer Week and a board vet for the Asheville Brewers Alliance, Glenn’s also lent her expertise to the North Carolina Brewers Cup and Pink Boots Society, championing women in brewing. When she’s not judging flights at festivals or pedaling bikes through hop fields, she’s dishing on beer history with the wit of a barstool philosopher. If Asheville’s the Napa of craft beer, Glenn’s the sommelier pouring its soul—one pint at a time. Sláinte to a true mountain brew maven!
Buy it now on Amazon, Arcadia Publishing