Brewery recommendations for Asheville and San Diego?

I’ll be spending about a week in Asheville and about 4 days in San Diego in April. I have a few breweries on my list to visit already, but I’m keen to see if anyone has any particular recommendations.
I’ll have access to a car in Asheville, but probably not in San Diego.
Any suggestions?

In Asheville - Burial and Zillicoah are my favorites. Fonta Flora is up there as well but not in Asheville.

There’s a lot of great breweries in SD but not having a car might limit you.

Modern Times should be a must.

Thanks! I’ll be in walking distance of Burial. Zillcoah is now on the list and I might have missed that completely. I’ll keep Fonta Flora in mind too, if we feel like a bit of a drive

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A friend of mine visited the LA outpost of Modern Times a few weeks ago and gave it a thumbs up so it is nice to have that one seconded.

Wicked Weed and Green Man are decent visits with easy access on the main strip in Asheville.

I like Stone but I’m not sure if they have an outpost that’s not in Escondido.

For San Diego–Modern Times and Societe are the big two that I would highly recommend. Societe is pretty far from downtown however. Modern Times main brewery on Greenwood and Stone’s Liberty Station location would be the two spots I would hit if you are just gonna be near the airport / downtown. If you can venture a bit I would recommend a trip to the Miramar area and hit Societe, AleSmith, and Mikkeller.

Hi Wire is the best of the Asheville Breweries IMHO. Wicked Weed is now shunned by the locals as they are a ‘sell-out’.

Just a heads up, they pronounce Societe like Society, so don’t try to French the name.

Asheville:
Wicked Weed - my favorite by a wide margin, but if you cannot get over the fact that InBev bought them, then you can choose to avoid them.
Hi Wire - top notch
Green Man - top notch
Zillicoah Beer Company - very good beers, beautiful location along the French Broad River, super short car ride or Uber…perfect on a nice day.
Sierra Nevada is of course a big name brewery, but their facility is beautiful with great tours, outdoor areas, and wonderful food.

Dozens more, Asheville is loaded with good breweries.

Asheville:
Wicked Weed/Funkatorium (even though they sold out)
High Wire (two locations)
Green Man (original location is more fun and cozy)
Burial
Brewery Bhramari
Highlands
French Broad
Wedge

The Large Guys:
Sierra Nevada
New Belgium
Oscar Blues

Thank’s all,
That gives me plenty to check out.

Conveniently, I’m staying withing walking distance of the main cluster of breweries in Asheville, many of which have been mentioned above, and in San Diego I’ll be not to far From Modern Times and Stone Liberty station so that all works out well.

Mike Hess Brewing gets thumbs up from my daughter who owns two craft beer bars.

Twin Leaf is one of my favorites. Wedge has good stuff too, and at the Wedge Foundey location there is a 12 Bones BBQ right next door. If you go south on I26, stop by Blue Ghost.

I’ll be in Encinitas for a few days later this month. Looks like Modern Times has a pub there so I assume I’ll frequent that a bit. Anything else up north that should be on my radar, or will I have to venture south and/or east for other offerings? I have a friend in La Jolla so will probably venture down that way for at least one day.

Thanks!

San Diego - 1 hr drive out. Lost abbey. For barrel aged stuff

Lost Abbey has a tasting room in Cardiff which is next town south of Encinitas. I like Burgeon in Carlsbad. Pizza Port has a location in Solana Beach and Bressi Ranch (Carlsbad) which is less than 5 min from Burgeon. There’s also Draft Republic and Barrel Republic in Carlsbad that have decent appetizers and usually some interesting pours. Other option is Crack Shack in Encinitas has usually has a decent tap list and a good happy hour. Culture setup a tasting room in Encinitas, but most of their beers have been misses for me.

Thanks Chris, this is exactly what I was looking for! Sounds like plenty to work with here.

I thought I’d report back now that I am back home.
I made it to quite a lot of places mentioned. Zillicoah was a great recommendation and one of my favorites for the trip.
A couple of others I thought were pretty interesting were Zebulon in Weaverville (who are looking back into more historical styles), Innovation in Sylva, and Cursus Keme (one to watch I think - New enough to still be brewing on a pilot system and in the process of hooking up their bigger equipment but some really nice beers, a good tap room and it will be interesting to see what they do with the 4 foeders they have once they get going)
The others I made it to were Wicked weed, Sierra Nevada, Blue Ghost, Whistle Hop, Twin Leaf, Hi-Wire, Catawba, One World, Burial, Eurisko, White labs, Wedge, Archetype, Hillman French Broad. A lot of very enjoyable beer among that lot.

In San Diego I didn’t get out of town too far but my favorites were probably Modern Times, Kilowatt and Pariah.
Others I got to were Pizza Port, Ocean Beach, Helm’s, Culture, Belching Beaver, Mikkeller, Knotty, Duck Foot, Resident, Mike Hess, Eppig, Fall, Deft, Ballast Point, and Stone Liberty Gardens