Continuing the beer travelogue of my Spring Break road trip through the heart of Appalachia — eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

It was our last chance to enjoy Spring Break because the next day we would be breaking camp and driving home to Maryland. We decided to spend the day walking around lively downtown Asheville and exploring the local beer scene.

Our first stop was the friendly Asheville Visitors Center, where we chatted with a helpful volunteer and got the scoop on downtown. Asheville does a great job welcoming visitors and their Explore Asheville website is an excellent resource – I loved the list of the top 15 ways to truly experience Asheville’s craft brew scene.

I only accomplished 5 of the 15, but #4 was a slam dunk: Beer Flights—Why settle for one when you can have all the beers? Many breweries, such as Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB for short) and French Broad Brewing Company, offer beer flights so you can pinpoint your favorite.

After a morning of walking around downtown, we were ready for lunch. Lexington Avenue Brewery was conveniently located in the middle of the action.

After looking over the beer chalkboard…

I ordered the flight of the six house beers…

The IPA was my favorite! LAB is a spot I would hit again the next time I’m in downtown Asheville – relaxing atmosphere, friendly service, unique pub food, and decent line-up of house-brewed beers. Great location too!

It was great to break bread again with my sister Jen and her roommate Meghan, who joined us on our downtown Asheville exploration. After hanging out at LAB, it was time to resume our walking tour. We stumbled upon an organic farmers market with live music and draft beer. I couldn’t resist the chance to try another local brew, so I had the Equinox, a 7.5% Harvest-style Ale from Pisgah Brewing Company – one I missed when we visited a couple of days ago.

We didn’t linger because I had one more Asheville brewery on my to-do list: Wicked Weed Brewing.

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