USA, NC: Outsider Brewing Co. to become Woodfin’s newest brewery

Roughly halfway between Zillicoah Beer Co. and Riverside Rhapsody Beer Co. sits Woodfin’s newest brewery, Outsider Brewing Co., 939 Riverside Drive, the Mountain Express reported on June 22.

Co-founders Kaeleigh McCauley and Julian Arena are aiming for a July opening. No strangers to the beer industry, the pair met in 2018 in Charlotte while McCauley was working as a sales representative for Birdsong Brewing and Arena was the head brewer for D9 Brewing Co.

True to its name, Outsider will offer patrons an experience unlike anything the local craft beverage industry has seen. Similar to a working art studio where patrons can see glass blown or pottery thrown, people who come to the Woodfin brewery will be able to watch Arena brew in transparent vessels, removing the barriers inherent with stainless steel tanks.

“There’s definitely a need in the area for people to engage with the brewing process a little bit more,” says Arena, who’s been homebrewing since high school. “In lieu of having a giant production facility, we kind of switched gears and now we have the smallest production facility you can imagine but also the most up-close-and personal-experience you can have.”

The co-founders were inspired to start Outsider after McCauley’s experiences selling beer during the COVID-19 pandemic and a shared desire to provide more in the craft brewing experience than the beverage itself.

“The whole point of it being glass is to see the ingredients that are going into the beer so you can understand a little more the differentiating factors between [styles],” McCauley says. “People love craft beer and drink it because they have some sort of connection with it. This is just providing a different connection with ingredients and showcasing the process.”

Wanting to be part of Asheville’s craft beverage industry, the pair left Charlotte in late 2020 and, after months of searching for an affordable spot that fit their goals, found the vacant space on Riverside Drive and got to work. While Arena admits that he and McCauley were naïve about how long it would take to get Outsider up and running, the prospect of setting up their first brewery in Asheville’s city limits — their original goal — now seems even more daunting.

“That would have been really, really difficult for us,” he says. “It’s been a really good ‘training wheels’ experience for us because Woodfin has been awesome — they’ve been really supportive and cooperative. We had one hearing to get our zoning change, and it was a piece of cake.”

The intimate taproom will fit roughly 30 people and will soon add outdoor seating in the courtyard behind the brewery. Arena plans to brew a wide variety of styles and prioritize local, seasonal ingredients, and both he and McCauley would love to eventually incorporate wild ales. Outsider intends to start with 12 taps, eight-10 of which will be house beers, with the others occupied by guest brews, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. The co-founders also hope to bottle in the future and generally play their part in an up-and-coming part of town.

“I definitely am excited to see how Woodfin grows because it is growing a lot, even in the short amount of time that we’ve been here,” McCauley says. “There’s the Silver-Line Park down the road, and they’re working on a greenway extension, so that’s exciting. It’s a cool spot to be in where it’s being developed and it’s not fully there yet, but we get to experience a lot of that growth.”

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .