Maker Spotlight: Hi-Wire Brewing

SW: Tell us how Hi-Wire came to be! How long have y'all been making delish brews? 

HWB: Hi-Wire Brewing first opened its doors in Asheville, NC in 2013 when a couple of college roommates, fed up with their jobs in pharmacy and commercial real estate, saw an opportunity and seized it, turning a recently closed brewery into a thriving hub of craft beer innovation.

What started as a 2,700 sq. ft. brewery in the heart of Asheville's South Slope Brewery District has grown into an award-winning, multi-location brewing powerhouse.

SW: What are your taprooms like to visit? Where can folks enjoy Hi-Wire? 

HWB: Our taprooms are vibrant, welcoming, community-focused spaces where good beer and good times abound.

With 11 locations across 5 states, each taproom offers a fun yet laid-back atmosphere whether you're playing games like soccer pool, attending one of our unique events, or just relaxing with friends.

You can also find Hi-Wire beer in grocery and retail stores throughout 9 states.

– Shanda Williams, Marketing Director

SW: We love that. So what's your favorite part(s) of the beer making process? 

HWB: My favorite part is the creative process and ingredient selection.

While there are only a handful of ingredients in beer, the possibilities are really endless. For example – you can pick one variety of hops, say Citra, and have a number of different options for the nuanced profile. While the general profile of Citra is the same, the growing region and the weather play a role in how expressive each attribute is. Some lots may be full on citrus juice, while others may contain notes of things like tropical fruit and woodiness.

The decision comes down to what you are trying to achieve in your flavor profile.

– Hank Marshall, Head Brewer

SW: Makes complete sense. Tell us what your team is like! We're sure it's changed so much with all your growth. 

HWB: Doubling our staff size every few years has certainly come with challenges, but the one thing that's remained is a laid-back culture of good people making, pouring, and otherwise, loving good beer – and good times.

- Adam Charnack, co-owner/CEO

SW: What's the biggest misconception you think people have about beer?

HWB: That everything in a specific style category tastes the same. I feel like this is getting better, but it still pops up in conversation with friends, family or with consumers.

Misconceptions like: an IPA is always going to be bitter and malty or a lager thin and flavorless. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are so many sub categories within these styles.

For IPAs, you can have session, hazy, West Coast, double, fruited, English, etc. If you don't like a West Coast IPA because of the bitterness, you may enjoy a hazy that leans into the tropical fruitiness found in some varieties of hops.

Then you take into account that every brewer has a different way of presenting something within a style framework. One person may be heavy-handed with hops on the hot side, while others lean into the dry hop. Also, yeast strains can create drastic differences in beers that are otherwise brewed identically—this is always a fun side-by-side.

There is a lot of flexibility within styles, so don't write anything off after just one!

– Hank Marshall, Head Brewer

SW: On that note, tell us about your ingredients a little, what goes into a perfect Hi-Wire brew? 

HWB: The majority of our beers start with a base malt called 2-Row. It is light in color and nuanced in flavor. 2-Row can stand alone in a light beer or be the foundation in something much larger like 10W-40.

Our 10W-40 Imperial Stout has a host of other malts ranging in color from light caramel to black. These malts impart notes of toffee, caramel, dark chocolate, cocoa, and coffee beans. We also used flaked oats to lend a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Each batch gets three pounds of whole, hand-processed, Ugandan Vanilla Beans. No vanilla flavoring here – these things pack a punch!

For Pumpkin Spicewalla Latte 10W-40, we worked closely with the team at Spicewalla and High Noon Roasters to select a coffee variety that would stand up to this big beer, yet play nicely with the flavors of the Pumpkin Spice blend.

With notes of dark chocolate, earthy spice, and a kiss of tropical fruit, it was a unanimous decision that Dark Roast Sumatra should play that role.

Pumpkin Spice Blend: the reason this all came together! The blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, mace, and clove balances the sweetness from the beer and slight acidity from the coffee.

– Hank Marshall, Head Brewer

SW: How'd you first hear about Spicewalla? 

HWB: As someone who's been coming to Asheville since 1992 and who's lived here since 2011...

Spicewalla is just a household name here. It's synonymous with flavor, spice and high-quality.

With distribution increasing across the country in major retailers, I love that more and more people are able to experience the good (spiced) life we know here in Asheville!

- Adam Charnack, co-owner/CEO


SW: So we're both really excited about our PSL 10w-40, can you tell us about how this came to be? What's the inspo? 

HWB: We had the opportunity a few years back to work with Spicewalla on a Chai 10W-40 Imperial Stout. It was phenomenal. The chai came together beautifully with the rich, decadent profile that is 10W-40. Definitely one of my favorites in the 10W-40 family, and there are a lot now!

The idea for a pumpkin spiced latte beer has been floating around Hi-Wire for a while. We have circled back on this idea many years in a row, all the while, the excitement around PSL season seems to grow.

So this year we decided on a full production batch and immediately reached out to Spicewalla. We were lucky enough to get another thumbs up. After the success with the Chai variant, it was kind of a no-brainer to use 10W-40 as a base again.

We worked with your team to dial in the flavors and how we would use the blend in our process. The end product turned out beautifully!

– Hank Marshall, Head Brewer

SW: Did anyone on the team grow up brewing beer? Where did the passion begin? 

HWB: For our team, the origin stories run the gamut.

There are folks that have been brewing and fermenting just about anything they could get their hands on since day one. There are folks that loved the process and creative aspects, and there are folks that got a job in the industry to see what it was like and ended up falling in love.

Personally, I fall into option number two. There was a local beer shop around the corner from my house in college – Peabody's of Boone – where I spent a great deal of time (and money). Every week they hosted a tasting with a different brewery and you could more than likely find me there. I learned a lot at those tastings, but mostly that I wanted to join the party.

There was so much creativity involved and the thought of being able to express ideas and share them with others in the form of a beer was so cool.

– Hank Marshall, Head Brewer


SW: What do you wish folks knew about Hi-Wire? 

HWB: That we're a small, locally-owned family business. We've got a passion for cultivating community and feel honored to do that with good beer and good people to create good times.

- Adam Charnack, co-owner/CEO