Tony Kiss

Staff writer

Twenty years ago, Oscar Wong was a retired engineer looking for his next project when he plunged headfirst into the unknown world of craft brewing.

"It was a fairly quick decision," Wong remembered. "Especially since I had been home for four years and (his wife) needed me out of the house. I felt the craft beer scene (had) good potential and much delay would result in us missing the train."

In 1994, Wong opened Highland Brewing, the city's first craft brewery since Prohibition, originally located in the basement of the Barley's pizzeria building on Biltmore Avenue. His system included used dairy tanks.

In two decades since, he has opened a much bigger brewery, taken on investors and poured millions into the operation.

He is hardly alone. About 40 breweries have started in Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina since Highland made its debut. Three big national craft breweries have built East Coast operations in the Asheville metro area — Oskar Blues in Brevard, Sierra Nevada in Mills River and most recently, New Belgium, which is spending $140 million on its expansion in West Asheville along the French Broad River.

The process remains costly, with even the smallest breweries costing $5,000 and usually much more. But many of the early challenges have been ironed out, brewers and brewery owners said.

"When we started out, even finding an electrician or a plumber was difficult," said Asheville Brewing president Mike Rangel. "Now there are so many breweries in the area, you can almost specialize in that."

Nationally, there were nearly 2,800 U.S. craft breweries at the end of 2013, according to the Brewers Association trade group. North Carolina has more than 100 craft breweries and brewpubs, and South Carolina has 20. The number changes almost by the day.

Five more Asheville breweries are in various stages of opening. They include New Belgium, which looks to begin brewing here late next year; Wicked Weed's Funkatorium barrel and sour aging room; Catawba Brewing's specialty brewery in Asheville; the Thirsty Monk's planned expansion brewery on Thompson Street near Biltmore Village; and Open Brewing at the former Thirsty Monk site in South Asheville.

Laws have gradually changed to make the process easier in South Carolina, said Brook Bristow of the South Carolina Brewers Association.

"There has never been a better time to open a brewery in South Carolina," Bristow said. "Since (state) law was changed in 2012 to allow pint sales, 12 have opened. Before the end of the year, we could have another 5-7 opening their doors to the public."

In North Carolina, the process is "relatively smooth sailing" especially for those who have already been through it once, said Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the North Carolina Brewers Guild.

"Brewing is a highly regulated industry no matter where you do it," she said. "For those who are blazing the trail as the first to open in a town, it can be a bit more challenging since everyone is learning as they go."

Breweries opening in Asheville may have a greater challenge than other places in finding affordable locations in town. And beer drinkers here "expect more now when a new brewery opens than they did in the past," said Jennifer McLucas, director of the Asheville Brewers Alliance trade group.

Asheville's "Wicked Weed (brewery) is a great example of stepping into the spotlight and building an exciting space with great food, atmosphere and, of course, beer," McLucas said.

Some craft beer pioneers eased into the business like Kim Jordan, co-founder of New Belgium.

"We started in our home in 1991 and we were quickly overrun by brewery apparatus," Jordan said. "After our first year, we moved into an old train station down the road ... where we operated for three years. We built our current Fort Collins (Colo.) facility from the ground up in 1995."

Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada opened a home brew shop in Chico, Calif., in 1976, and began working "on what would eventually become Sierra Nevada" in 1978, said company spokesman Bill Manley.

Dale Katechis, founder of Oskar Blues, turned out his first batch of beer in the basement of his Grill & Brew restaurant in Lyons, Colo., in 1997. "We started canning as a lark, really in 2002 using a tabletop machine that sealed one can at a time. It took all day to build a palate of canned beer."