News

LIBATION NATION: Stags Head would be fourth downtown brewery

Jonathan Ayers plans to open Stags Head Brewing Co. at 340 Seventh Avenue East.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 17, 2016

Making it fourth entrant in the growing market of downtown breweries, Stags Head Brewing Co. plans to open by the end of the year at the western edge of the Historic Seventh Avenue District.

Owner/brewer Jonathan Ayers hopes to celebrate a grand opening on New Year’s Eve at 340 Seventh Avenue East a couple of doors up from Underground Bakery and around the corner from local brewing pioneer Southern Appalachian Brewery.

Construction on the building has not been started yet, but as far as the plans go Ayers says, “The building is pretty well finalized.” He hopes to break ground in the next 90 days.

The building will be around 7,500 square feet, half devoted to brewing and half to a taproom. He also plans an 8,000-square-foot outdoor beer garden that will back up to Martin Luther King Boulevard (U.S. 64).

Ayers likes being close to Southern Appalachian Brewery.
“I think it’s going to help both of us out, and if we could get a third or fourth brewery there it would help both of us as well,” he says.
“I think there’s still enough room to grow because different breweries do different things,” he says. “Some breweries are going to want to keep it small and keep it local. My goal for Stags Head Brewing is I want to be a production brewery that does retail. So I want to be bottling and/or canning within the first year of operation.”
Ayers already plans to launch a small canning line as soon as he opens.
“I’m approaching it differently from day one,” he said.

18 beers on tap

Ayers plans to have 18 unique beers on tap at all times. He projects that he’ll have six flagship beers year-round and 12 rotating taps.
“We’re always going to have new unique and creative stuff,” he says. Some of the unique brews will include gluten free beer, which Ayers already brews, as well as a setup for nitrogenated beer. Ayers said he will be able to do true nitro stouts and could also experiment with creations such as a nitro IPA.
He has six different certificates and is in his last semester at Blue Ridge Community College, where he’s earning his brewing certificate.
“I spent the last 13 years in construction,” he says. “Construction is very cyclical. Some days are really good and some days are really bad. I discovered that over the course of time when days are really good people drink beer and when days are really bad people drink beer. Drinking beer is a lot more fun to do, so let’s make beer.”

Stags Head Brewing already has a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“We do daily postings,” he says. “Even if it has nothing to do with us we’re talking about beer and we’re passing information that we have around.”
Ayers also spreads the news and critiques beer when he appears as a recurring guest host of an Asheville-based podcast called “Drink Local Now.”
“That’s a fun program because we literally sit around and drink beer and talk about beer and talk about local events and things,” he says.
Soon, he hopes to be talking about his own beer and his own brewery events on Seventh Avenue.