Hi-Wire Brewing - Bed of Nails

Pouring an attractive deep brown with vibrant reddish edges and a cap of beige foam, Bed of Nails is an attractive brown ale as it rests in the glass. In the aroma, look for luscious, almost cake-like notes of toast and deep caramel to jump out immediately, backed by touches of dried dark fruits and some herbal, floral hop tones. The story continues much the same way on the palate, where we get a central core of brown bread, moderate toastiness, and robust caramelization. We picked up notes of molasses or brown sugar, touches of toffee and chocolate, and wisps of roast. The dried fruit impressions add further interest, offering an amalgam of dried fig, raisin, and mild flashes of citrus. We loved how smooth this brew is – amusingly so, given its name – and there’s a delicious interplay between the sweeter, maltier elements and the hop contribution which provides light to moderate bitterness and hints of citric acidty along the edges. For pairings, your options are wide, as this is quite food-friendly. For savory dishes, we’d steer towards roasted meats and veggies to complement the beer’s caramelized core. Alternatively, you could go in a dessert direction with tiramisu, or a coffee cake drizzled in caramel or chocolate. Cheers!

Hi-Wire Brewing got its start in the summer of 2013, founded by Adam Charnack and Chris Frosaker, and it quickly became one of the fastest growing craft breweries in North Carolina. Their bread and butter has been in creating well-balanced core beers like the Hi-Wire Lager, Bed of Nails Brown, and Hi-Pitch IPA, and their main production facility—affectionately known as The Big Top—opened up in 2015. Based out of Asheville, the brewery currently has two locations there, including the production facility as well as the South Slope Specialty Brewery & Taproom, which focuses more on their wild and sour ale offerings. As of today, Hi-Wire also operates spots in Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Louisville, with Cincinnati and Nashville coming soon.

The creation of the Big Top Production Brewery & Taproom has allowed their South Slope location to become more of an experimental hub for their barrel-aged beers and sour ales (we’ve been grateful to feature more than one in our Rare Beer Club, as exclusive club offerings available nowhere else). Hi-Wire’s ability to successfully brew both traditional styles as well as out-there new concoctions has kept us coming back for more. This circus-themed brewery does a lot of charitable outreach, hires local artists for their artwork, and sources as many local ingredients as possible for their operations. They’ve also picked up a number of key awards over the years, including being named the Best New North Carolina Brewery of 2013 by the folks at RateBeer, as well as winning gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2016 for a German-style märzen, in 2019 for a sour brown ale aged on Palo Santo wood, and in 2021 for a Japanese Dry Rice Lager with Ben’s American Sake Koji. For the latest info, head over to hiwirebrewing.com.