Hi-Wire Brewing - Hi-Wire Lager

Hi-Wire’s core year-round lager presents a bright golden straw color with good clarity, topped by a vibrant head of just off-white foam. German noble hops come through as the centerpiece of the aroma, especially after a good swirl. Expect a distinct floral spiciness to jump out, along with some grassy touches, hints of lemon rind, and a little woodiness. Lurking below is a dash of crackery malt, pointing to a very clean and crisp quality to come in the flavor. As we take a sip, the malt center does, indeed, come through quite clean, offering light notes of fresh bread and a cracker-like, papery quality. Hi-Wire ferments this lager out very well, and it comes across super dry and crisp as the hops add some spicy edges and a restrained bitterness that combine with lively carbonation to deliver a satisfying, quenching bite. For food pairings, we’d shoot for flatbread pizzas, crispy fried chicken, fish & chips, or a chicken panini with lemon herb aioli. 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.