For most of the year, Highland Brewing at 12 Old Charlotte Highway works like a neighborhood living room. You walk in at noon on a weekday and find a table. From Friday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Nov. 15, that changes. Highland's ticket page says tickets are required to get onto the campus and to buy Cold Mountain Winter Ale on those three days. Its Cold Mountain FAQ is blunt about it: if you only want to pick up beer, you still need a ticket, "no exceptions."
The same weekend brings Highland's first in-house kitchen. Oscar's Pizza soft-opens during the release with a special event menu. Its full menu starts Thanksgiving week. So the busiest, most gated weekend of the year also starts the change that will matter most to East Asheville neighbors on an ordinary Tuesday night.
Here is how the next few weeks on campus are laid out, according to Highland's published schedule.
| Date | Entry | What's on |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 12 | Separate ticket, sold out | Cold Mountain Beer Dinner, 5–9 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | $15, noon–11 p.m. | Live music, Cold Mountain Heritage Panel, Oscar's soft opening |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | $20, noon–11 p.m. | Live music, guided flight tastings, silent disco |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | $10, noon–8 p.m. | Live music, Thirst for Good partner tents |
| Mon., Nov. 16 | Free from noon | Leftover packaged beer and remaining drafts |
| Tue., Nov. 17 | Taproom closed | — |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Free, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. | Black Watch Release and Holiday Market |
A winter seasonal that grew into Highland's biggest weekend
Highland was founded in 1994. WLOS reports that founder Oscar Wong first brewed Gaelic Amber Ale in the basement under Barley's downtown. Cold Mountain came two years later. Highland's anniversary page says the first batch was brewed in 1996, as "a small seasonal release." It has since become the brewery's biggest weekend of the year.
The brewery says the recipe "changes a little every year," depending on which brewer puts their mark on it. Past one-off spin-offs include Chocolate Hazelnut and Crushable Cold Mountain. The event has grown along with the beer. Live music has always been part of it. Pop-up bars, kids' activities and a volleyball tournament came later, and the Cold Mountain Beer Dinner was added seven years ago.
This year's dinner on Thursday, Nov. 12 is already sold out. The menu comes from Chef Taylor Montgomery of Montgomery Sky Farm, a 50-acre regenerative farm in Leicester. Highland's ticket page notes that Montgomery won the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast. That growth explains the gate. A release that started as a seasonal beer now draws enough people that Highland runs it as a ticketed festival on its own grounds.
What the ticket gets you, day by day
All three days are all ages, and kids 10 and under don't need a ticket. Each day has its own lineup and extras:
- Friday, $15. Pleasure Chest, Heavenly Vipers, New Dawn Starkestra and DJ Brandon Manitoba, plus a Cold Mountain Heritage Panel and the Wolf's Den Cocktail Bar.
- Saturday, $20. Tuff Sol, Pinkish Floyd and an EDM silent disco, with guided flight tastings. The Cold Mountain Classic volleyball tournament starts at 9 a.m. with 2v2 play.
- Sunday, $10. Chikomo Marimba and a special edition of Matt Smith's Well-Crafted Music Series, plus tents from Highland's Thirst for Good community partners. The volleyball moves to 4v4 at 9 a.m.
A $30 weekend pass covers all three days. Highland's schedule says programming may change, so check the lineup before you go.
Highland allows refunds and day swaps up to 48 hours before your session, by email to [email protected]. The service fee isn't refunded.
The Monday after is the neighbor's day
On Monday, Nov. 16, Highland will sell whatever Cold Mountain packaged beer is left and pour the remaining varieties on draft, with no ticket required. The ticket page says guests can come in free starting at noon. The taproom then closes on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
What's left on Monday depends on how the weekend sells. This year there's no beer pre-order with tickets. Highland sets aside an allotment of Winter Ale, the Coconut, Chocolate Orange and Pumpkin Spice Latte spin-offs, and variety packs for each session. The variety pack holds eight 16-ounce cans. Classic Winter Ale also comes in six-packs and 24-packs of 12-ounce bottles.
The two barrel-aged versions are a different story. Highland calls them "extremely limited" and puts them on sale at the start of each session, Friday through Sunday. If a barrel-aged bottle is what you're after, plan on buying a weekend ticket. If you'd be happy with a six-pack of the classic and a pint on a quiet afternoon, Monday at noon is the better bet.
Oscar's Pizza makes the campus a dinner option
The pizzeria carries the founder's name. Highland describes Oscar Wong as born in Jamaica to Chinese parents and a Notre Dame graduate. The page also tells the story of him carrying his first pizza sideways under his arm "like a textbook." According to WLOS, the concept is led by Guest Experience Director Chris Genua and Head Chef Adam Jones. Genua grew up making pizza in Philadelphia, later made pizza with family in Italy, spent 12 years immersed in New York's pizza and restaurant culture, put in six years at Brooklyn's The Double Windsor, and also worked at White Labs Brewing in Asheville.
The Asheville Citizen-Times also reported the limited-menu start during Cold Mountain weekend. That first menu is short: a few pizzas by the slice, a salad and a dessert. The full menu that arrives Thanksgiving week is the real thing. Expect New Haven-inspired pies with crispy edges, a chewy crust and blistered char, plus salads, meatballs, soft pretzels and "a sweet treat or two."
Ordering is built around the taproom:
- Order food at the Taproom bar and grab a pint.
- Sit anywhere on the property.
- Highland texts you when the order is ready.
- Pick it up at Oscar's Pizza, where extra toppings and cutlery are waiting.
The pizzas are 15 inches and meant to feed two. Food trucks aren't going away. Oscar's will serve on weekends and select weekdays, and a rotating lineup of local trucks will park on site the days it's closed. Trucks will also come in for busy weekends and events like Cold Mountain. Highland's online food truck schedule is still the place to check what's serving on a given night.
Highland's posted taproom hours are noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Highland is holding a grand opening for Oscar's in December.
The day after Thanksgiving brings a free event
The gate is down again for the next big date on the campus calendar. The Black Watch Release and Holiday Market runs Friday, Nov. 27, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Event Center. Highland lists it as free and family-friendly. It features a local maker market, Black Watch Double Chocolate Milk Stout, and a limited Raspberry Double Barrel-Aged Black Watch release.
That falls in the same week Oscar's starts serving its full menu. If you skip the ticketed weekend, you still get two easy ways in: Monday, Nov. 16 for leftover Cold Mountain, and the day after Thanksgiving for a free market with the pizzeria running at full menu.
If Highland is your regular stop off Old Charlotte Highway, we'd love to hear where it fits in your East Asheville week and what Oscar's changes for you. And if you're curious about your own place on the map, Carter Sowers and our team can put together a free home valuation built on what we know about this side of town.
