Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Taproom

Sierra Nevada's Mills River brewery sits at 100 Sierra Nevada Way, about twenty minutes south of Asheville near the airport, and it is the company's East Coast home — a working production brewery with a taproom, restaurant and grounds attached, built on a scale that makes it a destination rather than a stop. The site includes a lower park area beside the river that the brewery calls a hidden gem, described as a peaceful pocket of nature made for unwinding, with cold drinks, light snacks, yard games and hammocks under the trees. That lower park closed in 2020 during the pandemic and stayed shut for five years, reopening with a ribbon-cutting and live music on 7 June 2025 — a rare piece of good news in a region that spent that period rebuilding.

Sierra Nevada matters to non-drinkers more than almost any large American brewery, because it committed to the category early and properly rather than adding one product late. Trail Pass is its non-alcoholic line, brewed at 0.5% ABV in an IPA and a Golden, and the brewery describes the Golden as inviting you to grab a Trail Pass and start a new adventure with miles of flavour, exploring fruity aromas and smooth malt. Hop Splash is its hop water — no alcohol, no calories, and hopped for aroma rather than sweetened. Between them that is three distinct non-alcoholic formats from one brewer, which is why Trail Pass turns up on so many other venues' lists, including several in this guide. One honest caveat: the brewery's own website could not be read during our checks, so while these are Sierra Nevada's own products and the taproom pours its own range, we could not confirm from a primary source which of them are on at Mills River on a given day. Worth confirming before travelling if a specific one is the reason for the trip.