First, let me introduce you to the crew.

First we have the Van, the most important part of the trip. Kudos to the Big Deaner for the van idea. She gained come character by the end of the trip and became one of the family.

Here we have the driver for the trip, Mike, alias, Cheese. This guy deserves a ton of credit and praise. Not only was he our designated driver for the entire tour, but he managed to not drink a drop of brew at any of the stops. Cheers le Fromage!

Next up is his shotgun riding pal, and probably all our favorite for the trip, Gary, alias Frog. We gave Frog a hard time for a lot of the trip, but he's one cool cat and fun to hang out with.

This is Heith, alias, Night Train. Heith and I go way back like babies and pacifiers. Hadn't been on a trip with this cat in a long time, but he sure can order a mean "surprise me" pizza just about anywhere.

Here is my bro-in-law David, alias, Earl. I don't remember calling him Earl the entire trip though, strange. David is a riot to hang with and was the root of a lot of the hard time we gave Frog.

This is the creator of the "Beer Trip" and proprietor of the "MMM....Beer" group on Facebook, John Dean, alias, Big Deaner. Deaner isn't a big fan of stouts and porters, but like a true beer club entrepreneur and beer tripper, he tried them all!

Our first stop on Friday morning, yes morning, was at Pisgah Brewing. This place became the benchmark at which the rest of the breweries would be held. They opened the place an hour early for us, the barkeep/brewer was an uber cool cat, they had 15, yes 15, of their own beers on tap AND all their beers, except for the fruity ones, were completely organic. This place introduced the "flight", the most common phrase of the trip. A flight is five 5 oz. beers, all of which are different..a sampler if you will. So stop one...16 5 oz. beers for me.

Next stop wasn't actually at a brewery, but a local bar...the Town Pump. Pretty cool place with good beers, cool bartender and darts. We ordered one of Night Trains specialty "surprise me" pizzas from the joint across the street and waited for it at the Pump.

The next stop was Highlands Brewing Company. I'm sure that many of you, many meaning two, reading this have tried a Highlands brew or two and have probably come to the same conclusion I had over the years that the place was run by a couple of guys with red hair, red beards and smelly clothes. Instead, we got a warehouse full of people and a Chinese guy owner dressed in a dress shirt, khaki pants and black dress shoes...a far cry from what I expected. This stop was probably the definition of a beer trip for me. I strayed from my original tour group and ended up in, what was described to me as a special tour by the Chinese guy. He wasn't too happy that I was in his group and I could tell. It probably didn't help that I was spilling beer on myself and spattering sentence fragments by this time, but the other places we went would've laughed at it, this guy was not impressed. I'm sure he would be impressed had he known just how much beer I had up to that point and was still walking.

Our final stop on Friday was at Catawba Brewing, the company that makes Firewater IPA for those of you keeping count. This was an alright place. They had good music and videos to go along with it and pool tables. I'm not entirely sure how many beers I had here or what those beers were. I do remember not wanting a Firewater cuz I've had it a thousand times before. Some of the fellas went on a tour of the brewery, but I didn't, though I'm not sure why. I was either at the bar or playing pool. Someone should've put a bell on me.

Saturday we decided to cut out a brewery, the first stop, that was an hour away from us and recommendations from those-who-shall-remain-nameless, *coughs*pisgahbrewingcompanyandeveryehwerelese*coughs*, we decided not to go. Instead, we arrived at Asheville Pizza and Brewery around 10:30 after a Starbucks run. Yeah, I said 10:30, it's a beer trip, remember? No brewery tour here, but it was a cool atmosphere, good food and decent beer. Once again, this one didn't hold a candle to Pisgah, but we still had three more to go, maybe someone could top them.

We left Asheville Pizza and went down the street to Jack of the Wood. This isn't the brewery where Green Man beers are made, but the hub for Green Man beers. Again, a really cool atmosphere, much better beer than Asheville Pizza and they had the previously mentioned flights. The place is right downtown too, so that makes it a cool place to me!

The third stop for Saturday was at one of my favorites, French Broad Brewing Company. I've had a few of their beers before, including the famous 13 Rebels. These guys hold a special place in my heart because; a) they sponsored the 24 Hours of Pisgah, and any brew that sponsors mountain biking has my vote and; b) the second time I saw G Love and Special Sauce at the Orange Peel, I drank only 13 Rebels. I just couldn't resist the jolly roger tap handle. This place had the best tour, the best of the one other I had during the trip. The guy touring us looked the part and knew what he was talking about. They charged us for the tour, but they gave out beer during it and we got lots of stickers. Really liked this place.

The final stop for the day before the trip back to Big Stone was at Wedge Brewing. This place was small and kinda far away from the pulse of Asheville, but worth the drive during warmer months. They had a sweet patio, cool art and a huuuuge parking lot out front with a front deck to chill on. The beer here was good too, no complaints from me about their brew quality.

So, to rank our stops 1 - 7, 1 being the best it would be:

7. Highland Brewing. Just didnt' have that microbrewery feel to it.

6. Asheville Brewery

5. Catawba

4. Wedge

3. Green Man

2. French Broad

1. Pisgah Brewing...no one touched this place or even came close.