- Welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt-Noel, and this week we're exploring some of the people and places helping shape North Carolina's craft beverage scene.

Our first stop is Asheville, where Burial Beer Company has built a devoted following through inventive beverages, distinctive spaces, and a philosophy that encourages curiosity and exploration.

Let's take a look.

[upbeat music] - We were allured to the craft beer scene because of Tap Rooms, this just magical third place that made everyone feel welcome.

And we try to put as much focus on the artistic expression, the music, the feel, the flow of these spaces, the people that serve you there, as we do in the beer.

- It ultimately started when I met Doug and Jess when I was living in Seattle.

Doug and Jess had moved to Seattle from New Orleans.

I was just kind of introducing them in a lot of ways to my passion for beer.

And that segued eventually into us thinking, if we don't start a brewery of our own, we'll regret it forever.

I had visited Asheville.

I pitched it to Doug and Jess, they came to visit.

They fell in love with it just like I did, and we all moved here together to start Burial.

[laughs] - So to me, Burial simply is this experience that people have where they have to consider the life and death of a person.

And the way that New Orleans has just made it part of daily life, it's just absolutely magical, this celebration of life and death, and using that as this pivotal moment of accepting your impermanence.

[dramatic music] - We get a lot of questions about the different decor and artwork that we have, imagery that we put on our cans of our beers, the ways that we name our beers.

It excites people.

It makes them ask questions and engage with us in really beneficial ways.

You may be really into IPA and hope you come and try a bunch of the ones that we make and enjoy those, but ultimately, I'm hoping that you'll be like, "I wonder what that thing is.

I should try that."

We really put a lot of energy into having a very diverse set of offerings.

We now have a line that we call Visuals.

That's our wine brand.

We also do non-alcoholic beer.

We have a whole THC seltzer line that we call Séance.

So pretty much everything you can imagine that someone might want, we can at least offer, like, our own take on that.

- I love that Burial is a really easy place to come with friends or family.

There's always something new, and I think this place being open for 10 years has really encouraged me to try beers that I might not have been so open to in the past.

Makes you more adventurous.

- Whether you're at Forestry Camp, which is, you know, more fine dining, where you're gonna see local steaks and pork chops and fish from the coast, to our original taproom, where you'll see a sandwich culture that is inspired by our time in New Orleans and tries to play back to the notion of being in a bar and keeping it simple.

- We have a taproom in Raleigh.

We have a taproom in Charlotte as well.

And then here in Asheville, we've got an original South Slope location that has kind of expanded into Eulogy, the music venue, and Visuals Rooftop Bar.

We have the Forestry Camp location, and then we announced another Asheville location on the horizon in the River Arts District in the old Curve Studios.

Kind of one of our biggest passions to just create new and different spaces for people to engage with and excited for what the future holds.

- Yeah, highly recommend Burial Forestry Camp to just enjoy a good time, good food, good beverages.

In short, I can tell that the people that run this place know they have something special.

- Curiosity is like the greatest gift ever given to humanity.

And it fuels everything that we do here at Burial.

It keeps us from ever getting sewn up in the box, so to speak.

We just stay outside of it constantly.

We're trying to do our vision and make sure that Asheville feels served in it as well.

(dramatic music) - Burial Beer Company has multiple locations in Asheville, along with tap rooms in Charlotte and Raleigh.

To learn more about their locations and upcoming events, visit BurialBeer.com.