Eight Years on Haywood Road: One World Brewing West Throws a Summer Solstice Pickin' Party

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  June 22, 2026

A bluegrass band playing its second set of the day, a yard full of people, and the longest evening light of the year stretching across West Asheville. That was the scene at One World Brewing West on Sunday, June 21, when the Haywood Road brewery marked eight years in business with a Summer Solstice Pickin' Party.

The timing was no accident. June 21 is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the brewery leaned into it. Doors opened at 2 p.m. and the music, food, and beer kept going until around 9:30 that night. For a venue built around its big outdoor yard, there is no better calendar date to throw a party than the one with the most daylight.

If you have spent any time on Haywood Road, you already know this place. It is the brewery with the open beer garden, the outdoor stage, and the games scattered around the yard. On a normal weekend it draws a steady neighborhood crowd. For its anniversary, it pulled in the kind of all-day gathering that turns a parking lot and a patio into something closer to a block party.

A Solstice Party Built for the Longest Day

The format was simple and it worked. Live music on the outdoor stage, food, and beer brewed on-site, all of it spread across the brewery's wide open yard. WLOS, which covered the celebration, captured it as exactly the kind of laid-back, all-day affair West Asheville does well.

The "Pickin' Party" name tells you what kind of music carried the day. "Pickin'" is the Appalachian and bluegrass term for the kind of string-instrument jamming that has defined mountain music in this region for generations. It is a fitting theme for a brewery that has become a genuine live-music venue, not just a place that happens to have a stage.

Suns of Stars anchored the lineup with two full sets. The band blends contemporary and traditional bluegrass with a high-energy jam style, the sort of sound that keeps a crowd on its feet through a long afternoon. Coyote Rodeo followed, carrying the music into the evening as the solstice light finally started to fade.

There is something about a bluegrass set in an outdoor yard on the first official day of summer that feels specific to this part of the country. You do not get that combination just anywhere. You get it in places like West Asheville, where the music tradition runs deep and the warm-weather calendar is built around being outside.

From a Home Kitchen to Two Asheville Locations

The story behind the brewery is the kind locals tend to appreciate, because it started small and stayed personal. One World Brewing began at the home of Jay and Lisa Schutz. Jay home-brewed for years as a hobby, working at it on the side while he ran a stonemason business.

The leap to commercial brewing came through family. Lisa's brother owned a downtown restaurant, Farmburger, at 10 Patton Avenue, and he offered the team the space below it. In 2014, One World Brewing opened in that cozy, speakeasy-style basement, a tucked-away spot that quickly earned a loyal following among people who liked the idea of a brewery you had to descend a staircase to find.

That original downtown location is still going strong. It celebrated its 12th anniversary in May 2026, and the Patton Avenue spot has another music festival scheduled for July. The two anniversaries landing within weeks of each other says something about the staying power of a brand that started in a basement.

The West Asheville expansion was a bigger undertaking. The team took on an abandoned building along Haywood Road and rehabilitated it over roughly two years before opening One World Brewing West in 2018. That two-year build is why this past Sunday marked the eighth anniversary, even though the parent brand is well into its second decade.

When Thomas Perry, one of the owners, talked to WLOS about the neighborhood, he pointed to how much has changed. "It's grown in different areas," Perry said, noting that the Haywood Road area "has really taken off with us and the Whale and other places coming in." That growth is part of the backdrop here. West Asheville went from overlooked to one of the most talked-about corners of the city, and One World West has been part of that arc.

The Building and the Beer Garden

The physical space is a big part of why this brewery can host a party like the solstice celebration in the first place. Most taprooms cannot.

Start downstairs. They brew the beer on-site on a 10-barrel system installed below ground, beneath the West Asheville taproom. Everything poured upstairs comes from that brewhouse, which gives the place the feel of a true production brewery rather than a satellite taproom pouring beer made somewhere else.

The taproom itself is bright and inviting, with eight interior taps plus wine and liquor service. That alone would make for a solid neighborhood spot. But the real draw is outside.

The outdoor space is what sets One World West apart. It is a spacious open yard with its own outdoor stage, a second bar that adds roughly eight more taps, ample seating, and games. On a normal day it is a relaxed place to spend an afternoon. On anniversary day it becomes a small festival ground.

That adaptive reuse of an abandoned building is worth pausing on, because it reflects something true about West Asheville and about Western North Carolina more broadly. Across the region, old structures get second lives as breweries, restaurants, and gathering spaces. The bones of a forgotten building on Haywood Road now hold a brewhouse, a taproom, and a yard where a few hundred people can hear bluegrass on a Sunday in June.

Eight Years, and a Recovery Story Underneath

You cannot tell the story of an Asheville-area business celebrating an anniversary in 2026 without naming what happened in 2024.

Hurricane Helene struck the region on September 27, 2024, and the flooding that followed was catastrophic. The River Arts District and the downtown core took the worst of it. Breweries that sat near the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers were among the hardest-hit businesses in the city, and the regional craft scene spent the following year clawing back.

West Asheville came through differently. The neighborhood sits on higher ground along the Haywood Road ridge, well above the floodplains that did the most damage. That geography mattered. While other parts of the city were measuring how high the water rose, West Asheville stayed largely dry and became one of the neighborhoods cited again and again for strong recovery momentum.

One World Brewing West does not appear on the lists of breweries that flooded, which points to it being largely spared. That makes an eighth-anniversary party more than a marketing date on a calendar. It reads as a marker of a business and a neighborhood that kept going through one of the hardest stretches Western North Carolina has faced in a generation.

For anyone watching the region's recovery, days like this are the quiet evidence that it is happening. A full beer garden, two bands, and a long summer evening do not erase what Helene did. But they show a craft scene that is still here, still drawing crowds, and still throwing parties worth driving across town for.

Why Places Like This Matter Around Here

It would be easy to file this under "brewery has anniversary" and move on. That undersells what these spaces mean in Western North Carolina.

A brewery with an outdoor stage is not really competing with the bar down the street. It is filling the same role that a town square or a church social once did. It is a place where a neighborhood gathers, where a local band gets a paying gig, and where people who have never met end up sharing a picnic table on a Sunday afternoon.

One World Brewing folds that into its identity on purpose. The company operates under the tagline "Positive Change Starts With You!" and frames its mission around inspiring the community and the region to get involved. Whether or not you read the tagline on the wall, the function is real. The yard on Haywood Road does the work of a community gathering space.

That community character is one of the things that draws people to this part of the state and convinces a lot of them to stay. Asheville and the smaller towns around it, from Waynesville to Sylva to Brevard, are full of these third places. They are walkable, locally owned, and built around the idea that people actually want to spend time near each other.

For retirees, second-home owners, and anyone weighing a move to the mountains, that texture is the whole point. The scenery gets people in the door. The community is what keeps them.

If a Sunday evening of bluegrass in a West Asheville beer garden sounds like the kind of life you have been picturing, I am always glad to talk about what it takes to make these mountains home.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is One World Brewing West located in Asheville?

One World Brewing West sits at 520 Haywood Road in West Asheville, North Carolina, 28806. It anchors the Haywood Road corridor, the main commercial strip that runs through the heart of West Asheville. The brewery is the younger sibling of the original One World Brewing, which opened in 2014 in a basement space below Farmburger at 10 Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville. You can reach the West location at (828) 575-9992. The West Asheville taproom is known for its large outdoor yard, an outdoor stage, an outdoor bar, seating, and games, which is what makes it a natural fit for live music events like the anniversary party.

What is the Summer Solstice Pickin' Party at One World Brewing West?

The Summer Solstice Pickin' Party was One World Brewing West's 8th anniversary celebration, held Sunday, June 21, 2026, the date of the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. The party started at 2 p.m. and ran into the evening, ending around 9:30 p.m. It featured live music, food, and beer in the brewery's outdoor beer garden. The musical lineup included Suns of Stars, who played two full sets of high-energy bluegrass, followed by Coyote Rodeo. The word "pickin'" is a nod to the Appalachian bluegrass jam tradition, which fits a brewery that doubles as a live-music venue.

Who owns One World Brewing?

One World Brewing was founded by Jay and Lisa Schutz. Jay home-brewed for years as a hobby while running a stonemason business, and the operation went commercial in 2014 when Lisa's brother, a downtown restaurant owner, offered the team the basement space below his restaurant on Patton Avenue. As the company grew and expanded into West Asheville in 2018, Thomas Perry joined as a co-owner. Perry spoke with WLOS during the anniversary about how much the surrounding neighborhood has changed, noting that the area "has really taken off." The brewery operates under the tagline "Positive Change Starts With You!"

Did Hurricane Helene affect breweries in West Asheville?

Hurricane Helene struck the Asheville area on September 27, 2024, causing catastrophic flooding that hit the River Arts District and the downtown core hardest. West Asheville largely avoided the worst of it because the neighborhood sits on higher ground along the Haywood Road ridge, well above the French Broad and Swannanoa river floodplains. West Asheville has since been cited repeatedly as one of the neighborhoods showing strong recovery momentum. One World Brewing West does not appear among the breweries that flooded, which suggests it was largely spared. Its 8th anniversary reads partly as a resilience story for the regional craft beer scene.