Anheuser-Busch Acquires Wicked Weed Brewing

From Anheuser-Busch:

New York and Asheville, NC, May 3, 2017– Wicked Weed Brewing, one of Asheville’s most creative and fastest-growing craft breweries will be joining The High End, Anheuser-Busch’s business unit focused on its craft and import brands.

Wicked Weed, founded in Asheville in 2012 by Walt and Luke Dickinson and lifelong friends Ryan, Rick and Denise Guthy, has created over 500 different beers since it opened almost five years ago. Starting with clean West Coast IPAs and authentic Belgian ales, Wicked Weed has progressively moved into creating sours.  Now, Wicked Weed is widely known for their west coast style IPA’s including GABF silver medal winners Pernicious IPA, Lunatic Belgian Blonde as well as a wide range of award winning barrel-aged sour and farmhouse ales.

“This is an exciting time for the entire brewing team,” said co-founder Walt Dickinson. “Our ability to create a wide range of really well executed beers that are focused on creativity, quality and drinkability is what makes Wicked Weed great. We have chosen to partner with The High End to position ourselves to make Wicked Weed what we imagined it could be when we first sat at a craft beer bar and talked about opening a brewery. As a brewer, giving our team more resources to continue innovating our portfolio and the ability to reach more craft drinkers, allows us to keep putting the beer and the people first.”

Wicked Weed Brewing owns and operates four facilities in Asheville: their original Downtown brewpub where they produce over 150 different beers a year, the “Funkatorium,” the first dedicated sour beer taproom and barrel house on the East Coast, a 50-barrel production brewery in West Asheville, and the “Funk House and company headquarters,” a custom-designed brewhouse and training facility.


“Asheville has been our home for almost thirty-years, and we believe this partnership will benefit our entire community, which has a deeply rooted passion for beer,” added co-founder Rick Guthy. “With our team’s heightened ability to innovate our hoppy and sour styles using the highest-quality ingredients around, we hope more and more beer drinkers will flock to Asheville to taste what we have to offer. Our pub and Funkatorium will stay focused on producing creative beers and will be part of Asheville’s beer tourism for years to come.”

“We are excited to welcome Walt, Luke, Ryan, Rick, Denise, & the entire Wicked Weed team into our High End family, said Felipe Szpigel, president, The High End. “It’s clear to me Wicked Weed is redefining what sophistication in beer can mean, with their amazing offerings being relevant in a wide variety of occasions. Their ability to brew the highest quality beers, in a variety of styles, along with their exciting barrel program, leads me to be optimistic about what our futures hold together.”—-

Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with Wicked Weed is subject to regulatory approval. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
This from the NC Craft Brewers Guild:

While we are disheartened to hear of the sale of Wicked Weed Brewing Co. to Anheuser Busch, we wish our friends at Wicked Weed all the best. They have certainly made a profound impact on the Asheville beer scene and they’ve helped raise the profile of North Carolina as a craft beer state.
Since our primary mission is to represent our state’s independent craft brewers, Wicked Weed can no longer be a voting member of the NC Craft Brewers Guild. However we sincerely hope they will continue to work alongside us as an affiliate member of our guild as we strive to make North Carolina a nationwide leader in craft brewing. -NC Brewer’s Guild