It’s 80’ in the shade and nothing is going to taste better than that first sip of a chilled adult beverage. But which one? That ubiquitous summer cocktail, the gin and tonic? Or an ice-cold beer?

Fret not. At Wicked Weed’s Brew Pub in South Slope, indecisive patrons can have the best of both worlds in the seasonal Coolcumber. “It’s basically a G&T inspired beer brewed with cucumber, basil and juniper berries,” explains Charlie Moore, head of Pub Brewing and with the company for seven years. “It was introduced before I got here, but this year we’ve taken it back to the original recipe, so we’re pretty excited about that.”

The first batch was a home brew by Jess Dickinson, who with brother Walt Dickinson and Ryan, Rick and Denise Guthy founded Wicked Weed in 2012. When it was then made in the 15-barrel brewery on Biltmore Avenue, the three key ingredients were fresh.

As production scaled up, Charlie explains, adjustments were made to using cucumber concentrate and frozen basil. “This year when we decided to bring it back, we went back to the original way. Jess sent me a photo from the page of the notebook with the original recipe from the home brew days written out, as well as the recipe for Freak, our flagship double IPA, so that’s a neat little piece of Wicked Weed history right there.”

There’s a good bit of Asheville history in that old Biltmore Avenue building as well, previously a mechanic shop and Asheville Hardware before being reinvented as a brewery and taproom. Within 18 months of opening, the partners opened a second barrel house and tasting room — the Funkatorium on Coxe Avenue — and announced a multi-million-dollar expansion plan for a new production facility in Candler.

“My location does roughly 2,000 barrels per year in production,” Charlie says. “Our production facility will do that in a week, with multiple shifts. My team is three people, and we show up at the same time in the morning and leave at the same time every afternoon. It’s quite a difference.”

In the Brew Pub, they are responsible for coming up with new recipes (he estimates WW has done well over 700 unique recipes over the years) as well as local and company favorites made in smaller batches that will not be canned. “We call them Pub Exclusives. I also operate the smaller Funkatorium brewery down the street which is almost exclusively R&D. Our sour beers are made there by a sour beer team.”

Nothing sour about the OG Coolcumber. “We are processing whole cucumbers, using fresh basil and crushing juniper berries the day we brew. Because it’s all fresh, it has a short shelf life, so we release it slowly and only on draft. We brought it back to kick off our celebration of Asheville Beer Week in mid-May and will have it through the summer.”

For more on Wicked Weed, visit wickedweedbrewing.com. — Kay West

Photos courtesy of Wicked Weed and Travis Bordley