Asheville, North Carolina, straddles several valleys at the southern tail of the planet’s oldest mountain range. Nearly 500 million years ago, the Appalachians rose to heights that compare with the Rockies today, but they have eroded to a high point of just 6,700 feet a few miles away in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Straddling the Eastern Continental divide for hundreds of miles, and located within a few hours drive for a majority of Americans, the Smokies is America’s most visited national park.

It is this central access to markets that has been prompting brewers to construct east coast facilities since Coors established a packaging facility in Elkton, Virginia, nearly 30 years ago. The recent arrivals are the nation’s most successful craft brewers. Their share of the national beer market might remain in single digits, but these are profitable enterprises.

Asheville, much like Boulder, is a Bohemian, artsy-craftsy refuge for liberals in a state that appeared to be leaning blue when Barack Obama won a razor-thin majority in 2008 but recently returned to its deep red Southern roots. It is a town where craft coffee roasters outnumber Starbucks. There is a laid-back attitude characterized by a defiant posting of restrooms with “Whichever” bumperstickers pasted over the men’s and women’s signs.

Much like Denver, Asheville developed ample, quality water reserves early in the last century, which are now attracting microbrewers from across the American west. Neighboring counties have been attempting to seize these water assets at the state legislature in the guise of creating a regional water authority. Similarly, there was an effort to divert airport revenues into a common pot. Ashevillains have acquired a siege mentality.

A favorite of Barack Obama has been the gilded age Grove Park Inn, where he regularly retreats to prepare for major speeches. Whether there is any foundation to local rumors is hard to assess, but the buzz on the street is that Michelle and Barack will retire to Asheville as soon as Sasha completes high school at Sidwell Friends in Washington. “They’ve already secretly purchased a home,” some claim, while others say, “They are currently scouting for a larger property where they can have their dream home built.” It’s anyone’s guess whether this is all wishful thinking or the straight scoop. It’s hard to imagine, however, a community where the former president’s presence would be less disruptive. And there are ample nearby golf courses, not to mention the renowned Malaprop’s bookstore.

The first of the craft brewers to arrive in Asheville was California’s Sierra Nevada. The brewery now employ 300 at a sprawling, faux French stone mansion with an expansive restaurant and gleaming copper kettles located in the woods next to the airport. Presumably modeled after the vineyard mansions that dot the Napa Valley, Sierra Nevada offers an eye-popping experience.

The first Colorado brewer to open a North Carolina affiliate was Longmont’s Oskar Blues in nearby Brevard, home to a music college and a summer music series. Located in an industrial park, the taproom is an unassuming affair shoehorned into the second floor of the brewery. The most recent and most heralded emigrant has been New Belgium of Fort Collins, brewer of Fat Tire, which has located alongside the French Broad River on an abandoned piece of ground where once stood a stockyard. The employee-owned company attracted 3,000 applicants for what will eventually be 150 jobs. Its taproom, with a balcony veranda that overlooks the wide but shallow riverbed and enjoys canyon breezes, is a terrific location for a relaxed afternoon with a draft.

Our bartender, Ford Willis, talked like he had won the lottery. “Local jobs don’t offer the benefits we get here,” he said with obvious enthusiasm. “We love New Belgium!” He is looking forward to his free bicycle at the end of his first year, the trip to Fort Collins at the end of his second and rhapsodized about the promised trip to Belgium at the end of the fifth. As might be expected in a ‘green-side-up’ community, the brewery was delayed for nearly six months due to environmental and zoning challenges – the most recent an agreement with nearby neighborhood associations that semi-trucks will silence their engines during loading operations.

Whatever the hurdles, the politics of attracting microbreweries has proved to be serious business. Deschutes of Bend, Oregon, recently selected Roanoke, Virginia, over Asheville despite the fact that the Asheville City Council had purchased a 130-acre location for the brewery at a cost of $6.8 million.

The sole Republican Buncombe County commissioner, Miranda DeBruhl, is believed to have insulted Deschutes with a series of social media complaints about Asheville’s incentive package. Last month she abandoned her re-election campaign, alleging she needed to devote more time to her family’s business.

I wonder whether the Democratic county commissioners who accused DeBruhl of spoiling the Deschutes deal have contacted the White House about the acreage they are holding?