The Original Wedge

Wedge Studios is where the Wedge story began. The distinctive wedge-shaped building dates to 1916, when it was built for the Farmers Federated Agricultural Cooperative. Decades later, sculptor, inventor and engineer John Payne transformed the old industrial building into something new—a working home for artists and makers in what was then a very different River Arts District.

Payne filled the building with his own monumental metalwork and opened its doors to other artists, helping create the kind of creative community that would eventually define the neighborhood. Today, Wedge Studios remains home to dozens of working artists alongside independent businesses, food, music and, on the building’s dock level, the original Wedge brewery.

Wedge Brewing opened here in 2008—a small 10-barrel brewery tucked into the bottom of an old warehouse beside the railroad tracks. It was unpolished, a little unconventional, and distinctly Asheville. What started as a neighborhood brewery quickly became a gathering place where artists, locals, brewers and visitors shared the same tables, the same parking lot and, most importantly, a few beers.

More than a brewery, Wedge Studios represents the roots of what Wedge has always tried to be. The beer is brewed here, but the identity grew from the building and the people around it—a place where creativity, conversation and community have always existed side by side.

This is the original Wedge: a brewery born among artists, built around community, and still making beer in the place where it all started.