Highland Brewing Founder Oscar Wong Wins Brewers Association Recognition Award

Highland Brewing Co.'s founder Oscar Wong has received a Brewers Association Recognition. Full details on this honor from the Brewers Association are below.

Boulder, Colo. — The Brewers Association (BA)—the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American craft brewers—today announced the recipients of its 2020 Industry Awards. Three members of the brewing community were recognized and awarded for their dedication and service. The Brewers Association has been recognizing individuals who inspire, defend, and innovate within the craft brewing industry since 1987.

Award recipients were nominated by their peers and determined by vote from committees made up of members of the Brewers Association board of directors or past winners of the innovation award.

“This year’s award recipients have elevated craft brewing to greater levels in business and brewing innovation, and have worked towards fair legislative and regulatory treatment for craft brewers,” said Paul Gatza, senior vice president of professional brewing division, Brewers Association.

Brewers Association Recognition Award

Oscar Wong, founder of Highland Brewing Co. (Asheville, N.C.)

This award is presented each year to an individual or company whose inspiration, enthusiasm, and support have contributed to the craft brewing movement. In 1994, Oscar Wong founded Asheville, North Carolina’s first craft brewery, Highland Brewing Co., kicking off a craft beer renaissance that took the city from sleepy mountain town to the craft beer capital of the Southeast. Wong is widely recognized as the “Father of Asheville Craft Beer.” In 2019, the brewery celebrated 25 years of quality craft beer and independent family ownership. This year, the brewery will celebrate Wong’s 80^th birthday and his pioneering spirit, which continues to inspire the local brewing community to this day.

“This is over the top. I am so proud and humbled to be in the ranks of this distinguished group of honorees,” said Oscar Wong, founder of Highland Brewing Co. and recipient of the Brewers Association Recognition Award. “It means the world to me that our little brewery from a sleepy mountain town could be recognized for our role in the great American craft beer movement.”