A horse named Gringo wandering the courtyard with a beer holster on her saddle is not something you expect to see at a brewery. She belongs to a local who rides her down for carrots and conversation, and more than one visitor has ended up in a photo with her before they’ve even ordered a beer. It’s the kind of detail that tells you something about Big Pillow Brewing Hot Springs NC before you’ve read a single tasting note — a place that was built to feel like it belonged to everyone in town, and mostly does.
What’s on Tap
Big Pillow brews on a 10-barrel system, and a handful of styles have stuck around long enough to function as the closest thing the brewery has to a flagship lineup: High Side Pale Ale (5.2% ABV), Kind People Kölsch (5.4%), Bluff Mountain Porter (5.8%), Roof Dog IPA (6.3%), Appalachian Fog Hazy IPA (7.2%), Hazy Nugget Experimental IPA (6.6%), and Hunker Down Winter Warmer (8.3%) for the colder months. Bluff Mountain Porter in particular has built a real following — it’s the brewery’s most-reviewed beer on Untappd, with rich roasted malt and chocolate-coffee notes regulars come back for.
Beyond that core rotation, Big Pillow leans hard into one-offs and collaborations, and the tap list turns over often. Recent rotating releases have included a West Coast pilsner brewed with spruce tips in collaboration with Black Mountain Brewing, and a trail-themed collaboration with Homeplace Beer Co. tied to “The Year of the Trail.” Donochod has said the brewery isn’t interested in bottling or distributing widely — everything is built to be enjoyed on site, with occasional cans and growler fills available rather than wide distribution to grocery store shelves. For non-beer drinkers, the lineup also includes a gluten-free cider from Flat Rock Ciderworks, hard kombucha, mimosas, and wine.
Beer and Tacos, Two Businesses, One Courtyard
The food side comes from the Grey Eagle Taqueria, a Hot Springs outpost of the well-known Asheville taqueria owned by Sarah and Russ Keith. Everything on the Big Pillow Brewing menu is made in-house at the taqueria’s window — tacos, burritos, quesadillas, rice bowls, and salads, with a handful of specialty tacos unique to the Hot Springs location. Order at the window, and they’ll bring it to your picnic table. It’s a setup the Keiths have repeated at other WNC breweries, but Grey Eagle Taqueria Hot Springs runs its own specials. The fried plantains with house aioli are a standout, alongside tacos built around smoked carnitas and borracho chicken.
The Community Board
The brewery keeps a board where anyone can pre-buy a beer for someone who isn’t there yet — a thru-hiker coming through on the AT, a regular who’ll be in next Tuesday, a friend who doesn’t know it’s waiting for them. Names go up with beers credited to them, redeemable whenever they show up. Some regulars have quite a few stacked. It’s become a small institution of its own, drawing from both the local crowd and the trail community passing through — two groups that, at Big Pillow, tend to end up at the same picnic tables anyway.
What’s Happening Each Week
Live music runs the outdoor stage on Fridays and Saturdays, with a mix of local and touring acts that range from bluegrass to indie. Wednesday nights bring open mic or karaoke starting around 6pm. Tuesday is the night for a recurring pub quiz — one regular described going back specifically for it after a first visit for lunch. Big Pillow also hosts an annual Oktoberfest celebration each fall, and weekend yoga sessions have popped up on the calendar as well. Worth noting: exact event nights shift over time, so it’s worth checking Big Pillow’s Facebook page or calling ahead before planning a visit around a specific event.
Dog-Friendly, Family-Friendly, and an Unofficial Mascot Named Gringo
Dogs are welcome throughout the courtyard, with water bowls out and shade across the picnic tables — it’s a consistent detail across reviews from both locals and visitors. Then there’s Gringo: a horse that wanders the courtyard from time to time, ridden in by a local who stops by for carrots and conversation, complete with a beer holster strapped to the saddle. She’s become something of an unofficial mascot, known for posing for photos with kids.
A Mix of Locals, Hikers, and Day-Trippers
What comes through clearly across reviews is that Big Pillow isn’t a tourist-only spot dressed up for visitors, and it isn’t a closed-off locals’ bar either — it’s genuinely both. Campers off the river, AT thru-hikers, weekend day-trippers headed to Max Patch, and Hot Springs locals all end up at the same picnic tables. One visitor called the vibe “communal, local, fun” after stopping in twice — once for a quick lunch, once for Tuesday’s pub quiz. Beyond pouring beer, Donochod and Rubin have used the brewery to support the town directly, including raising funds for a local family after a house fire.
Named After a Rapid on the French Broad
Big Pillow Brewing takes its name from a whitewater rapid on Section 9 of the French Broad River — a stretch co-owner Chris Donochod knows well from his years as a rafting guide in the 1990s. Donochod also co-founded the French Broad River Festival back in 1998, a music gathering that ran for roughly a quarter century and kept pulling him back to Hot Springs year after year. “As the river is what brought us to Hot Springs, we wanted the name to reflect our passion for whitewater,” he’s said of the choice.
His wife and business partner, Amy Rubin, came at the idea from the beer side. A Hendersonville native, she spent years as a local sales rep for Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard — the job where she met Carl Herman, who had worked at both Oskar Blues and Deschutes Brewery before becoming Big Pillow’s head brewer. The three of them had been saying for years that someone should put a brewery in Hot Springs. In 2020, after a pair of side-by-side buildings came available downtown, they decided to be the someone. The restoration took roughly a year, starting in January 2020.
A Christmas Day Soft Opening, Word of Mouth Only
Big Pillow’s first pour came on Christmas Day 2020, and the opening itself has become part of the brewery’s own folklore. Rubin and Donochod weren’t sure until the day of whether they’d be able to pull it off — they sent texts to the locals they knew, and word spread from there. More than seven inches of snow was already on the ground. Rubin later described the night as feeling like a family Christmas, just with a lot more people in it.
Surviving Helene
In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene sent the French Broad River and Spring Creek tearing through downtown Hot Springs, a town of roughly 538 people sitting directly between both. Most of downtown took damage, and Big Pillow’s future was genuinely uncertain for months afterward. The comeback started quietly, with a low-key soft reopening on Christmas Day 2024 — exactly four years after the brewery’s first pour. Donochod and Rubin expected maybe 60 people. Over 200 showed up. By spring 2025, the brewery had relaunched fully, with Bear Creek String Bandits playing the reopening show and weekend yoga back on the calendar the next morning.
