First a belated thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello at the Brew Grass Festival in Asheville, NC this past Saturday. We had a great time, as always, talking with visitors and other brewers alike. Next up, the Charlotte Oktoberfest (www.charlotteoktoberfest.com) which just happens to be the same day as Hickory's Oktoberfest. Don't worry though you'll still find lots of Olde Hickory brews at the Olde Hickory Tap Room during Hickory's festival.

And now to announce... Olde Rip! Olde Rip is our barleywine, aged in Pappy Van Winkle whiskey barrels. The result has a nice alcohol warmth and depth to it. It's not quite ready yet, but will be at both our locations (check Locations) very soon. Sorry to say, as of right now we have no plans to bottle this limited production brew. It'll be worth a trip though!

We wanted to let everyone know that the Olde Hickory Tap Room has started a new community initiative called Going Out and Giving Back. One night each month the Tap Room will donate 20% of the food and non-alcoholic beverage sales to a local community organization.

The first event is Tuesday, September 22nd and will benefit fellow downtown Hickory destination the Hickory Community Theatre.

For more information visit the Tap Room's event page here.

We hope our fans and loyal patrons in the Hickory area will come out and help us support a great community institution!

A ton of news for y’all today

We’ve started making our Christmas Ale and it’s getting exciting! It should be ready and at the Olde Hickory Tap Room and Amos Howards by Thanksgiving. A local favorite, get it while you can as it’s usually gone by New Years.

Long time favorites Table Rock Pale Ale, Hefeweizen and Piedmont Pilsner will soon be bottled for the first time. Once the labels come back from the printers we’ll be ready to go. You’ll be able to find them at the Olde Hickory Tap Room and Amos Howards. Other locations? Maybe...

We’ll be at the Brew Grass Festival in Asheville on September 19th. Looks like tickets are sold out, but check www.brewgrassfestival.com for more information. For all you lucky ticket holders – stop by and say hi!

And we’ve delivered Dopplebock to the Olde Hickory Tap Room. Dopple Bock is German meaning “Double Bock” or double strength beer. It is a high-gravity lager beer at 9% alcohol by volume. Our Dopplebock would best be described as a Lager version of a Porter. It is black in color, with a red tinge. It is a malty beer with notes of raisins and other dark stone fruit coupled with a warming ethanol complexity. The body is full and the finish lingers.

Cheers!

Enjoy this behind the scenes video of the Olde Hickory Brewery and interview with brewery Steven Lyerly.

As revealed in this video, we are collaborating with Foothills Brewery and Duck-Rabbit Brewery to create Olde Rabbit’s Foot. Each brewery is taking its own imperial stout and aging in it 23 year Pappy Van Winkle whisky barrels. The beers will then be blended together and Olde Rabbit’s Foot will be born! More details to come…

Welcome to the Olde Hickory Brewery’s first blog and brand new website! Some of you may remember the Brewery’s first site back in 1999. Of course, it’s not too hard to remember it - the same site was still around last week in August of 2009. Well, we were busy making great beer, so you can’t blame us too much for being a little slow to update the site.

We’ve finally caught up, and we think you’ll like the changes. Of course we have information about our current brews, about the Brewery itself and how the beer is made. You’ll also find our contact information and a contact form so that you can let us know what you like, need or want from the site. Check out the “Get the Beer” page to find out where our beer can be purchased, and the “Locations” page to learn more about our two restaurants.

The new highlight of the site is this blog. Bookmark this page or add us to your favorite RSS feed reader (the links are on the left, near the bottom of the page) for all the latest news about new and seasonal beers, festivals, awards, events at our restaurants and more! And for our first official announcement - our Nut Brown Ale, which has been on hiatus, will return in the near future! We'll let everyone exactly when and where they can find it right here, so check back soon!