222 Union Square
Hickory, NC 28601
828-322-1965
E-mail: info@oldehickorytaproom.com
Website: http://www.oldehickorybrewery.com
Hours: Daily, 11 A.M.–2 A.M.
Tours: Upon request; large groups should schedule ahead of time
Owners: Steve Lyerly and Jason Yates
Brewmaster: Steve Lyerly
Opened: 1994
Regular beer lineup: Imperial Stout, Piedmont Pilsner, Table Rock Pale Ale, Hickory Stick Stout, Doppelbock, Brown Mountain Light, Scottish Ale, Hefe-Weizen, Nut Brown Ale, Chocolate Porter, Poor Richard’s Ale, Ruby Lager, Bards-town Barley Wine, Irish Walker, L2 Light Lager
Seasonals: Olde Rabbit’s Foot (collaborative brew with Foothills Brewing and The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery), Black Raven IPA, Christmas Ale
Award: 2010 World Beer Cup Silver Medal for “Irish Walker”
Olde Hickory Tap Room in Hickory
It’s impossible to go to Hickory, North Carolina, and not run across Olde Hickory somewhere—whether it’s the taproom in Union Square, the old brewpub Amos Howard’s out on Route 70, or the brewery itself on Third Street. All have become iconic locations in this old textile center.
Steve Lyerly moved back to North Carolina in 1994. He had spent years in Missouri during high school and then college, but a job at North Carolina State University enticed him back, and he moved to Hickory to establish residence before applying for the position. He never had that chance.
An avid homebrewer, Lyerly was excited to learn about a brewpub opening in town. He quickly visited—before it even opened its doors—to ask about volunteering some of his time. The brewpub, Amos Howard’s, already had a brewer, a local man by the name of Jim Walker who was also a homebrewer. In fact, Walker ran something of a homebrew supply shop out of his basement.
As it turned out, being a full-time brewer wasn’t in the cards for Walker. He already held a full-time job, and he and his wife had just had twins. “The job was sold to him as, ‘You can just come in on Saturdays and make some beer,’ but it just doesn’t work that way commercially,” says Lyerly. “So Jim got frustrated very quickly and decided that it just wasn’t what he wanted to do. I just ended up being the only person left standing in the building who knew anything about beer, and I talked the ownership into giving me a shot.”
Barrels outside the testing room at Olde Hickory Brewery
The brewery didn’t exactly have the best possible equipment. In fact, the owners of Amos Howard’s had bought reclaimed dairy equipment from Highland Brewing Company in Asheville—the same equipment John McDermott, Highland’s first brewer, had adapted for use in its first facility. Some of it still resides at Amos Howard’s today.
Soon after Amos Howard’s opened, Lyerly met the person who would eventually become his business partner. Jason Yates was an engineer at a textile mill in nearby Morganton, where, Lyerly says, “they had a huge boneyard full of stainless-steel tanks perfect for a brewery.” The two of them started planning a joint venture in which they would open their own operation not as a brewpub but as a packaging brewery. The owners of Amos Howard’s, however, caught wind of the plan and made an offer instead. Almost a year after Amos Howard’s opened, Lyerly and Yates bought it from the original six investors. They had their brewery.
Amos Howard’s brewpub in Hickory—the original site of Olde Hickory Brewery
Soon after the purchase, the pair also bought a little deli in a historic building in downtown Hickory’s Union Square and started renovating it. After about a year and a half of remodeling, they opened the Olde Hickory Tap Room. Today, the taproom, a prominent location on the square, is often filled to the brim with happy patrons. It’s a warm, welcoming environment with one full room of comfortable tables and booths and a long, dimly lit bar featuring a couple of dozen taps, liquor, and rows of pewter mugs hanging ready for the regulars they belong to.
Opening the taproom, Lyerly says, completely drained their capacity at Amos Howard’s. That’s when they started looking to expand into a production facility. They found another space and opened the packaging facility on Third Street in 2000, starting with used equipment from the Middlesex and Pilgrim brewing companies in Massachusetts.
The production brewery is like many others: lined with tanks. In fact, it has more than most breweries of its size. Olde Hickory’s production facility also contains its own little taproom, an array of equipment that could almost serve as a brewery museum, and barrels. Barrels are everywhere, stacked high wherever there is room for them. Not only does Olde Hickory barrel-age its own beers—its barleywine, Irish Walker, and some of its imperial stouts—it also ages Olde Rabbit’s Foot, the collaborative blend it releases each year in conjunction with Foothills Brewing and The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. In addition, Lyerly has a long-term barrel-aging project in preparation for Olde Hickory’s 20th anniversary in 2014. He’s been aging his barleywine since 2007. By 2014, he will be able to feature a seven-year vertical of barleywines—a tasting featuring vintages from all seven years.
Paul Philippon of The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery shows off the Best in Show award from the Carolinas Championship of Beer at Hickory Hops.
• When it happens: April
• Where it happens: Downtown Hickory
• Ticket price: About $40
• Features: The Carolinas Championship of Beer Best in Show winners are announced during the festival; many of the winners are available for patrons to try. This festival, highly popular with the state’s brewers, features one of the most complete lineups of North Carolina beers available in one place.
• Notes: This is a six-hour-long festival with limited ticket sales and bathroom facilities.
That’s not the only project in the works. Olde Hickory has expanded production twice in the past three years and has grown its distribution around the state. In addition, Lyerly and Yates are working on their fourth location in Hickory, remodeling the old train station to create a combination bakery/deli/café that will feature 50-plus taps of craft beer, many of which, of course, will come from Olde Hickory itself.
