Hickory Hops, the Hickory areas’ annual downtown beer festival, not only provides a boost to the local economy, it also makes a contribution that is felt statewide. For the second year in a row, Hickory Hops made a financial donation to the North Carolina Brewers Guild (NCBG). Festival organizers Jason Yates and Steven Lyerly of Olde Hickory Brewery reported a festival gift of $1000 toward the Guild’s operations.

Founded in 2008 by a group of NC craft breweries, the non-profit Brewers Guild’s mission is to: promote NC beers; facilitate cooperative purchasing; encourage information exchange among members; and work with the state legislature to protect and grow the industry. Presently 36 breweries, many of whom participated in the eight-year-old Hickory Hops festival this past April, are active members.

For the first time in its five year history, Hickory Hops’ professional competition, the Carolinas Championship of Beer, also made a contribution to the NCBG. With the understanding that half of the entrance fee would be donated to the Brewers Guild, brewers paid $10 per beer to participate in the blind judged event. Nearly 300 different beers from over 40 breweries were received by competition organizer Bobby Bush. As is turned out, Bush discovered, competition expenses were lower than expected. The CCB contribution to the Brewers Guild totaled $1800.

Guild president Jamie Bartholomaus, head brewer for Winston-Salem’s Foothills Brewing, was ecstatic with the two donations. A former brewer at Olde Hickory, he hoisted a pint of his People’s Porter in appreciation of Hickory Hops and the Carolinas Championship of Beer for supporting the craft brewing industry in North Carolina.

An annual function of the Hickory Downtown Development Association, the 9th Hickory Hops festival will be held on April 16, 2011.