Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery.
You can learn a lot about a place and the people who run it by how they give directions. To get to Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery in Goochland, you’ll take “a private shared gravel road” the owners say, so “when visiting the brewery please drive slowly and responsibly with respect to our neighbors and the rural area.” Care for their neighbors carries over to a deep care for their customers as well. This is what defines Lickinghole Creek.
The brewery’s name may raise eyebrows, but it’s actually all about respect and tradition, both important company tenets. It pays homage to Little Lickinghole Creek, which runs through the property’s rolling hills. For centuries the creek has been known as the “lickinghole,” where wildlife would stop to drink from its nourishing waters.
And similarly, the brewery draws directly from the local watershed and runs its own water purification on-site. Not surprisingly, all ingredients are locally and sustainably sourced, and leftover grains are passed along to help feed local livestock. Sales manager Rob Pennington is proud to note, “we harvest ingredients we put in the brews themselves, such as hops wheat, barley, twenty apiary boxes that produce the honeybees that pollinate the 300 acres of land…If we don’t grow it on the farm, we try to source it from other Virginia sources.”
Lickinghole gives to the community, the community gives to Lickinghole—there is a meeting in the middle; the brewery hosts countless community events. In February, for instance, they celebrated the (re)release of the well-loved “Blueberry Obsession” stout with live music and food trucks. Coming up May 14-15, bluegrass musician Keller Williams will deliver shows both solo and with his band, The Keels.
In between events, the brewery runs tours, a tasting room, and a disc-golf course—which may become easier or harder depending on whether you visit the course or the tasting room first. This is a perfect place to check out with family or friends when you’re in the area with a few hours to spare—and the perfect reason as to make the trip, if you’re not. LickingholeCreek.com
