5 days Ago By From staff reports
The Best of Show winners at the Hickory Hops beer festival, from left, are third place, Balsam Falls Brewing brewmaster Corey Bryson; second place, Olde Hickory Brewery brewmaster Steven Lyerly and first place Sidetracked Brewing brewmaster Joseph Ackerman. The beer festival's competition manager, Bobby Bush, stands with the winners. A Morganton brewery claimed Best of Show honors at the 2025 Hickory Hops and Carolinas Championship of Beers on April 12.
Sidetracked Brewing master brewer Joseph Ackerman was awarded a first-place plaque for Butterfly Riot, a Belgian blonde ale, according to a news release from the Hickory Downtown Development Association. The brewery is no stranger to awards at the Carolinas Championship of Beers. Ackerman and his Morganton brewery previously won 2023’s first-place trophy for Belgian-style Florere, a pink, dry, slightly tart cherry ale, the release said.
Olde Hickory Brewery’s Event Horizon was the runner-up in the Best of Show competition. Brewmaster Steven Lyerly’s dark and sultry bourbon barrel aged imperial stout is a popular annual release for the downtown brewery, according to the release. Balsam Falls Brewing, of Sylva, scored the competition’s third-place plaque for Downtown Oatmeal Brown Ale.
Head brewer Corey Bryson poured samples of the award-winning beer during Hickory Hops, the release said. The annual event attracted more than 2,000 people, according to the release. The 18th Carolinas Championship of Beer started with craft brewed beer.
During the Best of Show round at Hickory Hops, judges spent two hours tasting and deliberating before narrowing the choices to three beers. Each Hickory Hops brewery participant is encouraged to send bottled or canned beer in for judging. Three weeks prior to the festival, over 60 volunteers gathered at Olde Hickory Brewery to judge the unmarked beers for adherence to specific category characteristics.
The beers, which totaled 178 entries from 31 breweries, were judged in 171 styles and sub-styles. When the first round finished 3 hours later, 33 beers had scored gold medals. A total of 38 silver and 44 bronze winners were also identified, the release said.
For Carolinas Championship of Beer round two, a smaller group of certified judges convened to determine the best of the gold medal beers. Called the Best of Show round, after two hours of tasting and deliberation, three beers were identified as the best of the best. Eric Millsaps is editor of the Hickory Daily Record.
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