ABOUT US / CONTACT INFO / HOURS
ABOUT
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery is Virginia's award-winning Farm Brewery, located on 290 pristine acres in Goochland County, Virginia, USA, Earth. We love to make innovative, premium beers for beer lovers. Sometimes it's hard to find, because we don't have those fancy machines, where you push a button and beer comes out. Small batch flavor, and hard-to-come-by are just a by-products of the craft, ingredients and care that goes into each brew.
We grow a lot of our own ingredients, like: wheat, barley, hops, berries, pumpkin. And what we can't find—we source it from local farmers, or from global farming communities in need. We are global stewards of good water. And, unlike most breweries in the world, we sustainably source our own water onsite. All this takes time, of course. And if that's not enough of a time killer for you, many of our beers are aged in Kentucky Bourbon barrels for up to 6 months.
We offer two distinct locations, where beer is brewed and served: the farm, the city.
LOCATIONS
Virginia's Farm Brewery
4100 Knolls Point Drive / Goochland, Virginia 23063
OPEN DAILY: 9-5p. Just knock on the brewery door.
TASTING ROOM SUMMER HOURS: Fri 5-9p, Sat 12-9p, Sun 12-7p
TASTING ROOM WINTER HOURS: Fri 3-7p, Sat 12-7p, Sun 12-7p
SHOCKOE BOTTOM
1717 East Franklin Street / Richmond, Virginia 23223
OPEN: Mon-Fri 4-10p Sat-Sun 12-10p
HISTORY
This was never supposed to happen. A Farm Brewery? That's insane. Adding "farm" in front of anything will be: a) too much work b) no sleeping in c) and will certainly loose money. After a casual beer infused conversation at Mekong (a local beer bar, for you out-of-towners) the three co-founders, Lisa, Sean and Farris went on their way to enlist the help of local marketing legend, part-time super model, and author of this post, Adam, who was at the time working at a local ad agency. The brewery had the land, now she just needed a name.
The property had inherited some pretty unique names, and some gems that were pre-fabricated into the local lexicon, like "Goochland" (be sure not to look up "gooch" in the Urban Dictionary), Magic Beaver Pond, and Little Lickinghole Creek, which runs right through the backwoods of the property and empties into the James River. I'm fairly certain, that the runner up brewery names were something Jeffersonian and boring, which made the winning name stand out even more: Lickinghole Creek. Yes, it's one word: Lickinghole. Spellcheck hates that word. It will always try to separate it into two words for you. Don't let it do that. It's one word, because the it pre-dates "good English" and stuff. "Lickinghole" is a pre-colonial term used to describe a place where wildlife would go to find good water to drink. You probably thought it was something else.
If you read in between the lines of our seemingly silly name, you can decode that our backbone is about the clean water, for creatures both great and small, nature and people. That's why this unique farm brewery business model is so challenging, yet so rewarding. If it was easy to farm your ingredients, filter your wastewater, and keep bears out of your grain, every brewery would be a farm brewery; but only one can be Virginia's Farm Brewery.
Press/praise
"Hard to find." — said everybody
"You guys are really organized."— said nobody
“Winner 3 years straight- Goochland’s Best Brewery”- Goochland Gazette
4.32/5 Place Stats 2018 -4.25 - 4.49 = Outstanding Rating- Beer Advocate
Brewers of the:
9 Mile IPA—”One of the Best in Show” —Great British Beer Festival 2018 Imbibe http://imbibe.com/news-articles/beers/six-best-great-british-beer-festival/
Enlightened Despot—”The Must-Try Beer”-Wall Street Journal
94/100—-4.2/5 Beer Advocate
Great Commander Rum Barrel Aged Mexican Stout-2018 Gold Medal VA Beer Cup….2016 RateBeer Best in the Subregion….
Scarlett Honey Hoppy Red Ale- 2018 Silver Honey Ale Competition
Citra Happens Imperial Honey IPA - Medal VA Beer Cup 2018
Heir Apparent Silver Medal Great American Beer Fest 2016, Silver Va Beer Cup 2015
Coconut Delight Rum Barrel Aged Quadrupel Ale- World Beer Cup 2015
Virginia Black Bear Russian Imperial Stout - GOLD Two years in a row VA BEER CUP
Nuclear Nugget Honey Imperial IPA- Bronze- Va Craft Beer Cup 2015