2013 4th Annual Olde Hickory Pro-Am Competition Results Click Here for Results

About CLASS

CLASS is a 50/50 mix of homebrewers and beer tasters gathering once a month to share our homebrewing projects and commercial brews in a monthly themed beer style (or three). See the Tasting Schedule below.

Monthly Meeting

CLASS gathers on the second Tuesday of every month, except December, at Advantage Beer & Wine Supplies. (MAP)

• What you should bring: (3) 12-ounce bottles or (2) 22-ounce bombers of a commercial brew in the monthly beer style OR your latest homebrew project. You are certainly welcome to bring more, but please don't bring less. You will be well-rewarded as a typical meeting can be 20 to 30 beers to sample.
• First timers need not bring anything (unless you want to). Sit in on a meeting and check us out.

Online Swag-O-Rama

Beer Lovers love cool beer gear. Our CafePress online store has shirts, hoodies, pint glasses, totes and more.

* Note: Our profit on each item you buy is one dollar and goes toward our yearly website expenses.

The Rewards of Membership

For the sake of easy administration, membership is $15 and runs January to December. Your dues help pay for the incidentals of running the club, sponsoring the annual Hickory Pro Am homebrew competition, the Christmas party, and facilities rental. It does not buy any beer for the meetings and for that reason is not pro-rated if you jump in mid-year. It's not much, and there are some nice benefits.

• A 10% Discount Card for Advantage Beer & Wine Supplies (Facebook)
• A 10% Discount Card for Hops and Grapes, Hickory, NC (bottle store) (Facebook)
• A 10% Discount Card for Alternative Beverage, Charlotte, NC (beer and wine supplier)

Where to Get the Craft Beer in Bottles

Here are some places around Hickory, NC that carry bottled craft beer. Facebook us with your goto brew stores.

• Hops and Grapes
• Amos Howard's
• Lowe's Foods

CLASS Brewery Incubator

Two CLASS members used the club and Pro Am competition as an incubator for their commercial breweries. Stop by and support these local craft brew pioneers.

The Tasting Schedule

January – Cask-conditioned Beers

• Bourbon-barrel Aged – (Olde Hickory Event Horizon, Epic Big Bad Baptist Stout)
• Cask-conditioned – (Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster, Foothill's Barrel Aged People's Porter)

February – Barleywines and Old Ales

• English Old Ale – (Theakston's Old Peculiar, Thomas Hardy, Howard General Lenoir)
• English Barleywines – ( Young's Old Nick, Ridgeway Criminally Bad Elf)
• American Barleywines – (Anchor Old Foghorn, Rogue Old Crustacean)

March – Stouts and Porters

• Dry Stout – (Guinness Draught, Murphy's)
• Sweet Stout – (Watney's, Mackeson's)
• Oatmeal Stout – (Anderson Valley Barney Flats, Young's)
• Foreign & Imperial Stout – (Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, North Coast Old Rasputin)
• Brown Porter – (Anchor, Sam Smith's Taddy Porter, Foothill's People's Porter)
• Robust Porter – (Sierra Nevada, Highland Oatmeal Porter)
• Baltic Porter – (Duck-Rabbit, Uinta Crooked Line)

April – Bitters and Pale Ales

• Ordinary Bitter – (Boddington Draught)
• Special Bitter – (Young's Ramrod, Fuller's London Pride)
• Extra Special Bitter – (Fuller's, Olde Hickory, Green Man)
• English Pale Ale – (Samuel Smith's, Bass)
• American Pale Ale – (Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale)
• California Common – (Anchor Steam)

May – Belgian and French Ales

• Single – (La Trappe, Witkap Pater)
• Dubbel – (Affligem, La Trappe, Ommegang)
• Tripel – (Westmalle, St Bernardus)
• Quadrupel – (Boulevard, Sierra Nevada Ovila)
• Strong Golden & Dark Ales – (Orval, Duvel, Chimay)
• Biere de Garde – (Jerlain, 3 Monts)
• Saison – (Saison du Pont, Jolly Pumpkin, Fantome)

June – India Pale Ales, Imperial/Double IPAs, Black And White IPAs

• English IPA – (Green Man, Carolina Brewery Flagship, Sam Smith's India Ale)
• American IPA – (Terrapin Hopsecutioner, Olde Hickory Table Rock)
• Imperial/Double IPA – (Southern Tier 2XIPA, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid)
• Black IPA – (21st Amendment Back in Black, Heavy Seas Black Cannon)
• White IPA – (Mendocino, Saranac)

July – Light Lagers, Wits And Summer Beers, Cream Ales

• Light Lagers – (Victory Lager, Bitburger, Stella Artois)
• Pilsner – (Victory Prima Pilsner, Foothills Torch, Pilsner Urquell)
• Wit/White Ale – (Mother Earth Weeping Willow, Hoegaarden, Catawba Valley White Zombie)
• Summer Beers – (Bell's Oberon, Anderson Valley Summer Solstice)
• Cream Ales – (Catawba Valley Farmer Ted, Genessee)

August – German Ales, Wheat Beers, Dopplebocks, Rauchbier

• Kolsch – (Mother Earth Endless River, Sam Adams East West Kolsch)
• American Wheat – (Widmer Hefeweizen, Anchor Wheat)
• Bavarian Wheat – (Olde Hickory Hefeweizen, Schneider Weiss)
• Dunkelweizen – (Hacker-Pschorr, Weihenstephaner)
• Weizenbock – (Schneider Aventinus)

September – Oktoberfest, Amber And Dark Lagers

• Oktoberfests – (Paulaner, Spaten)
• American Oktoberfests – (Victory, French Broad, Sam Adams)
• Munich Dunkel – (Spaten)
• Schwarzbier – (Köstritzer, Dark Horse, Duck-Rabbit)
• Bock – (Paulaner)
• Helles/Maibock – (Ayinger, New Belgium Hoppy Bock)
• Rauchbier – (Aecht Schlenkerla)
• Dopplebock – (Aventinus, Ayinger, Paulaner)

October – Brown, Scottish And Strong Scotch Ales

• Scottish Light, Heavy & Export – (McEwen's Export, Belhaven, MacAndrews)
• Scotch Ale – (McEwen's, Traquair House)
• English Brown – (Samuel Smith, Newcastle, Tilburg)
• American Brown – (Duck-Rabbit, Brooklyn Brown)

November – Fruit, Winter And Christmas Beers, Specialty, Collaboration Beers

• Fruit – (Lindemann's lambics, Abita Purple Haze, Sam Smith's)
• Christmas – (Olde Hickory, Rogue, Anchor Our Special Ale)
• Winter – (Avery Jubilation, Lagunitas Sucks)
• Specialty – (Rogue Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana, Well Banana Bread Beer)
• Collaboration – (Life & Limb, Old Rabbits Foot, Route 66)

December – Christmas Party And Potluck Dinner

• Bring a dish – (preferably made with beer) to share
• Bring any kind of beer you like!

Olde Hickory Pro Am Competition

CLASS in conjunction with Olde Hickory Brewery sponsor a homebrewer's competition in the Spring of each year. Details about entering your beers or participating in the judging will be added here around January of next year.

Click here for the 2013 Pro Am Competition Results

Annual Events

CLASS participates in a number of beer events each year:

• Olde Hickory Pro Am Competition - see details above.
• Hickory Hops Beer Festival - Held in April of each year on the square in Downtown Hickory, North Carolina. CLASS ponies up a number of homebrews alongside the 25-30 commercial breweries. Donate a keg to the cause and get free admission.
• Charlotte Oktoberfest - The Fall counterpart to Hickory Hops, we pack our tent, taps and kegs and travel to Charlotte. Donate a keg to the cause and get free admission.
• National Learn to Homebrew Day - The first Saturday in November each year, the American Homebrewer's Association has established this event to help anyone interested in learning to brew. CLASS organizes a local event on this day consisting of a day-long brew session with multiple homebrewers.

The CLASS Team

• Brent Queen - President (Facebook)
• Barry Wray - Treasurer/Membership Officer (Facebook)
• Chris Newsom - Web/Communications Officer (Facebook)
• Steve Moulton - Event and Equipment Coordinator (Facebook)
• Eddie Wetmore - Administrative Assistant (Facebook)
• Bobby Bush – "Master of All Things Beer" (Facebook)

Online Store

Links