2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the legalization of craft beer brewing in North Carolina. University Libraries’ Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives partnered with Well Crafted NC and Weatherspoon Art Museum for exhibits and an event recognizing the history of this state’s multi-million dollar industry.
The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives will display “Cheers to 40 Years,” a special exhibit with materials from the Well Crafted NC research project, available on Jackson Library, 2nd Floor.
On Oct. 23, Well Crafted NC will host a special event to continue the celebration. At 5 p.m., the exhibit curator and team guide visitors in a tour of the “Cheers to 40 Years” exhibit. At 6 p.m., guests are invited to the Weatherspoon Art Museum for a panel discussion about the early years of North Carolina craft beer. Three industry experts who were active in the North Carolina craft beer community during the period of 1985-2005 will discuss the ways in which these years continue to impact the industry today.
Those interested in attending are asked to register in advance and indicate whether they want to attend the tour, panel discussion, or both.
Meet the panelists
Kinney Baughman: The first professional brewer in Watauga County, Baughman brewed Boone’s first IPA and an early pumpkin spice beer. His Amber Framboise won a bronze medal in 1995 at the Great American Beer Festival in the Belgian-style Specialty Ales category, well before there was a GABF category for sour beers. Baughman ran his own company, Brewco, and is a retired adjunct professor of philosophy at Appalachian State University.
Bobby Bush: Author of hundreds of articles about U.S. beer and the brewing industry dating back to the early 1990s. Bush is also co-founder of the Hickory Hops Craft beer Festival, the third-oldest continuously running beer festival in North Carolina. Bush is an avid collector of breweriana with more than 400 t-shirts, hundreds of pint glasses and growlers, and thousands of coasters.
Julie Johnson: Former co-owner and editor of “All About Beer” magazine. She authored the an article for the Raleigh News and Observer in 2002, which helped launch the “Pop the Cap” movement that she went on to co-lead. This changed the craft beer landscape of North Carolina, jumpstarting a billion-dollar industry and creating hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs.
