NEW YORK– TapRm is excited to announce the arrival of our newest exclusive brewery, Lickinghole Creek Brewing Company. Lead by the brewery’s inventive CEO and cofounder Lisa Pumphrey, LCCB creates exceptional beer with ingredients they mostly grow themselves on their 290 acre farm in Goochland County, Virginia.
Lickinghole Creek’s beers strike a rare balance: they’re creative, exciting, and envelope-pushing, but never gimmicky or for the sake of a trend. When asked where the inspiration for what Lickinghole Creek brews comes from, Pumphrey chuckles. “From the very beginning, it has everything to do with what I want to drink,” she reasons.
The brewery’s lineup never stops innovating, offering mainstay favorites alongside new, novel twists. This is due to a few factors: the creativity of Pumphrey and the brewing team, the modus operandi of taking classic styles and adding American flair, and the local ingredients Lickinghole Creek uses.
Many of those ingredients are grown right on the brewery’s farm. Lickinghole Creek grows its own hops (Cascade, Centennial, and Nugget, varieties that grow well in Virginia) and barley, wheat, and rye, along with the additions you might find in any of their beers, like watermelon, blackberries, sunflowers (for their saison), pumpkins, carrots, strawberries, and more. When the brewery needs to use different kinds of hops, grain, or other ingredients, they painstakingly source to be local, responsible, and sustainable. The end result gives beer the kind of terroir many associate with wine: these beer styles taste like the land of Virginia and all it has to offer.
That’s extra special when you consider the unique combination of, say, a Belgian style with those American ingredients. That equation — long-loved styles reinvented with American flavors and ingenuity — drives Lickinghole Creek beer. For example, Three Chopt Tripel Ale takes that classic Belgian style and, as Pumphrey puts it, “non-stop hops it,” using both New Zealand and American hops that add tropical notes. The Heir Apparent is an imperial stout with those style-defining flavors of roasty chocolate with caramel, but Lickinghole Creek adds Mexican peppers for some heat. Then there’s the Nuclear Nugget, an imperial IPA made with honey from the brewery’s own bees. Not only is this beer sustainable and local, but it’s a beautiful balance — Pumphrey describes the honey as giving this hop bomb a smooth swallow, adding a bit of sweet to the bitterness.
From the brewery’s crops and water to its philanthropic missions to its beer, there’s an incredible amount of thought, care, and planning behind Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery. As Pumphrey says, “Every beer has a story; there’s a full background to every beer we create.” Considering the farm-grown ingredients of each beer and the fact that each brew is fueling work to widen access to clean water, we think that story is pretty great.
To try all of Lickinghole Creek’s options in New York, head to https://taprm.com/collections/lickinghole-creek-craft-brewery