Part of the fun of visiting a new city is checking out the local breweries and taprooms. To make that even more fun, Moore County has the Sandhills Pour Tour Passport. Visit all the breweries in the area for a chance to win prizes. Get all the details here.
For more help planning your trip, check out all our posts about the Sandhills region.
We live in North Craftolina. That’s not a typo. That’s what people call North Carolina because the craft beer boom hit this area and hit it hard. It seems like any city you go to in North Carolina will have a bunch of breweries, distilleries, and taprooms to check out.
But, if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all it starts to seem. Many are in buildings that feel unfinished, many in industrial plazas, many with exposed pipes and unstained wood.
You know exactly what I mean. You’ve been to all those places.
So, Moore County has come up with a really fun way to get you to visit all of its local breweries and taprooms: The Sandhills Pour Tour. It’s a new passport program where you visit area watering holes, get a stamp in a passport, and turn that in for a prize. It’s perfect for craft beer fans.
You definitely don’t want to drink on an empty stomach. So fill up at the “The Best Breakfast In Golf” at Carolina Dining Room At Pinehurst Resort, which is in Moore County. The food is delicious. I had the best omelet of my life there.
Sandhills Pour Tour: Everything you need to know
You head to any of the passport participants, or the Convention & Visitors Bureau office in Southern Pines (155 W. New York Avenue; Suite 300 in a building that looks like a train ticketing area), to pick up a passport. Then, you take the passport around to the local breweries in the county.
A purchase at a location gets you a special stamp. The purchase doesn’t have to be alcohol. It can be anything that’s sold there (which is good if you’re a non-drinker like me). When you’ve collected all nine stamps, you bring the passport back to the CVB office and you’ll get a Sandhills Pour Tour commemorative glass for free (well, it’ll cost you however much your purchases cost, but you know what I mean).
Even better, everyone who turns in fully-stamped passports are entered to win a grand prize drawing.
This time, the prize is a weekend away in the region for Valentine’s Day weekend.
If you finish your passport by December 31, 2024, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a two night stay at the Carolina Hotel at Pinehurst Resort (home of the US Open and the aforementioned best breakfast in golf), a couples spa treatment at The Spa at Pinehurst (which, if you’ve never done a couples massage with your significant other before, you need to), dinner for two on the the Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway Romance on the Rails Train, and a distillery tour at BHAWK Distillery.
So basically, drink a little, get a little lucky, and Valentine’s Day plans itself.
Sandhills Pour Tour Participating Locations
BHAWK Distillery (Brad Halling American Whiskey Ko.)
175 Yadkin Rd.; Southern Pines
BHAWK Distillery is the passion of retired Army veterans Brad and Jessica Halling.
Brad’s story is phenomenal. He fought in the Battle of Mogadishu, which was depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down. He was wounded when a grenade struck his helicopter and amputated his left leg above the knee. Incredibly, Brad became the first above-knee amputee to remain on active duty through his retirement. After retirement, he finished a graduate program to become a Certified Prosthetist and eventually returned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command to train soldiers until he and Jessica began BHAWK.
Jessica also served, at one point as a Senior Legal Advisor in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
And now they’re owners of BHAWK, a distillery where you can take a guided tour or enjoy a cocktail and light fare.
The Buggy Factory by Southern Pines Brewing Company
106 S. Ray St.; Carthage
The Buggy Factory is the newest endeavor from Southern Pines Brewing Company. It opened this summer (right at the same time I was in Moore County, coincidentally).
It won two Best of the Pines awards (for Best New Restaurant and Best Bar or Restaurant for Live Entertainment) in September, but actually temporarily closed its doors earlier this month for a bit of reimagining. The Buggy Factory wasn’t serving the community as well as it could be.
So, the brand actually hosted an open forum with the community. It asked for feedback. Which is something that I think small businesses should do and could really benefit from. But you know, they don’t do it. Southern Pines Brewing Company did. And got a ton of feedback.
So, the doors are temporarily closed, but will reopen with a new concept. Since it’s currently closed, I think you can probably skip the stamp for this one and still be considered a fully-stamped passport.
Hatchet Brewing Company
490 SW Broad St.; Southern Pines
Hatchet Brewing Company is another veteran-owned brewery, founded by friends Greg Walker and Mike Carey, who met when the former was in Special Forces training and the latter was a Senior Operations Sergeant Major. They bonded over brewing and, well, the rest sounds like an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
There’s an episode where two of the main characters are like, “We should open a bar.” And they do.
But that’s where the similarities end. Because in HIMYM, the bar doesn’t work out so well. And with Greg and Mike, it’s going very well. Hatchet Brewing Company has been open since 2019. We didn’t get the chance to check out the brewery when we were in town (we wanted to go for trivia but were too tired that night), but we did see them pouring beers at the annual N. C. Peach Festival in nearby Candor.
James Creek Cider House
172 US Highway 1; Cameron
What do you do if you own orchards? Open a cidery, of course. And that’s how James Creek Cider House got started.
The cidery uses Southern heirloom and cider apple varieties grown in its Moore County orchards, plus apples from other North Carolina family farms, to make its cider. You can actually see its orchard from the cider house’s tasting room. There’s also a bottle shop and fruit stand on premises.
James Creek Cider House is home to events like a farmers market, music bingo, live music, and has food trucks often.
And, for non-drinkers like me (and children), James Creek Cider House serves fresh, sweet cider and sodas.
Pinehurst Brewing Company
300 Magnolia Rd.; Pinehurst
So much of the Pinehurst area is branded with 1895, the year James Walker Tufts purchased 500 acres of land to create a health resort village, originally known as Tuftstown and Pinealia before being renamed Pinehurst in December of that year.
That year is when a steam power plant was built. That building became abandoned, and, in a very poetic way, the owners of Pinehurst Brewing Company took a building that once provided energy to the village and turned it into a building that provides a different kind of energy now.
That’s so cool.
As much of the building that was able to be kept was, with some of the original valves and pipes being transformed into light fixtures and table legs in the brewery.
Railhouse Brewery
105 E. South St., Unit C; Aberdeen
We actually got a chance to sit in Railhouse Brewery for a while as part of the Peach Week Foodie Tour we went one. It was one of the five stops on our tour. Guests on the tour were able to try a peach beer, made with local peaches, and anything else on the menu.
What I absolutely loved is that the staff was able to make me a delicious mocktail, in a fancy glass, so I didn’t feel left out. That’s the kind of service that makes you really want to support an establishment.
And you definitely want to support this one.
It’s another veteran-owned brewery, brewing beer that’s distributed in both Carolinas and in South Korea.
The brewery, which began in December 2010, is situated in an industrial building behind the (still used) railroad tracks, hence the name.
Southern Pines Brewing Company
565 Air Tool Dr., Suite E; Southern Pines
There are a few Southern Pines Brewing Company locations in the area. This one is the brand’s original location, now a taproom and the production brewery.
It’s the least centrally located of the locations, but the one most people want to go to because, well, it’s the one that kicked off the brand.
While they were Operational Detachment Alpha Team in the Green Berets, friends Micah Niebauer, Jason Ginos, and John Brumer met. They were homebrewers, who were faced with a choice: make beer or stay in the miliary.
Obviously, you know what their answer was.
The trio sold their first beer in June 2014 (the month Pete and I were married) and the rest is history.
Southern Pines Brewing Company on Pennsylvania
205 W. Pennsylvania Ave.; Southern Pines
This Southern Pines Brewing Company location is just a taproom. The location is perfect, though. It’s located one block off the main drag of downtown Southern Pines, making it the most convenient location of all of them, if you’re staying downtown.
Southern Pines Growler Company
160 W. New York Ave.; Southern Pines
Southern Pines Growler Company is Moore County’s first growler fill station (which, also, is the first one I’ve ever heard of in my life). You can buy a growler there or bring your own to fill (as long as its 32 oz., 64 oz., or 128 oz.,). If you’re planning on going a lot, you can join the growler club and earn free merch for fills.
It’s located in a very large brick building with a huge outdoor seating area, including a back deck with televisions for the perfect Sunday Funday.
You can fill a growler there, of course, but you can also just order a beer, wine (finally, one for wine drinkers), cider, or soda and sit with some friends to enjoy it.
Despite the name, it’s unrelated to Southern Pines Brewing Company. They’re just, you know, all from Southern Pines, NC.
More To Do In Moore County:
Pinehurst is known as the home of American golf, but there’s more to do in the area than play at golf courses. If you’re visiting, be sure to check out the Sandhills Horticultural Gardens. It’s a free botanical garden on the Sandhills Community College campus that’s open to the public.
More Local Beer In North Carolina:
If you want to see more of North Craftolina, The Complete Guide To Breweries In Wilmington, North Carolina and the Best Breweries In Durham, NC list are for you.
If you’re near Asheville, NC, don’t forget to check out Sierra Nevada Brewery too.
Have you visited the area and checked out the Sandhills Pour Tour? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.