Ryan Roberts, owner of R&R Brewing, holds one of the commemorative glasses given away during the company’s fifth-anniversary celebration held Saturday, Oct. 14. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
The R&R Brewing taproom was packed for the company’s fifth-anniversary celebration held Saturday, Oct. 14. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Steve Martin, left, and Dennis Puckett were among those who attended the fifth-anniversary celebration for R&R Brewing. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Ryan Roberts, owner of R&R Brewing, dressed in traditional German Lederhosen, opting for flip-flops instead of shoes, for his company’s fifth-anniversary celebration. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
The two young men paused as they opened the door and saw the packed R&R Brewing taproom Saturday, Oct. 14.
And even though it was just minutes past the 5 p.m. start of the brewery’s fifth-anniversary celebration, both men agreed that the free promotional glasses they had hoped to score probably had already been claimed.
They were right, however, owner Ryan Roberts had plenty more for sale along with other promotional items for the celebration, including R&R sweatpants.
The glass has “Cheers to Five Years” printed above the R&R logo and “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere” below the logo.
It was a family-friendly event that people brought their children and even their dogs to.
“We are just celebrating five complete years of being open to the public,” said Roberts, who was wearing traditional German Lederhosen, opting for flip-flops instead of shoes. “We wanted to do a couple of different things, do some commemorative glassware to mark the five-year milestone so we gave away 55 glasses at 5 o’clock.
“Lederhosen is kind of symbolic of Oktoberfest and this time of year. So, I went and got me some authentic leather Lederhosen and am just going to wear it around this time of year every year I guess.”
The evening was all about accenting the fact that the brewery has made it for five years, one of those years being COVID, he said.
“So that made it all that more important to us — letting people see that we just completely upgraded our production facility last week,” he said. “Just last week all of this equipment came in.
“So the first five years we were growing slow and steady and for the next five years that is kind of the vision that we are going for.”
A band concert started at 7 p.m. in the area behind the brewery where a food truck was set up.
Also set up were a putting area and corn hole.
Belinda Parent of the Purple Turtle set up The Splatter Room tent where people could create their own splatter art.
“We prepaid for 25 people to paint,” Roberts said. “We thought we would incorporate another local business and we prepaid for 25 people to go in there and do splatter painting for free — kids, adults, whomever.
“You put on a raincoat-looking deal, go in there with the paint and just go to town and do some abstract art. So we are trying to have activities for adults and kids and have some freebies giveaway. Hopefully, everybody just socializes and has a good time.”
The event offered special beers not normally on the menu including an Oktoberfest beer since the anniversary is in the fall, Roberts said.
It is brewed every year and the name is changed based off what the year is.
“We (also) did this cool new mixture, it is a black tea cider type kind of blended with a beer that we made,” Roberts said. “It is a good opportunity knowing that we are going to have a crowd to introduce new items to see how people like it and get feedback.”
Robert also has added a nonalcoholic root beer to his offerings.
Hopefully, it is the first in the line of many soda, he added.
“Knowing that our future expansion is going to include having a commercial kitchen open for lunchtime, we wanted to start seeing how we could utilize and maximize the equipment we have,” he said.
The equipment can be used to make sodas, something that is easier than making beer, he added.
“We have been making root beer for a while and finally decided to put it in cans and make it to go,” he said. “It is named after the brewer’s son Parker, and we call them Parker’s Pints.
“The first one is root beer, but we are planning to do a cherry lemon lime, ginger cream soda and Astro pop-like red, white and blue popsicle flavor. The world is endless as far as the soda flavors go.”
Producing sodas by the five-year mark had been one of his goals, he added.
Roberts said that a lot of the things being done are in preparation for opening his second location in Clinton — including the soda and planning for serving lunch.
There is a rumor going round that something will happen to the Mount Olive location once the Clinton one opens, he said.
“That couldn’t be any more false,” he said. “We will stay here rocking and rolling just like we have for five years, but we are also going to have that location over there.”
Roberts said he will continue to focus production in Mount Olive because of its high quality of water.
It will be about a year before the new location opens, he added.
