Even in 2019, GRCVB was touting Wake County's booming beer scene thanks, in part, to passage of the Craft Beer Distribution and Modernization Act. A pandemic, a recovery and a few years later, the craft beer scene is as strong as ever and still a vital part of visitation to Raleigh, N.C.

To help promote the Raleigh/Wake County craft beer scene to visitors and further incentivize trips to breweries themselves, GRCVB, in partnership with those local breweries, launched the Raleigh Beer Trail in 2016. The Trail utilized a printed Passport and rewarded participants with prizes for visiting up to 15 breweries during a series of trips, collecting stamps on their Passports along the way. Starting this week, GRCVB is soft-launching a new digital, mobile-exclusive Passport for the Raleigh Beer Trail, to make managing Passports and recording progress even easier.

Partnering with developer Bandwango, the digital Passport is not a downloadable app; it is a mobile-optimized website delivered to a phone after signing up. Each brewery location within Wake County is geo-fenced to allow visitors to "check in" from their phones while there. Each check-in earns participants 10 points, and points can be accumulated then spent on prizes valued at 50 and 100 points (bottle opener/coaster and beer hugger prize combo and a T-shirt, respectively). 

For brewery partners, this simplified process means front-of-house staff no longer have to stamp Passports and can direct people interested in the Beer Trail to our website at raleighbeertrail.com. (Note: Since some fans of the Trail started up a paper Passport in Jan.-Feb. 2024, we are honoring those submitted through the end of 2024, so hold onto your stamps just in case, brewers!)

Participants and partners can access our FAQ webpage for any other questions about the changes (and for digital troubleshooting, participants can reach out Bandwango directly, noted at the top of the FAQ page). 

Also launching alongside our digital Beer Trail Passport is our new Outdoor Mural Trail, highlighting select public art throughout the destination. This trail is also accessible through a digital Passport and is a way for area visitors to better appreciate the talents of our area muralists/arts community while capturing sought-after selfies. Participants can visit and "check into" up to 35 murals to earn entries (15 mural check-ins earn one entry) into a drawing for a local hospitality partner gift certificate; two winners out of all entries will be randomly selected by GRCVB each quarter (the first drawing happening July 2024).