Pluck Farm: Steel String Brewery's Working Farm, Taproom & Live Music Hub in Mebane, NC
Just off Highway 54 on the western edge of Orange County, about 11 miles outside Carrboro, Pluck Farm is Steel String Brewery's second location — a sprawling, biodiverse working farm that doubles as a taproom, disc golf course, and one of the Triangle area's most laid-back live music spots. Part farm, part beer garden, part community backyard, Pluck Farm has grown from a bare stretch of pasture into a genuine gathering place for musicians, families, dog owners, and anyone looking for a low-key afternoon outdoors.
"They have created something magical here" - a place where the land, the beer, and the community are inseparably connected. It's the realization of a vision that started in a downtown Carrboro taproom and has blossomed into 57 acres of conservation-minded, beer-brewing, music-playing, community-gathering paradise. Come for the open mic, stay for the sunset over the fields, and leave planning your return visit.
From Farmland to Community Gathering Spot
Steel String Brewery's founders, including co-owner Eric Knight, purchased the original 37-acre property in early 2019 with a simple goal: build a local spot that felt meaningful, a place where people could actually meet up and connect with one another, with music woven into the fabric of it from the start. As part of the purchase, the team partnered with Orange County Economic Development to sell off a portion of the land for a Mountains-to-Sea Trail entrance, tying the property into the region's larger network of public trails.
Pluck Farm opened to the public in May 2021, starting small with a beer garden, a pond, a handful of flower and hop plantings, and a modest pitch-and-putt disc golf course. In the years since, it has kept expanding: the disc golf course grew to 18 holes by late 2022 and, following a redesign in the winter of 2025–2026, now spans 22 holes across roughly 57 acres of gardens, woods, and open lawn. What started as an experiment in agritourism has become one of the area's steadiest venues for weekend live music and a weekly open mic night.
A Working Farm With Room to Roam
Pluck Farm earns its name honestly — it's an active agricultural operation, growing a wide mix of fruits, herbs, hops, grapes, and cut flowers, much of which finds its way into Steel String's beers and into the seasonal floral arrangements around the taproom. Beyond the gardens, visitors can wander a one-mile native hardwood forest loop trail (open dawn to dusk and dog-friendly on a leash), relax by the on-site pond, or play a round on the farm's 22-hole disc golf course, which is free to play every day from dawn to dusk and rated moderate to hard by the disc golf community.
The farm is intentionally kid- and dog-friendly, with an average Saturday drawing dozens of children and dogs alongside the adults. It's the kind of place where a weekend visit might involve a beer, a few holes of disc golf, a walk in the woods, and a set of live music, all without leaving the property.
The Taproom & Food
The taproom typically pours 10 to 12 beers alongside cider, wine, and non-alcoholic options, and hours shift seasonally: Wednesday through Friday, 3 to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. from March through the first Sunday in November; Thursday and Friday, 3 to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. the rest of the year. Since Pluck Farm doesn't run its own kitchen, food comes from a rotating lineup of local food trucks, with the current schedule posted online. Pluck Farm has also hosted a Saturday farmers market featuring local vendors, and the property regularly partners with hunger-relief organizations like TABLE, PORCH, and Farmer Foodshare through profit-sharing nights.
Live Music, Open Mic Nights & Community Events
Music is central to what Pluck Farm set out to be, and it shows in the calendar. Weekend afternoons regularly feature live sets from local and regional acts — recent performers have included Haw Wire, Sugaree String Society, and Boom Unit — typically scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturdays or Sundays out on the lawn.
The centerpiece for local musicians, though, is Pluck Farm's weekly Open Mic Night, held Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. Sign-up begins at 6 p.m., with performances kicking off around 6:15 p.m. and each performer getting a roughly 15-minute slot. The open mic is free and welcomes a genuinely broad mix of performers — musicians, poets, and comedians are all invited to take the stage, and anyone who'd rather just listen is welcome to settle in with a beer and enjoy the local talent. Steel String also encourages performers to leave their contact information on the sign-up sheet, since acts are sometimes booked for future weekend slots at either Pluck Farm or the brewery's original Carrboro taproom.
Beyond the weekly music programming, Pluck Farm hosts a run of seasonal and community events throughout the year that lean on the same outdoor, all-ages atmosphere, including an annual Oktoberfest Weekend (complete with stein-hoisting and beer-puppet competitions alongside live music each afternoon), a Pumpkin Smash Party in the fall, a Spring Celebration fundraiser with raffles and scavenger hunts, plant and garden swaps, and cycling-community fundraisers like Bike Loud. Together, they make Pluck Farm as much a community events space as it is a brewery or a farm.
Good to Know Before You Go
Pluck Farm is located at 6901 NC-54 West, Mebane, NC 27302, on Highway 54 just before the Saxapahaw turnoff coming from Carrboro. The venue can be reached at (984) 215-1173 or info@steelstringbrewery.com, and event details, the food truck schedule, and the taproom's full calendar are all posted at steelstringbrewery.com/pluckfarm. Parking is limited on busy event weekends, so carpooling is recommended for larger events like Oktoberfest. As of this writing, Pluck Farm remains an active, regularly programmed venue, with its Thursday open mic and weekend live music continuing on a consistent weekly schedule.
