Jackie O’s 20th Anniversary

To all of our fans, old and new, we would like to move forward with clarity as we near Jackie O’s 20th anniversary! Although we threw our 19th Anniversary Extravaganza this March, we will be celebrating 20 years as Jackie O’s this December and we want to explain how we got here!

President of Jackie O’s, Art Oestrike, purchased O’Hooley’s on December 12th, 2005. Shortly before this new venture, his mother, Jackie Oestrike, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Jackie passed away, but not before her son let her know he had plans to change the name “O’Hooley’s” to “Jackie O’s” in her honor. 

Jackie O’s officially opened to the public on December 30th, 2005. For a number of years, a Jackie O’s Anniversary Extravaganza event was held two weeks after Thanksgiving to celebrate the business, the local Athens community, and new beer releases. At the time, Ohio University was on quarters instead of semesters. This meant that students left for Thanksgiving break, which gave locals time to celebrate Jackie O’s while the town was quiet. 

Ohio University’s switch from a quarter system to a semester system happened in the fall of 2012. Due to this change, the team at Jackie O’s felt as though an updated anniversary celebration event should coincide with this adjustment. The Jackie O’s Anniversary Extravaganza event was moved to the first weekend in January. Once again, this timing allowed for the Athens local residents to come out to party with the Jackie O’s crew while the students were on their winter break. 

For a few years, the Extravaganza persisted in January, but then COVID happened. While this rocked everyone’s world, the Jackie O’s team saw the silver lining and took this as an opportunity to begin holding the Anniversary Extravaganza in the spring when the weather would usually cooperate more and everyone could welcome the warm months ahead. 

With all of these changes combined, Jackie O’s now has 2 anniversaries to celebrate! In March of this year, we held our 19th Anniversary Extravaganza event by releasing 7 beers and throwing parties at our Athens Taproom and Columbus On Fourth locations. With exclusive draft beers, DJs, and limited edition merchandise, this was a fun time for all! Although this was our 19th Anniversary Extravaganza event, we also have our official 20th anniversary of Jackie O’s as a business coming up this year. This anniversary will occur on December 12th, 2025. 

We want to make sure that we take the time to acknowledge the annual Anniversary Extravaganza celebration that we throw every year, while also recognizing the monumental milestone of 20 years as Jackie O’s Brewery that is coming up in December! We hope you can join us on Friday, December 12th at our Athens locations as we celebrate 20 years of not only Jackie O’s, but of community and friendship. We wouldn’t be here without all of you and for that we are always grateful.