OK, this is a true story. Mostly.

We were sitting around the brewery the other day, talking about, I don’t know, beer or something, and the conversation turned to our IPA of the Month series. We were trying to decide if we wanted to do it another year or not. It’s been a lot of fun, pretty sure you guys enjoyed it, and naming the girls on the labels has been a hoot.

So anyway we’re discussing the pros and cons, most notably what to do with the labels. Do we continue with the girls? Switch to guys? Guys and girls? Iconic North Carolina landmarks? What about indigenous species? Maybe we make each label a puzzle piece that all fits together at the end of the year. The creativity was obviously flowing.

Into the midst of this debate, as though divinely sent by the beer gods, pranced our resident brewery dog Barley . . . with a roll of Hoppyum labels in his mouth. With that “Hey look what I found!” aura that 6-month-old puppies exude so well.

As we gently separated Barley from his newfound treasure, a light bulb appeared over our collective heads.

Why don’t we put Barley on the IPA of the Month label? And then find 11 of his dog friends in our Foothills online community to put on labels as well? You guys are always sending us pictures of your dogs anyway . . . obviously our little Foothills family has no shortage of incredibly photogenic dogs that would look great on a beer label.

So here’s the deal . . . we’re going to have a contest on social media to choose 11 dogs to join Barley as IPA of the Month label subjects for 2015. Each dog chosen will get a label proof signed by the artist. And here’s the cool part: for each dog chosen, we will make a donation in that dog’s name to a humane society, no-kill shelter or dog rescue organization in that dog’s community.

Look for details in our next blog (tomorrow). And start getting your pups ready for their closeup.