by Joan Wilkerson Hoffmann | Jan 31, 2019 | Blog, Breweries, Local Beer
A weekly roundup of local and craft beer that can be found at Wilmington breweries, in bottles, or in cans. These are not beer reviews and should be used for entertainment purposes only.
Latest Rotating IPA: The newest rotating house IPA from Flytrap is a West Coast style brewed with CTZ, Centennial, & Simcoe Hops.
Strawberry Rhubarb Barrel Sour: This beautiful golden sour drinks dry, like extra-brut champagne, with a bracing sourness. Almost a full year of aging in oak with a mixed culture has yielded marvelous layers of subtlety that can’t be rushed. And 50 lbs. of real strawberry and rhubarb add a soft whisper of refreshing fruit. A 5.4% ABV gem.
Imperial Stout: This 8.7% imperial stout has fresh notes of vanilla up front with a smooth coffee finish.
Kill the Headlights: A Citra double dry hopped IPA ringing in at 7.8% featuring pale malt, wheat, and some Munich. The hop bill features Citra, falconers flight, centennial, and calypso.
3rd Street Lager: This lager got a facelift! The bitterness has dialed back to create a grassy, easy-drinking brew that clocks in at 5%.
All The Cool Kids Are Doing It: This is a soft, citrusy, hazy pale ale. It’s a lighter alternative to its bigger, juicier NEDIPA siblings.
by Joan Wilkerson Hoffmann | Jan 23, 2019 | Blog, Breweries, Community
Cheers to Makai Brewing in Ocean Isle on their one year anniversary!
Some people mistakenly think that our Brunswick County beaches completely shut down in the summer and there’s nothing to do. Not the case if you’re a fan of craft beer. You can visit Check Six in Southport, Red Hare in Shallotte, or Makai Brewing in Ocean Isle who just so happens to have a birthday this weekend.
Makai Brewing is throwing a big first anniversary party on Saturday, January 26th from noon until 9pm. Panacea will have the Booch Bus parked outside all day if you’re craving kombucha, and if you’re hungry you can snag a lobster roll from the Butcher of Brunswick or a snack from A&M’s Red Food Truck if you’re there later in the evening.
They’ll have live music going all day featuring Charles Richards, Jeff Thomas, Elliott Smith, and Jared Michael Cline.
You can also expect to see fresh batches of Carolina Tropical IPA, Fire Knife Imperial DIPA, and Nightingale Coffee Porter!
So snag a couple friends, travel south to Makai Brewing, and wish them a very hau’oli lā ho’omana’o.
by Joan Wilkerson Hoffmann | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog, Breweries, Community, Local Beer
Waterline Brewing Company, fondly regarded as the brewery under the bridge, is now hosting a movie night on Thursdays. Local blues legend, Randy McQuay, is the host. “He calls the new series a ‘passion project’ meant to feed his soul and yours,” according to taproom manager Maria Speaks.
It’s the building itself that brought McQuay to Waterline. He used to have a studio in the Art Factory, which shares a building with Waterline. “It’s a pretty magical building,” says Speaks.
Rob Robinson, owner-operator of Waterline Brewing, and McQuay have been in talks about this for quite some time. They thought it would be good to test out in the slower, cooler months when people are more keen on spending time inside.
McQuay is trying to keep it light-hearted, selecting fun movies like The Big Lebowski and Blues Brothers. “He’s trying to provide a fun evening for all demographics,” according to Speaks.
But don’t worry, McQuay isn’t giving up slinging tunes. You can still find him crooning in the taproom on a fairly regular basis.
Check out our Events Calendar for details on upcoming movie nights and other events.
by Joan Wilkerson Hoffmann | Jan 1, 2019 | Breweries, Community, Local Beer
As we wind down and reflect about all the tasty local beers that we enjoyed in 2018, it’s hard not to get excited about all of the good things to come in 2019!
Three breweries will be breaking ground on and opening up new facilities in the new year—Bill’s Brewing Company, New Anthem Beer Project, and Wilmington Brewing Company.
Photo Courtesy Brian Lantz Photography
Bill’s has a production facility opening up right behind Captain Bill’s (And Bill’s Front Porch) at 107 Cinema Drive that will include a new 20-barrel brewhouse so that local taps can keep Bill’s beers flowing all year long. There will also be a new taproom and beer garden where folks can sip some suds and keep an eye on the action at the volleyball courts.
Photo Courtesy Brian Lantz Photography
New Anthem Beer Project has been working at a nice clip to work on their new space at the old Capp’s building at the corner of Front and Greenfield Streets, located in the burgeoning South Front District. Their new 30-barrel system will keep New Anthem fans across the state in cans and the second taproom will provide a new place for a pint for friends who don’t want to trek downtown. We can look forward to a more established barrel program and some mixed culture sours, as the Dock Street space will be used for more experimentation.
Photo Courtesy Brian Lantz Photography
Wilmington Brewing Company is sticking close to their original facility, opening an event space right next door! (If you’re facing the Kerr Avenue brewery, it’s to the right.) The space will be used for special events only—think can releases and private parties. It will allow the brewery to expand their existing location to accommodate more friendly faces in the taproom, and more room for their brewers to do their thing. Ever thought about having your next birthday/engagement/retirement party at Wilmington Brewing? Well, soon you can.
Of course what we’re really looking forward to are all of the new beers that we get to drink next year!
Flytrap Brewing launched their new bottle program on the celebration of their 4th Anniversary, so we can’t wait to try what they’ve got in store. The word is that it’s going to be even more fun, funky, and fruited. (And if you haven’t been by to try what they already have—run, don’t walk.)
Flying Machine Brewing Company, our newest member of the Cape Fear brewing family, has lots of fermented creations in store. You can expect to see them flex their creativity with their ever-growing cask program and get ready for barrels—lots and lots of barrels. Soccer fans should also get excited, as the new brewery hosts Soccer Sundays. They open at 9 am daily and have a strong coffee program featuring beans from NC company Counter Culture; the beer and wine start pouring at 10 am.
Have you heard of a Rosé IPA? Well, you have now and you should be really excited. Wrightsville Beach Brewery is rolling out their Rosé IPA to kick off the year with bright, bubbly effervescence and a 
hint of strawberry. They’re also bringing back their local honey lager. Both will be taproom only releases, so go ahead and make a lunch date. Fried oysters and honey lager? Done and done.
Other fun beer releases from the Cape Fear region include the Peach Pucker Peach Sour from Front Street Brewery, the new Operation Bumblebee barrel program from Salty Turtle, Beer de Garden from Skytown Beer, plus all of your faves at Waterman’s and tons of Belgian goodness from Mad Mole. You’re gonna want to budget a little extra money for Uber in 2019.
Photo Courtesy Brian Lantz Photography
And while we’re looking ahead, you’ll want to go ahead and put Makai Brewing’s 1st anniversary into your calendar—it’s Saturday, January 26th.
If you’re looking for a place to host your next event, the team over at Ironclad has you covered. With a full bar featuring lots of taps with house-brewed beer and plenty of space for catering AND a dance floor, your next office party could be, as the kids say, LIT.
Waterline Brewing is coasting into 2019 with a slew of events featuring local musicians, artists, and makers to benefit local charities. Keep an eye out for their weekly markets! It’s a great place to sip a fresh, local beer and shop for someone special or just treat yo’self.
The guys at Broomtail are talking nerdy with the first locally harvested yeasts of the region. After three years of harvesting and propagation, they’re brewing with the new yeasts to create beers that quite literally feature local flavor.
Make 2019 the year of new experiences! Have you been to Southport lately? It’s probably been too long since you’ve had a tasty crab cake from Provision Company and definitely too long since you’ve visited Check Six Brewing and enjoyed a Dugan’s Chocolate Stout. Go do that! You’ll be glad you did.
And if you’d like to indulge in libations from all of these places at once, go ahead and buy yourself a ticket to the third annual Cape Fear Craft & Cuisine. I’m a little biased because I’m one of the event coordinators. It’s one of my favorite events and I’ve never even attended it, only worked it. It’s a 25-course pairing menu featuring 25 NC breweries and 25 local restaurants at AIRLIE GARDENS at the end of March. If you don’t think that’s the perfect combination of things…well, I just can’t even. It’s the perfect way to spend some time with friends and family and welcome spring to the beach.
Whew! Okay! That’s it for now. Cheers to a new year and new beer!
by Jeremy | Nov 26, 2018 | Breweries, Community, Local Beer
On September 14th, Wilmington, NC took a direct hit from Hurricane Florence. Many of our friends, colleagues, and businesses suffered devastating personal and financial losses. As we continue to recover know that our local beer culture is alive and well. All 17 of our local breweries are up and running so have a beer with us!
Check out these upcoming events!
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by admin | May 8, 2018 | Blog, Breweries, Local Beer
Meet the Brewers is an ongoing series to highlight the individuals who make the beer at our Wilmington breweries. Check back every week to see the latest interview. All photographs provided by Brian Lantz Photography. Check out his instagram at @brianlantzphotography
Christopher McGarvey is the Brewmaster at Front Street Brewery whose journey with beer started homebrewing soda in college and has led him Front Street Brewery Brewmaster.
Where are you from?
East Peoria, IL
What first got you into brewing?
My college roommate and I decided we wanted to try making our own ginger beer soda because we were adventurous cooks. We bottled it in re-used IBC root beer bottles with corks, which proceeded to fire off spontaneously in the night with a loud bang as the bottles carbonated. I drank one of the open bottles I found the next day and got food poisoning for three days. So I guess that complete failure incited my stubborn perfectionist spirit, and I set out determined to get it right, but with beer, where no pathogenic microbes can live.
How long have you been brewing?
I started homebrewing in 2005 and quickly devoured every book on the subject. I used to sneak onto the Northern Brewer discussion forum during a summer internship in the engineering department at Nelson Sprinkler Company for hours at a time, and a lot of my early ideas came from exchanges there. I became an assistant brewer at FSB in 2011, and brewmaster in summer 2016.
What was the first beer you made?
The first recipe I concocted myself was a clone recipe of Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout. The first beer I made as a professional brewer was Tomb Rocker, my special honey and heather Scotch ale that I’ve brewed every year since 2007 for Easter in the Orthodox Church.
What is your favorite beer to make?
I consider Tomb Rocker to be my magnum opus. There is no other beer like it in the world. If I were a monk, this would by my Trappist ale. It drinks almost more like a fine port than a beer, with layers and layers of complexity and a grapey, vinous tang, plus the cool, slightly minty flavor of Scottish heather flowers. It has won over a lot of people who thought that they would never like a beer at all, and they try it and find that they love it. And now that we are brewing it at Front Street Brewery every spring, we have my priest and my choir come in and sing and pray, and
we bless the beer with holy water for the joyful time of the church year. All that said, it’s a real pain to make, a really long, tedious brew day. So probably my favorite to actually brew is our English bitter, which smells wonderful in the mash.
What made you want to start brewing on a larger scale?
Not to sound too cheesy, but something like divine providence. I had no plans or ambitions to be a professional brewer, but when I graduated from seminary in 2010, my classmate Fr Peter Robichau convinced me to move here and be choir director for St. Basil Orthodox Church. I went to Front Street Brewery because I like good beer and it was the only show in town, and I ended up becoming friends, then roommates with the brewmaster, Kevin Kozak. I needed a job really bad and he got me one working at the host stand, where I was almost a decade older than everyone else. Eventually, I won the FSB homebrew competition and became the natural replacement as Kevin’s assistant brewer when the former one moved out to Hollywood. So I’m an accidental pro brewer, and I consider myself very blessed and very lucky to be able to do it for a living.
Is there anything you do differently in your brewing process that other places do not do?
Well, I’m pretty sure we’re the only brewery in town using holy water. Besides that, I hope people will recognize the finesse and nuance that we’re crafting into every pint we produce. It takes incredible patience and persistence to fine-tune the beers the way we have. We do an in-depth sensory analysis of every single batch of beer we brew, as well as blind tastings of our beers against the best examples in the style. And we tweak our recipe a little each time until we get it perfect. We’re about a year and a half into a revision of all our recipes, and many of them are on the 14th or 15th version. It’s really starting to pay off. But we won’t be done until they’re our perfect favorites in a blind tasting, and when that happens, we’ll do a big public reveal of Front Street Brewery 2.0!
What is one thing you want your consumer to take away after trying your beer?
A growler. Haha. Our philosophy here is completely dedicated to harmony, balance, and drinkability, whether that’s in a pilsner, an IPA, or a crazy experimental beer. If we’re doing our job right, you’re going to find yourself with an empty glass before you know it, and you’re going to want another. To me the sign of a truly great beer isn’t how much it bowls you over on the first sip, but how surprised you are to find yourself at the bottom of the glass. Where did it go? I need more. That’s a great beer.
