Looking Back at 2024: Highlights From Our Second Year

fun in the biergarten2024 was a big year for Blackbird Brewery. Before we get too far into 2025, we wanted to take a moment to look back at some memorable moments we’ve enjoyed. We’re honored to have been recognized with numerous awards, to have partnered with some incredible organizations, and to have shared so many new brews and events with all of you.

Accomplishments

Brewers celebrating 2024 accomplishmentsWe brewed around 630 barrels of beer last year (each barrel holds about 31 gallons). Of those barrels, we re-released many of your favorites such as Yellow Submarine Hazy IPA, Where I Belong West Coast IPA, Blackbird Kölsch, Perry’s Epiphany Hefeweizen, Tuxedo At A Pool Party German Pilsner, Gave Me Cookie Got You Cookie Brown Ale, and more! We also continued moving the needle for ourselves and created numerous new recipes that are now beloved. In total, we released 69 different beer styles!

1. We received numerous medals at the 2024 U.S. Open Beer Championship.

  • Silver: West Coast Style IPA Category – Where I Belong West Coast IPA
  • Silver:  New England/Juicy DIPA Category – Marmalade Sky Hazy IPA
  • Bronze:  American Premium Lager Category – Kanpai Rice Lager
  • Bronze: Munich Style Helles Category – Li’l Sebastian Helles Lager

2. The 2024 NC Brewers Cup Competition awarded Blackbird Brewery the Gold Medal in the Juicy/Hazy Category for our El Rey Dorado Hazy IPA. 934 beer entries were submitted by 126 independent North Carolina craft breweries. We’re always proud to represent and are grateful to be acknowledged.

3. Blackbird and Creature Theory (who designed our logo) won a Global Crushie for Best Logo Design/Most Unique in the Craft Beer Category. The Craft Beer Marketing Awards aka The Crushies were created to recognize the pinnacle of craft beverage marketing and the brilliant teams and individuals who create them. This year, all categories exclusively vied for global recognition with Global Crushies given only to the top winner of each category.

4. The publication, Craft Beer & Brewing, reviewed five of our beers throughout multiple issues. Our brews were given high marks in their respective categories and given great reviews.

  • Chimcoe West Coast IPA – 95/100
  • Johann Sebastian Bock Springbock/Maibock – 96/100
  • Gorlami Italian Pilsner – 94/100
  • Hungry Are The Damned Imperial Milk Stout – 90/100
  • Apothecary Porter – 87/100

5. We were voted second in Wake Weekly Best of the Best for Best Brewery in Wake County by readers of the publication.

6. At the 2024 Birdies & Brews – A Charity Golf Tournament, we were awarded Best Brewery by the attendees who enjoyed our Perry’s Epiphany Hefeweizen.

7. For the second year in a row, Blackbird Brewery was voted Best Brewery at the Bull City Food & Beer Experience. This year we shared these beers with the audience: Glori Sunset Pineapple Hazy DIPA, McKenzie West Coast Pale Ale, Girl You Know Wit’s True Belgian Witbier, and Tuxedo At A Pool Party German Pilsner.

8. VinePair featured us in their article, “We Asked 10 Beer Pros: What’s the Most Underrated East Coast Brewery? (2024).” We’re honored to be named among fellow incredible breweries such as Fox Farm Brewing, Lesser Known Beer Company, Niteglow Beer Company, and others.

Philanthropy

The Blood Connection at Blackbird Brewery At Blackbird Brewery, we are extremely passionate about giving back to the community that gives so much to us. This past year, we continued to support and collaborate with some incredible organizations and charities. We’re so grateful to all of you for helping us make an impact. Whether it was through GoFundMe donations, taproom fundraisers, or supply drives, the people of Wake Forest truly rallied with us to support these groups:

Since opening, we’ve partnered with The Blood Connection and proudly hosted multiple blood drives. This year, thanks to the incredible generosity of our Blackbird customers, we collected 91 units which could save up to 273 lives. We are extremely passionate about the vital importance of blood donation—a cause that hits close to home, as blood donors saved the life of our own Harmony VanGundy during the birth of her son. Looking ahead, our goal for next year is to collect 120 units of blood, with the potential to save up to 360 lives. Click here to sign for the next Blood Drive Sunday, 1/26 from 4-8 PM!

Hurricane Helene brought a devastating impact to Western North Carolina, creating a dire situation for many in the region. In response, our community came together to make a meaningful and tangible difference. Through our collaborations with the Sentinel Foundation and Hominy Baptist Church, we were able to directly reach impacted groups. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who generously contributed—whether by donating essential items, volunteering their time, or offering financial support. Your efforts truly made an impact.

Partnerships

partnerships We’re proud to be a large supporter of baseball in Wake Forest. We continued our support of the Wake Forest Fungo in 2024 and began a new wonderful relationship with the Wake Forest Wombats Sandlot Team.

The Family Bee’s-ness LLC is a local organic farm that we love to work with and support. Their monthly farmers markets in our biergarten allow us to showcase incredible local vendors and small businesses. Additionally, we enjoy donating our spent wort to feed their livestock. Huge thank you to this amazing farm for everything they do.

Our own Ian VanGundy was a speaker at the NC Brewers Guild’s BrewSmart: Technical Brewing Conference in Charlotte this past year. The event was held at Free Range Brewing and featured a series of masterclasses on advanced brewing techniques and cutting edge practices. Ian spoke as a part of the panel on lager brewing.

Blackbird Brewery hosted the 2024 RDU Chapter’s 7th Annual Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day celebrating International Women’s Day. We were happy to be further involved with this amazing organization. As a woman-owned brewery, we take great pride in raising up the strong ladies who help bring the beer to your glasses.

Events

At Blackbird, we work hard, but we love to party just as hard. Here are a couple of our favorite events from 2024:

  • 1st Annual Blackbird Chili Cookoff on New Year’s Day
  • St. Patrick’s Party
  • 1st Anniversary Party – Blackbird turned 1!
  • Cinco de Mayo
  • July 3rd Fireworks Spectacular
  • Tuxedo at a Pool Party Pool Party
  • 2nd Annual Blackbird Oktoberfest
  • Fears, Beers, and Hallo-wine Party
  • Boos & Brews Family Fun Day
  • Beer & Carols with Santa

These are just a couple of the incredible events we hosted in 2024. We constantly have exciting happenings at the brewery and are ecstatic to share more of these moments with you all in 2025. Make sure to check out our event calendar to stay up to date with everything we have going on at the taproom.

Bird’s Nest at Blackbird

Old Fashioned for Bird's NestWe decided to shake things up last year and opened Bird’s Nest at Blackbird. Our craft cocktail speakeasy concept allowed us to share our passion for cocktails and create a cozy corner in Wake Forest. Our Blackbird family got a little bigger and we were able to create many new memories in this charming bar. So many incredible concoctions have been created thus far by our bartender extraordinaries and we can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with in 2025.

Bird’s Nest is quickly becoming THE place to host your next party.

A Year In Review

BlackbirdIan may have hilariously summed it up best when asked about our growth in 2024 compared to 2023: “Pretty good, considering we didn’t even try.”

Blackbird Brewery is our business but at the same time, this is our life. We’ve enjoyed sharing beers, memories, and friendship with all of you at the taproom. This second year in review was beyond our expectations. We’ve truly created the community we aspired to when dreaming about Blackbird. Expect more brews and unforgettable moments in 2025. Love to you all!