Local Beer in Wake Forest, NC

We get asked about Amber Ales a lot. Brewers get so excited about IPAs that we sometimes forget the needs of the many outweigh the few. Although it’s not as exciting as boldly going where no man has gone before, we knew that resistance is futile. Our malt rack is stacked with high quality ingredients so we laid it all out and came up with a recipe. The outcome is a smooth, complex and highly drinkable ale that makes living long and prosper even more enjoyable.

This is an old recipe excavated from Ian’s garage. This is a recreation of a homebrew concept circa 2006 that finally hit the professional stage in 2010. It’s brewed with malts typically used in Dubbels to give their rich red appearance and dark fruit flavors. Combining those with chocolate malt and British ale yeast turned it into a unique brown ale that went on to win national medals and became a notable part of our local craft beer history.

A shoutout to all the caregivers out there. Whether it’s your children or your elderly, it’s selfless hard work. You rarely feel like a Champion Babysitter, so we’re here to tell you, you ARE. You’ve earned this beer. Dry hopped with Strata mid fermentation and then a wallop of Mosaic and Citra at the end, it’s not just juice it’s got some hops for Dad in there too!

Inside every snail shell is a tiny disco ball. Disco isn’t dead, instead, it just got small. Watch your step, they’re only one inch tall atop their platform shoes. They’ve got the smoothest groovy moves up in their buggy bodies. This downright funkadelic bunch have come to start the p-p-party. Our snail sized hazy is citrusy and bright from El Dorado hops and Maui Nelson Hop Kief.

Our brewers attended a hop sensory day to find some good “lots” from the ‘24 hop crop and one of the varieties that really stood out was Idaho #7. When it’s good, it exhibits punchy pineapple combined with a rustic earthy charm. It’s only once every few years we find this hop with the right balance, dominating with fruit with just an edge of earth, and this is it!

Check out our Sensory Experience blog here! 

A rice lager worthy of legend. Tales of the battles between Habu and Mongoose while enjoying this timeless libation are just where the lore begins. Traditionally brewed using our mash mixer to gelatinize short grain sushi rice. Over half the alcohol in this beer comes from rice and the rest is from pilsner malt. It’s hopped with floral Lorien hops and lagered for several weeks until naturally clarified.

Check out our blog about this deliciously light and delicate beer!

It’s Time for the Percolator. We used our favorite full bodied porter recipe and tossed in a very light dose of coconut which smooths out the roast and adds a creaminess and then dosed in freshly roasted Honduran coffee beans from our friends at Sunny Days Roasting Co. It’s Time for the Percolator. Does NOT contain lactose.

Unfiltered, youthful lager style that has been served in Germany dating back to the Middle Ages. This is the stuff that lager brewers drink on a daily basis straight off the tanks. Fermented a little warmer with a little more aroma hops than our typical pilsner recipe. Brewed with Czech Saaz and New Zealand Motueka hops, the former being the oldest hop in the world and the latter being one of the newest which was bred from the former, so it’s all in the family!

We paid tribute to a cult classic beer made for over 40 years by one of the pioneers of craft brewing. This pleasantly bitter and old school red IPA is dry hopped with freshly harvested whole cone Cascade. It takes about an hour to stuff them into the tank and another hour to get them back out, which is a huge pain in the butt but totally worth it for this special winter time IPA that probably couldn’t be made any other way.

Celebrating The Federal’s 20th anniversary, our friend’s neighborhood bar and restaurant in Durham. We wanted to brew a style that was more common on a menu 20 years ago, something that was approachable in flavor and price point but also not too plain at the same time. Belgian malt went through a long 2.5 hour step mash which provides a special array of sugars for the yeast, and in our opinion makes a more authentically Belgian flavor. Hopped with Liberty in late boil and a small dry hop. Fermented with yeast sourced from Achouffe brewery, giving one of the more unique ester and phenol profiles amongst the Belgian yeasts.

So I have a surprise.  And it is possibly the best thing to potentially ever happen to anyone anywhere in the history of the universe.  Ladies and gentlemen, the world famous Li’l Sebastian.  Motivated by our Johann Sebastian Spring Bock, we used some similar brewing techniques but scaled it down into a smaller malt forward lager.  Once you taste it you’ll know it’s not a pony, it’s a miniature horse. 

We wanted to throw as many quality ingredients and processes as possible into a lower ABV lager. Traditionally floor-malted Bohemian barley malt was triple decoction mashed for five hours, a complicated old world brewing process where a portion of mash is separated, boiled and returned to the main mash to hit 5 enzymatic temperature zones. It’s then hopped with huge additions of mild and spicy Saaz, fermented cold and slow and transferred to a horizontal tank for nearly 2 months for rustic nuance and natural carbonation.

So, what are you doing back at Blackbird? Well, I sat back and thought about the things we used to do, the beer I drank with you, the cheers, and many brews. I’m so in love, Girl You Know Wit’s True. We are channeling Milli Vanilli, but this beer is a classic, crushable Belgian Witbier with wheat, coriander, and orange peel. Order a pint and know my love is for you.