Local Beer in Wake Forest, NC

Crafted in collaboration with the real deal top of the game dessert beer boi’s at Corporate Ladder Brewing Co. This beer will bingo bong your taste buds with notes of roasted hazelnut coffee and dark chocolate, seamlessly melting and oozing into luscious waves of buttercream, vanilla bean, and peanut butter. A finishing touch of hazelnuts adds depth and layers of flavor reminiscent of Ferrero Rocher, rounding out each sip with a nutty, creamy richness that lingers long after your glass is empty. 10.8% ABV

Extra dry with a bitter snap and a big ol’ danky nose, hopped with Citra, Mosaic, CTZ and Nelson Amplifier. 7.2% ABV

Hopped with El Dorado, Elani, Moteuka and CTZ. ONLY $8.00 while supplies last! 7.0% ABV

These days you can wake up in the morning, check on the news and mash in a pale ale at the brewery from your phone before you even get out of bed. Might as well do a long step mash and brew it like a traditional pilsner, it’s not like you have to be there. The world is a little different now, everything’s computer and there’s panels everywhere! Hopped mostly with cascade with a little citra and NZ hop kief too. 5.5% ABV

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.

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.

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!

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. 

Inspired by the empty hole in our hearts as we await the ‘24 Festbier release this fall, we needed something to scratch the itch of a malty, slightly bigger lager that still maintains good drinkability. Single decoction mashed and brewed with 50% Pilsner malt, the remaining 50% is a blend of Maris Otter, Munich, Vienna, and a touch of dark crystal malt. Hopped with German Perle, fermented as dry as we could get it and naturally carbonated from 6 weeks in a horizontal tank.

Learning and speaking a new language is hard, even more so when you’ve imbibed on a few alcoholic beverages. For those bold enough to attempt said feats this beer is for you. We brewed this Mexican lager with flaked Maize and Pilsner malt and then conditioned it on freshly squeezed lime juice, zest, and Pink Himalayan sea salt. Refreshing waves of lime and hints of salt transport you to warm sunny days. As a warning, this liquid vacation of a beer may increase your craving for chips and salsa.

We are welcoming summer with sunshine in a glass. This ambrosia salad inspired sour ale was brewed with a glorious amount of pineapple, orange, apricot and marshmallow, giving your palate the delicious notes of ambrosia salad. Served in our tulip glass for maximum aroma. Cheers to summer sun!

Some say it’s always better to be overdressed, but who cares as long as you’re enjoying a beer in a pool. Dress your best, we won’t judge either way. Our pilsners are special beers that require extra steps and know-how on the brewhouse with extended maturation in the cellar. German malt is step mashed then hopped with Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Saphir. Naturally carbonated and lagered in horizontal tanks. Perfect for the most formal and informal parties.

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.

Classic German style wheat beer. 50% of this beer is made from wheat grown at Perry Family Farm in Rolesville four miles from the brewery and malted at Epiphany Craft Malt in Durham. Brewed the hard way, this went through five mash steps including two decoctions to get every bit of character these malts have to offer. Naturally carbonated and unfiltered.

If you see your kids congregating at the back fence, they might be throwing rocks and dirt at our neighbors’ trampoline. It’s happening a lot so it must be very tempting for the little ones! Please ask them to back off the fence and give the neighbors some privacy. And let’s cheers to our first Pilsner. After eight weeks of tank time, we decided to throw New Zealand’s Freestyle Farms Nelson and Motueka hops in for some really cool top notes of lime, citrus and NZ terroir.

We all live in a yellow submarine, propelling through a sea of hazy IPAs and this is a damn good one. We dove all in by double dry hopping with Citra for those looking for juice. Made with a base of oat malt and London yeast for an opaque and creamy base. This brew was dry hopped mid fermentation with Citra Cryo to pick up those lush biotransformation characters from the yeast and then doused a few days later with hand selected Citra T90s.

Your server won’t know what you’re ordering if you don’t pronounce it right. There are a few options for malt base and yeast strain in a Hazy IPA. We’re calling this base “thicc boi” for the use of oat malt and British yeast which puts it on the opaque and creamy side. We threw New Zealand Riwaka hops in this one which delivered some funky NZ terroir and lemon-lime notes. Get down with the sickness.