Local Beer in Wake Forest, NC
Blackbird Brewery Beer
We at Blackbird Brewery understand that craft beer is no mere beverage. Each drop, each pint, is a form of history, anthropology and sociology. We are students and teachers of the culture and process of brewing. We do not just deal in tanks or barrels or kegs, but in magic and transformation—of our art, craft and chemistry—by every subtle aroma, each fleeting moment.
We explore flavor development through challenging and lesser used traditional techniques combined with the newest discoveries and ingredients we can find. Our highly customized 7bbl brewhouse houses an automated mash mixer and decoction capabilities giving us more control over recipe variables and the ability to process local non-malted grains. We also squeezed in tank designs for adjuncts, fruit, high hop loads, massive malt loads, and natural carbonation in horizontal tanks. This means authentic European styles, expressive IPAs, tart fruit beers, stouts and barleywines. Read on to see what local beers we are brewing!
In addition we offer prosecco and cider on draft, fine wines by the glass, and an assortment of non-alcoholic drinks. Making a trip here for something particular? We do our very best to keep the beer page updated but it’s always best to check our live inventory before traveling.
Looking for our distribution page? Visit our Wholesale Requests page to submit your request for distribution within the Triangle Area.

Collaboration with The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Durham. They wanted to see how we designed our system to do decoction mashes, a historic brewing process where our mash temperatures are reached by separating a portion of the mash and boiling it, then returning it to the main mash to reach a new enzymatic temperature zone. This process is rarely performed by American breweries (other than us and a few others) and it can improve malt flavor, nuance and head retention to a beer. We decided to use a German Dortmunder as the base style for this recipe, a lager that uses a unique water profile to cut sweetness and improve drinkability in higher gravity beers in the same way decoctions can. This is a sciency, technical lager of brewers leaning on history for modern recipe development. 6.1% ABV
- Style: Dortmunder Gold Lager
- ABV: 6.1



This beer is a love letter to the broskis, brosephs, dudes, and dudettes. A super clean, dry, hop forward pale ale. It starts with step-mashed pilsner malt for an enhanced malt balance and hopped with a collage of US and NZ hops in the whirlpool. It’s then dry hopped with heaps of Riwaka and a touch of Mosaic cryo. 5.4% ABV
- Style: New Zealand Pale Ale
- ABV: 5.4



There are some hops that are so well rounded with both aroma and flavor, they’re used as the base of any IPA recipe and then you sprinkle in the other fun hop varieties at just 10-30%. Our typical base hops are Riwaka, Citra, and Mosaic. For this one we said let’s do all three. It’s like a kaleidoscope of Blackbird IPAs. A collective consciousness of hops, it roots you to the earth as we all become a symphony of life flowing to the same beat. Blackbird IPAs have risen from the ashes like a Phoenix and become… HallucinoHawk. 7.5% ABV
- Style: Hazy IPA
- ABV: 7.5



There’s just so much beer in the world (which is great), and so much else to do and think about and care about (which is a mixed bag), and it’s hard to get anybody to pay attention, and sometimes it makes you think that there’s no point in trying. Because when you really get down to it, there’s no compelling reason for this hazy, or any hazy, or anything else to exist at all, and yet there it is, everywhere. And here we all are, in the middle of everything, butt sliding down the sandpaper of time. So enjoy this dry and crushable summer hazy brewed with Citra and Krush. Or don’t enjoy it, it doesn’t really matter. 7.5%
- Style: Hazy IPA
- ABV: 7.5



Named after the river that is home to Düsseldorf, Germany, where the Altbier was born. Brewed with large portions of Munich malt, a touch of crystal malt, noble German hops, and fermented cool with neutral ale yeast. This malty libation is a smooth, balanced, no frills amber beer! 5.5% ABV
- Style: Amber Ale/Altbier
- ABV: 5.5



Crack open the sound of summer! With a cold and refreshing pour of Fat Night. Smooth and creamy, delicious with soft notes of cacao and roasty flavors coming from choice malts. This is an unflavored straight up porter for drinking! Hangin out, feeling the vibes, it’s summer, it’s Fat Night. 5.3% ABV
- Style: Porter
- ABV: 5.3



With all due respect…I had no idea you had gotten experimental surgery to get your balls removed :0 What??? I said with all due respect 😉 Part of our staff brew series where each team member gets a chance to choose a beer style and spend a day creating it themselves in the brewhouse! This is Brad’s beer! It’s a lager base flavored with Mango puree, Habañeros, and Sea Salt. Fruit forward with subtle balanced heat in the finish. Available in extra hot ($0.50) for those still with balls! 4.8% ABV
- Style: Fruit Beer
- ABV: 4.8



When you’re looking for classic hop character with a clean and crisp modern IPA delivery, this is Citra and Simcoe. Our previous batch of this got 95 points with Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, a national publication who rated this amongst the best West Coast IPAs they tasted across the nation. 7.0% ABV
- Style: West Coast IPA
- ABV: 7.0



Collaboration with Heyday Brewing in Raleigh. Head Brewer Lance brought over a sack of blue corn and wanted to see what it does on our unique mash mixing tank which can gelatinize raw grains, extracting maximum sugar and flavor from the grain compared to shorter brewing processes. The mash was purple and smelled like tortillas! We followed a classic Mexican lager framework for the recipe, and after the beer was clarified there’s just the faintest hue of pastel orange/pink if you hold it up in the light. Aside from color, expect a solid Mex Lager! 4.7% ABV
- Style: Blue Corn Lager
- Collab: Heyday Brewing
- ABV: 4.7


Brewed in West Coast fashion, but with a couple twists. We used “Aurora” yeast which has a more unique fruity character than our usual neutral Cali yeast and leaves the beer with a mild hazy appearance. We also relied on the most modern hop varieties and products. Dry hopped with Riwaka, Krush cryo, and Abstrax Nelson hop oils. 6.0% ABV
- Style: Northwest IPA
- ABV: 6.0



We started to brew a Hazy IPA with thiol enhancing yeast, but when we went to harvest that yeast from another batch, there was none. None at all. Just, zero yeast. So who is going to ferment this beer? We had to pull some yeast from our West Coast IPA which makes a higher ABV and drier beer. What did we do when we lost thiols and sweetness from the planned yeast? Dry hop the shit out of it and make a super drinkable DIPA with Krush, Sabro, and Citra hops making a tasty hybrid beer we wouldn’t have come up with without the pressure. 8.3% ABV
- Style: Hazy DIPA
- ABV: 8.3


When you’re looking for good swells for surfing in San Diego, look no further than 15th street. We modeled this IPA after those in the area. Clean and dry with solid bitterness. We got some fresh Strata, Idaho 7, and Citra for this one. 7.1% ABV.
- Style: West Coast IPA
- ABV: 7.1


You can wild out all day on this one. Based on historic Mild Ales from England. Maris Otter malt lays the base for dark crystal, chocolate wheat and rye malts who bring the color and roast flavors. It’s surprisingly smooth and medium bodied for a low gravity beer. 3.3% ABV
- Style: Dark Mild/Brown Ale
- ABV: 3.3


Coffee Cake inspired Milk Stout with Sunny Days Papua New Guinea Coffee, Saigon Cinnamon, Madagascar Vanilla Beans and a top note of Fluffy White Cake extract. Contains Lactose. 5.3% ABV
- Style: Milk Stout
- ABV: 5.3



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
- Style: Pastry Stout
- Collab: Corporate Ladder Brewing Co
- ABV: 10.8



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!
- Style: Rice Lager
- ABV: 4.7


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.
- Style: Hefeweizen
- ABV: 4.8
