Local Beer in Wake Forest, NC

Yuzu you and I’ll zu me. A year has passed since we first started playing with terpenes and the development of these concentrated flavors hasn’t slowed down. Terpenes have been discovered to be a natural part of many things we taste with a significant contribution to hop and fruit flavors. We blended citrusy Yuzu terpenes with loads of citrus forward NZ Wakatu and Taiheke hops and fermented it with lager yeast for refreshing results. 

Collaboration with Edit Beer Co. in Raleigh for both of our 3rd Anniversary Parties. This big DIPA was dry hopped at 5lb/bbl with Citra, Mosaic, Idaho 7, and Anchovy (fishy in name, not flavor) hops. We played around with a small co-pitch of thiolized yeast and our usual Hazy strain to achieve another layer of complexity. The brew morphed into a sort of orange, mimosa flavored juice bomb. Let’s raise a pint to 3 years and many more “profits” to come!

Brewed with local Pecan smoked malt, dark but not ‘too’ dark with chocolatey notes from a blend of roasted malts. Pecan smoke is mild, so don’t be afraid to try it even if you’re averse to smoky flavors! Lagered for 10 weeks to get all the roast and smoke to really mellow and become cohesive.

Unfiltered lager highlighting a new ingredient to the brewing world that’s grown in eastern NC, black seashore rye! This rye is not spicy like German rye, and instead gives us bready notes with some slightly earthy undertones. The standout quality about it is the creamy, frothy body and persistent haze it contributes. It’s hopped like a Pilsner with Mittelfrüh and then lagered for 8 weeks.

Collaboration with DSSOLVR and Cellarest Beer Project in Asheville. An experimental recipe with 40% black seashore rye grown in eastern NC, a new ingredient in the brewing game that we’ve found out contributes a big creamy frothy body. We went a little old school with a touch of dark crystal malt, and a blend of old and new hops for dry hop. “Deep cut” Cascade CGX and Krush.

Annihilate your thirst! It’s better than water because its got electrolytes. We made a lightly wheated sour ale and fermented it on lime and pineapple. Then we added Strawberry, Orange, Clementine, and fruit punch Electrolyte powder making it the perfect juicy pre or post workout beer! It’s also good for your crops, it’s got what plants crave!

What can we say, we brewed this ale as close to style as we could. We can’t even take credit for it, this beer highlights the wonderful malty flavors of UK pub beers, mainly Maris Otter malt. A small addition of crystal malts add color and complexity, while roasted barley provides a little drying roastiness. Only an Irishman with wisdom from the Salmon of Knowledge would conjure up such a recipe.

The first variant of our “Cacao is my Safe Word” Milk Stout. Fermented with raspberry puree, then rested on Ucayali Peruvian cocoa beans we roasted in house. Chocolatey up front with a pleasant, sweet raspberry pop in the finish. Fun fact, the farmers who grew the cocoa use the profits to restore parts of the Amazon Rainforest that were deforested.

Don’t be a wanker! Have yourself a proper pint or three of this full bodied, chocolatey, roasty, and well balanced dark libation that’s only 4.0% ABV

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. Inspired by our Johann Sebastian Springbock/Maibock, 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.

If you’re rollin’ up to Blackbird squad deep, look no further and start things off with a round of this fire Westy. This one’s fruity and soft, showing off the newest crop of neo-mexicanus Krush hops and balanced with some Citra.

Inspired by the empty hole in our hearts as we await the ‘26 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 during 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 a 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!

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.

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 brew. This hazy 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.

The classic light and crisp German ale, drinks like a lager but with unique stone fruit, salt cracker and chalky aromas you only find in Kolsch. A special selection of malts and hops we don’t share with our other beers, a special yeast strain, tricky alkaline, and three week cold conditioning to settle into its personality makes this a one of a kind beer style we can’t get enough of.