Blackbird Brewery

Blackbird Brewery is one of the newest and most genuinely family-rooted craft breweries anywhere in Wake Forest, NC — founded in 2022 by the husband-and-wife team of Harmony and Ian VanGundy and built around the founders’ decades of combined brewing expertise. The brewery operates from a distinctive small-footprint / expansive-outdoor-space setup: a 1,000-square-foot taproom paired with an unusually generous 5,000-square-foot outdoor patio and beer garden — giving the venue five times as much outdoor space as indoor space and shaping much of the visitor experience around the beer garden.

The brewery produces a genuinely broad range of styles on-site, spanning European traditions and modern American approaches — with locally sourced ingredients where available, tying the brewery’s craft to the broader Wake Forest and Triangle agriculture ecosystem.

Be sure to check out the pictures below to get a feel for Blackbird Brewery before you go — or to relive the visit after.

What “Family-Founded” Actually Looks Like at Blackbird

Blackbird is one of a relatively small number of Triangle craft breweries that stayed intentionally small after opening. The VanGundys’ decades of combined brewing experience could have supported a larger production operation — but the founders chose an intimate, community-anchored setup instead, keeping the brewery close to the daily rhythms of Wake Forest rather than distributing widely.

That choice shapes the visitor experience. In a broader Triangle craft beer landscape where newer breweries often lean into polished-industrial aesthetics or venture-backed scaling, Blackbird’s family-founded identity shows up in the details — the hospitality style, the community programming calendar, and the intentional small taproom-and-large-beer-garden design that prioritizes gathering over throughput.

A European-Style Pilsner Program in an IPA-Dominated Market

The Triangle craft beer scene leans heavily into American-style hop-forward IPAs and creative modern styles — making Blackbird’s commitment to authentic European-style pilsners genuinely notable. Traditional lagers of the pilsner style require patient cold conditioning, specific yeast strains, and technical precision that many American craft breweries don’t bother pursuing. Blackbird’s decades-experienced brewing team leans into that technical craft, producing pilsners with the crisp, clean, dry finish that defines the Bohemian and German lager traditions.

Alongside the pilsners, the Belgian Witbier anchors the venue’s second most-discussed signature style — reflecting the same European technical commitment applied to a wheat-focused Belgian tradition. The rotating tap list also spans IPAs, tart fruit beers, and seasonal experimental releases, giving visitors a range of options beyond the European specialty lineup.

The 7-barrel brewing system is intentionally sized to support that variety — small enough to run frequent seasonal experiments, large enough to keep the core European program consistently on tap. The generous 5,000-square-foot outdoor beer garden paired with the intimate 1,000-square-foot taproom gives visitors two very different drinking experiences depending on weather, crowd, and mood — with regulars often moving between the two across a single visit.

Live Jazz, Music Bingo, and Community Programming

Beyond the beer itself, Blackbird’s identity as a community brewery shows in its active programming schedule. Regular events include live jazz nights, music bingo, seasonal celebrations like St. Patrick’s Day, and rotating community gatherings that use the expansive beer garden as a natural venue. That programming has made the brewery a genuine gathering spot for Wake Forest regulars, families, and craft beer enthusiasts alike.

Good to Know

Location: Heart of Wake Forest, NC
Founded: 2022 by husband-and-wife team Harmony and Ian VanGundy
Founding team background: Decades of combined professional brewing experience
Scale: 1,000-square-foot taproom + 5,000-square-foot outdoor patio and beer garden
Brewing system: Highly customized 7-barrel brewhouse
Beer program: Authentic European-style pilsners (a genuinely rare specialty in the American craft beer market), Belgian Witbier, IPAs, tart fruit beers, plus rotating seasonal experimental releases
Signature beers: European-style pilsners; Belgian Witbier
Ingredients: Locally sourced where possible
Programming: Live jazz, music bingo, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, and rotating community events
Hours: Check the Blackbird Brewery website for current hours
Best for: Craft beer enthusiasts (especially fans of authentic European-style pilsners and witbiers), families and groups looking for a spacious outdoor beer garden, live music fans, and Wake Forest regulars looking for a family-founded neighborhood brewery
Pair with: A broader Wake Forest food and beverage day exploring the town’s concentrated craft brewery scene, plus outdoor recreation at E. Carroll Joyner Park with its wonderful Great Depression-era pecan grove, or the sprawling Falls Lake State Recreation Area just north of town

A Wake Forest Highlight

Blackbird Brewery is the kind of stop that stays with you for the sheer authenticity of the family-founded identity. In a Triangle craft beer scene increasingly dominated by well-funded production operations, finding a husband-and-wife-founded brewery built on decades of professional expertise — yet running at a genuinely intimate scale — offers something meaningfully different for craft beer enthusiasts seeking a personal connection to the people making their beer.

The 5,000-square-foot beer garden rounds out the appeal. Between the authentic European-style pilsners, the Belgian Witbier, the tart fruit beers, and the expansive outdoor space paired with live jazz and community events, Blackbird has quickly established itself as one of the most consistently rewarding neighborhood breweries anywhere in Wake Forest’s concentrated craft beer cluster.