Blackjack Brewing Pirates Head for NC Coast

Blackjack Brewing, a pirate-themed craft brewery in Raleigh, NC, is moving to the coast.  The brewery is owned by Ed Wenda, a local dentist who accepted a new position at a dental firm in Wilmington, NC.  Another local brewery, Lynnwood Brewing Concern, has purchased the equipment and will begin brewing operations at the Whitaker Mill Road location on October 1st.

Wenda says he has enjoyed the support of Raleigh’s thriving brewing community.  “When we opened this brewery we weren’t expecting to add to our family two additional crewmembers when we had twins -- with the brewery it’s like having triplets,” said Wenda.  “So when my family and I were offered a position to return back to the dentistry field, an offer I couldn’t refuse, I had to take stock of the best future I could provide for my growing family.  With the position being located in Wilmington, it seemed the perfect opportunity to move our brand and scale back its size as well - I mean where better to have a pirate brewery than at the coast!  So that was our decision, to not end Blackjack but to mold it to what could work with our growing family.”  Once he finds a location in the Wilmington area, Wenda plans to reopen Blackjack on a smaller scale.

“Once we made the decision to move, it was then a matter of deciding to whom we should sell our current operation”, said Wenda.  “We already had a lot of interest from other breweries, but wanted it to go to someone who shared our same vision for the space and the same passion for brewing high quality beer, and that’s why we chose Lynnwood Brewing Concern.” 

Raleigh has increasingly become known as a beer destination city with a high demand for quality craft beer.  Figures compiled by the Raleigh Beer Guide for 2014 show beer demand in the craft beer category at over 110,000 barrels for Raleigh and Wake County.  The county boasts 21 breweries including 5 breweries in the Five Points neighborhood of Raleigh where Blackjack is located.

Lynnwood Brewing Concern (LBC) plans to immediately begin brewing their current lineup of beers once they move into the larger facility, which also offers them the potential for wider distribution as well.  LBC recently won national competitions for their Once You Go Black IPA and Kiss My Irish Stout dry stout.  They expect to open to the public in late October. 

Blackjack Brewery has scheduled a series of special ‘Setting Sail’ events through September  30, including food trucks, Friday night bands, the Hopscotch Day Party, GOUGE wrestling, and a special viewing of the Great Food Truck Race final episode, featuring local show entrant Pho Nominal food truck.  Wenda said details of the Setting Sail events will be posted on their website at BlackjackBrewing.com and their Facebook page.