The Pirate Rises
With a rough patch behind them, things are turning around at Edward Teach Brewery in Wilmington, where exceptional beers are served in a eye-popping interior.
To say that Edward Teach Brewery has had a rough 2024 is an understatement of the highest magnitude. Having come through an incident which saw charges, counter-charges, a lawsuit and a misguided boycott of some darned good beer, the brewery is set for a renaissance.
With formal apologies written and accepted and lawsuits withdrawn, all parties have expressed a strong desire to let bygones be bygones and start afresh. And it appears that, unlike its namesake who was dispatched off Ocracoke Island on November 22, 1718, a new era for this favorite brewery will be dawning in 2025.
That’s especially good news for beer lovers and those who frequent the brewery on North Fourth in ILM.
It’s certainly welcome news for yours truly because Edward Teach was not only the source of some outstanding beer experiences, but also it holds a somewhat sentimental appeal for another reason.
For here, at the two-level brewery with the eye-popping decor, the large semi-circular bar and the giant ship’s prow that looms over it, is where The PubScout’s southeastern North Carolina writing career was born.
Way back in 2019, before COVID and an aging back that saw me give up wrapping Christmas presents on the floor (because getting up required the assistance of the local fire department), I met Justin Williams, the youthful publisher of the various magazines for which I write.
Justin and his staff at Carolina Marketing Company convened there to interview me, and, of course, throw down a few Teach’s Peaches. I’m happy to say that, despite my somewhat surly appearance (and maybe because the staff enjoyed a few rounds of the Teach’s Peaches), I passed the interview. Regardless, I became a part of a wonderful, creative team that day, and I haven’t looked back since.
So The Pirate’s Place holds a value for this writer beyond the liquid it produces and the atmosphere in which to enjoy it.
In fact, when I planned a Wilmington pub crawl with a beer-loving crew some years back to celebrate the birthday of a friend, Edward Teach brewing was the highlight of the adventure.
We reveled and partied in the comfortable, inviting, well-appointed ambience of the second floor loge, where our many toasts, jokes and other hijinks would not bother the many good folks and regulars downstairs.
That’s not to say that Teach’s Peaches, the perennial favorite Edward Teach beer of many ILM and NC quaffers, was the only one that saw action.
Edward Teach Brewery had then — and has now — a fine array of suds with styles to satisfy every landlubber.
The Devil’s Son (a PubScout fave), Pistol Proof, Skull Cove, Galley Ghost, Legend of Seven Imperial Lager, B.A.D. Gose (a margarita-styled gose), Lizzie’s Peach Cobbler Sour, Thieves and Kings HIPA, Black Spot Black Lager, Six Pistols Baltic Porter and Shadowed Shores Maple Stout are all worth a pint. And the brewery’s Oktoberfest is a standout every year — if it’s not sold out.
Although that day we had walked to the brewery from another place, our walk back may have resembled that of sailors on a rolling deck. Good thing we walked, too, as there wasn’t a parking place to be had around the Brewery.
Which brings up another point.
On my visit two days before Christmas, I was able to park directly across the street from the historic building.
But that’s only because it was still 2024 — the annus horribilus for Edward Teach Brewery. But fear not. The smart money says that In 2025 parking may again be at a premium, because the Pirate will rise again.
And that’s welcome news indeed, mateys. Even if you have to walk.
Want to go?
Edward Teach Brewery
604 N 4th Street, Wilmington
(910) 523.5401
edwardteachbrewery.com
Winter Hours
Monday – Closed until last Monday of February
Tuesday through Friday: 1 to 10 pm
Saturday: 12 to 10 pm
Sunday: 12 to 8 pm
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