WILMINGTON — While Waterman’s Brewing Company may be known for their craft beer, this weekend the brewery will play host to fans of live music, college football and Carolina barbecue, with their “Smoke ’em Up Saturday Labor Day Music Fest.”
Waterman’s has teamed up with Eastern North Carolina-based Heritage Farms, who will be supplying some “fine local swine” for the event, according to co-owner Bob High.
The smokers will be fired up early Saturday morning with lunch starting at around 2 p.m.
In the meantime, High said the brewery plans to offer a “Gameday Brunch,” allowing football fans a chance to come out and catch pregame action with the opportunity to enjoy breakfast.
High says that the “high quality meats” provided by Heritage Farms will be used to make everything from fresh pulled pork, sausages and pork belly, to a “southern delicacy” called “pork wings,” made from the shank of the pig.
“We tend to do really well with our seafood, but we never set out to just be a seafood restaurant,” High said with a laugh. “We’re pretty passionate about our smoked meats.”
They’ll also be cooking up “all the fixings,” as well as two or three new beers being rolled out for the event.
Fresh beer, football, and live music
High also plans to introduce a mainstay to the Waterman’s line up, in the form of a “randall.”
The randall works by running the beer through a double filter full of fresh hops, which he plans to harvest from a Rocky Mount farm on Friday. According to High, this gives the beer a “fresh hit of green flavor.”
College football kickoff and live music begin at 4 p.m., with a series of local bands taking the stage on the back porch, and TVs inside showing college football through the evening hours.
Folk musician Chris Frisnia will take the stage first, with bluegrass band Massive Grass coming in to headline the event. Later, southern rockers Jesse Stockton & The Dream Machine will “get the brewery rocking” with an electric set to finish off the night.
“This is really an end of summer celebration,” High said. “But, we’d like to start doing something like this every Saturday. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The free event is open to all ages and will run until 11 p.m. Waterman’s Brewing Company is located at 1610 Pavilion Place, just before the bridge to Wrightsville Beach.
For more information, follow Waterman’s Brewing on on Facebook, or visit the website at watermansbrewingcompany.com.
Get in touch with Reporter Cory Mannion: follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or send an email at cory@localvoicemedia.com.
