Draft Picks: Woodpeckers feature special red beer

This is the third in a series of MiLB.com Draft Picks articles about clubs crafting unique and interesting beers for their respective fan bases. Already profiled: Gwinnett's 6-4-3 Pilsner and Spokane's Redband Tangerine Wheat Beer.

On St. Patrick’s Day, it’s a tradition to sip green beer. While it may seem odd any other day of the year, on that sole day in March, it feels festive.

In Fayetteville at Segra Stadium, that same feeling is being fostered, but instead of gallons of green food coloring being poured into the suds to give it color, it’s a raspberry essence that gives the Birdy Brew a red tinge.

Birdy Brew is the signature beer served on tap exclusively at Woodpeckers home games, brewed in partnership with Southern Pines Brewing Company.

Before its reddish replacement, the beer of the Astros' Single-A affiliate was called Woodpecker Wheat. Like the beers at many Minor League parks, Woodpecker Wheat was simply a rebrand of Southern Pines’ Wheat Hefeweizen, which they already sold.

“It was just an easy way for us to have a branded beer, but it wasn’t something that they created specifically for us,” said Fayetteville's concessions maanger Brett Burke.

During the summer of 2021, the front office decided they wanted a unique team drink. In the quest to make the perfect ballpark beer, they made the 45-minute drive to Southern Pines Brewing Company and went through the beer tasting gauntlet.

“They tried a bunch of samples to really figure out what they wanted this beer to taste like and it evolved into what it is today,” Burke said. “It’s a wheat beer, blonde ale, with a fruity undertone, closer to berries. When you do get one, it sort of looks like a sour, it’s got a red hue to it that sort of fits in with what our colors are.”

Sour beers are usually fruitier, but they can fall on a wide range. Some can have a sourness that makes your mouth pucker like eating a lemon, while some have a subtle sourness that leans more towards tartness. The Birdy Brew falls in the tartness category, a smooth summery ale that is perfect for enjoying at the park.

“People have enjoyed drinking it,” Burke said. “Even if they don’t like sours, it’s a little on the lighter side and not as far off the normal beaten path that some sours are.”

The beer is currently just sold in the stadium and features a custom tap handle that looks like the trunk of a tree with the Birdy Brew logo on top. The team hopes to expand and be able to sell the beer in stores in the future. To do that, it would need a special can and Burke thinks a military theme would fit the bill.

“Possibly something involving the military since Fayetteville and Fort Bragg [now Fort Liberty] is the biggest military institution in the United States,” Burke said.

Cans may be coming in the future, but for now fans enjoy their brews through the Woodpeckers souvenir cups, a 32-ounce vessel adorned with red and black stripes and the team's logo.