Home › Sponsor Spotlight: The Glass Jug Beer Lab

Sponsor Spotlight: The Glass Jug Beer Lab

June 18, 2025 by Sandy Lerebours

The Glass Jug Beer Lab is a local craft brewery, focused on experimental beer, new processes, and high standards of quality, and their Downtown Durham taproom is where they can fully express their own brand. In 2013, they were built around a core principle – to serve great local and craft beer to their customers in the freshest way possible and let them take it home without sacrificing the quality of the beer. Over the years, they have grown their production and expanded their footprint as they continue to boast an unrivaled variety and selection of craft beer in bottles, cans, and on draft. The Carolina Theatre of Durham is proud to have The Glass Jug Beer Lab as a generous supporter and partner of the arts and culture cultivated within the theater and in downtown Durham.

We spoke with Chris Creech, Co-Owner, to learn more about their company’s history and partnership with the Carolina Theatre.

What is The Glass Jug and how long have you been serving the Durham/Triangle community?
The Glass Jug Beer Lab is a local craft brewery, retail beer & craft beverage shop, taproom/beer garden, and an inclusive community gathering space. We have a brewery and taproom in South Durham on Hwy 55, and a taproom next to Central Park on Foster Street. We opened the retail side of our business in RTP/South Durham in 2014 (11 years ago!), added the on-site brewery at that location in 2018, and opened our downtown Durham taproom in 2021, continuing to deepen our ties to Durham.
How do you come up with new beer recipes? Do you use any local or unique ingredients?

As a Beer Lab, we have a strong focus on experimentation and trying out new ingredients and processes to recreate classic styles with unique twists, and to create completely new products regularly. We follow a scientific process, take copious notes, and are always working to improve our award-winning beers so that we can continually produce the best beer in town. We brew a lot of styles seasonally and listen to what our guests are asking for, as our list is always rotating, so you’re able to find something new and fresh each time you visit.

We have a strong relationship with Epiphany Craft Malt, which is a local maltster that brings in NC and VA-grown grains and malts them here in Durham. We use a lot of their products, as well as grains, hops, sugars, and other adjuncts from the US, Canada, and Europe.

What makes The Glass Jug different from other brewers?

We are a local, family-run brewery with a focus on supporting our community, creating a welcoming space for folks to gather, and offering a variety of beverage options. We invest heavily in local products, support local musicians, artists, and makers. However, I think what makes us most unique is that we do this while keeping a focus on the science of brewing. Our quality assurance program, testing regimen, and focus on continual and iterative improvements to our products are core to what we do, and we have seen that pay dividends in bringing people through our doors and bringing us medals from many regional, national, and international beer competitions. A lot of our charitable giving and partnerships also focus on community STEM organizations, from medical research to education to the environment, we are focused on supporting scientific causes in our backyard.

Do you have any special events that happen at the taprooms? Do you partner with any local business for those?

We have many events happening every week at both of our taprooms – from running and walk clubs, to trivia and music bingo, to live music and comedy. However, a couple events that always stand out include the Bull City Beer Mile that we host at Durham Central Park every April in partnership with Bull City Running Company. We had nearly 400 runners, and tons of spectators join us for this year’s race.

Additionally, we host Durham Oktoberfest at Durham Central Park, as well as our annual anniversary party and Oktoberfest at our RTP location, which we have hosted every year since 2014. Both of these events feature live German music, food trucks, hot pretzels, commemorative beer steins, and (of course) delicious beer.

 

What are some exciting new projects The Glass Jug is working on?

There’s always exciting new beers in our tanks that we’re looking forward to. We just kegged a Kolsch-style ale for the first time in our 8-year brewing history, and we’re looking forward to trying a newly-developed malt for this year’s annual Festbier. Plus we have collaboration beers in the works with Blackbird Brewing as well as the Batala Drum Line group for later this year.

But, I think some of our favorite projects are our community-focused events. We’ve strengthened our partnership with Durham Central Park and are doing a fundraiser for them at their July 4th event, offering free hotdogs and sides to everyone in attendance in exchange for a suggested donation to the park. We’re excited about their new 10-year “Greenprint” plan that will bring some exciting upgrades and improvements to the area of the park directly in front of our taproom.

How long have you partnered with the Carolina Theatre and what does that partnership mean to you?

We have partnered with Carolina Theatre in some form or fashion for about 4 years now. They were one of our first partnerships when we opened our taproom on Foster Street. We’ve been fans and patrons of the Theatre for many years, and with our taproom opening just a couple blocks away, we saw a partnership as a great way to not only tell people about our taproom and our beer, but as a way to also give back to the Durham arts community. The partnership also allows us to publicly show our guests and our community the values that are important to us, and supporting a local arts scene that is so involved in the community and does so much for Durham is a big piece of that.

Why is it important to support the Carolina Theatre and arts in our community?

The Carolina Theatre is a staple of Downtown Durham and the work that is being done to bring theatre and cinema to kids and all parts of our community is amazing. While Durham is quickly growing and changing, we want to do our part to maintain a historic building and a unique piece of the fabric that makes Durham great. The arts need public support. We can’t always count on the government for funding, so it is important that even small, local businesses like ours step up to support the institutions that are important to our community.