Vicious Fishes™ Brewery began in 1991 as a home brewing hobby enjoyed by two long-time friends and then grad school roommates. Not long later, during a bit of banter between co-workers (that remarkably did not include beer), the words Vicious and Fishes got put together, resulting in a wonderful sort of alliteration. Instantly it had to become the name of our brewery.
With the brewery name in hand, we used it as an anchor for developing names for our brews that followed a salty, nautical theme. After all, what college age brewer doesn’t love beer, piranhas, and pirates?
A crude label was painstakingly designed pixel by pixel on an early PC-era computer and off we went.
We named and labeled all of our beers according to the theme. T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other breweriana were designed and given to friends and family for Christmas presents. Even so early on, Vicious Fishes developed something of a cult following in our home in the south San Francisco Bay Area.
Fast forward 25 years and a relocation to North Carolina, a new friendship was formed around beer. Presented with an opportunity to spin up a brewery where one was shutting down, our founders decided to turn a passionate hobby into a professional reality.
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State of the art brewing equipment has replaced the (t)rusty old stock pot. Modern brewing ingredients have yielded significant improvements in the quality and variety of the brews made in our brewhouse. With new technology available for cleaning and sterilization, the brew day is (thankfully) condensed. What hasn’t changed is our passion for quality craft beer and the whimsical spirit embodied in our original design – we remain ever Vicious!