Delmar’s 3rd Wave Brewing Company: Q&A With Co-Owner Lori Clough

Breweries are popping up all over the First State and one of the newest places to grab a cold craft beer is 3rd Wave Brewery in Delmar, which opened in late 2012. The brewery offers four house beers and many others on a seasonal basis. Delaware Living sat down with Co-owner and Manager Lori Clough to chat about her unique brews.

Q: What’s the story of how you opened the brewery?

A: I had a couple of home brewing kits and the beer turned out really well. It was easy, like making a cake. We home brewed for almost two years and then my friend, Susan Vickers, called and asked if I wanted to buy a brewery. I thought she was joking. The next weekend we sat in her garage drinking beer and within two weeks we had a contract. 

Q: What’s behind the name, 3rd Wave? 

A: If you’re a surfer, you know waves usually come in sets of three. The third wave is usually the best one!

Q: How has the community responded to your opening?

A: The community of Delmar has been just awesome, very supportive of us. A lot of our customers are locals—people here in the town that don’t want to drive into Salisbury. The community has been great. 

Q: What’s your favorite beer on tap?

A: My favorite is the Big Reef Porter. It’s one of my home recipes that we took and made into a big commercial recipe. It’s on the lighter side, closer to an English brown ale. To me, this is a gateway for someone to begin drinking a darker beer. It has a slight roasted and chocolate flavor and it’s not as heavy as other darker beers. 

Q: What are some of your most popular beers? 

A: We produce a series of wheat beers—four per year—and they are very popular. A boysenberry in the winter, apricot in the spring and we’re getting ready to put our peach beer out. The peaches can’t go in too early because they have so much sugar, the alcohol content would be too high. We’ll chop up 300 pounds of peaches for this year’s batch of peach beer. 

Q: What are your hopes for 3rd Wave? 

A: I hope we continue to make great beer, that’s most important. I also hope that we continue to stay inventive and fun. As long as we’re having fun and can pay our bills, we’ll be happy. I want everyone to be able to come inside and have fun.