Calling Beer Fans and Coffee Lovers 

Two local businesses team up to achieve a limited-release blended beverage and, spoiler alert, it’s a family affair

By Joe Jancsurak  »  Photos by Emma Grace

A collaborative effort involving two family-owned businesses—Outer Dunes Brewing and Bitty & Beau’s Coffee—has resulted in what some may consider a ‘stout-standing’ achievement: The newly introduced, limited-release Sol (Latin for sun) Brew. The craft offering blends Sundance dark roast coffee by Bitty & Beau’s with Outer Dunes base beer, lactose (milk sugar), cacao nibs, and vanilla, resulting in an imperial stout with a rich mocha latte flavor.  

What makes this a ‘brew-tiful’ story that leaves one feeling ‘hoppy’ (no more puns —promise!) is that two sisters and their husbands made the collaboration happen, making it a family affair. Ellie and Phil Mabe own Outer Dunes Brewing at 7976 Market Street.  Amy and Ben Wright own Bitty & Beau’s at 4949 New Centre Drive. To hear Ellie and Amy tell it, the sisters caught the entrepreneurial spirit from their dad, who started several businesses while they were growing up in Wilmington. 

Fast forward to 2009 when Ellie and Phil, who met while students at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, went to Lake Tahoe for a single ski season then stayed for a decade. It was there that they worked and partnered at  local event venues and breweries. When they moved back to their hometown of Wilmington in 2019, they knew they would soon open a brewery of their own. 

Two year later, that’s what they did. But before doing so, they worked alongside Amy and Ben at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee roasting beans, packaging product and performing office tasks. Since its opening in 2016, the venue has become known throughout the area for its hot and iced coffees, frappes, smoothies and eats as well as its celebrated workforce, comprised of talented individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Amy was named CNN Hero of the Year in 2017, and the business has grown to 19 locations in 11 states with more than 400 employees. 

Ellie is grateful for the business lessons learned from her older sister and brother-in-law while working at Bitty & Beau’s. “Gaining that experience, along with Phil’s longtime passion for brewing beer and my event-planning and catering experience, prepared us for opening a brewery of our own,” she says. 

Today, Outer Dunes carries a selection of 10 beers, wines and kombucha, and has an “outdoor oasis” for about 200 persons. There one finds a range of flowering shrubs and trees, including ancient oaks and a loquat tree that produces fruit to be harvested for a microbrew, as well as that local musicians and food trucks. Its indoor venue, the Beach House, seats 50. All this is a far cry from where Outer Dunes was during its early days when it began with a one-barrel pilot system as construction of their 2,400-square-foot production facility its current 10-barrel brewhouse, which opened in early 2023. 

“Choosing to open in May 2021 toward the end of a pandemic,” Ellie recalls, “taught us a lot about resiliency as we contended with ever-changing guidelines and supply-chain issues. Through it all we adapted and never lost sight of our goal to collaborate with Bitty & Beau’s.” 

“It really was a natural fit for the families to combine the brewing expertise of Outer Dunes with a Bitty & Beau signature roast coffee,” says Amy. “As the beer-brewing experts and masterminds of the Sol Brew recipe, Outer Dunes made the coffee selection, recognizing that its bold flavor complements the complex notes of the stout, and we worked to ensure that the quality of the roast met their needs. It’s been exciting to see how they brought our coffee into something entirely new.” 

“It took just a couple of blending trials and the beer itself takes two weeks to ferment,” explains Ellie. “Then we add the coffee beans at the end for conditioning.”

Both sisters are hopeful for more future family collaborations. “We’d love to collaborate with Outer Dunes again,” says Amy. “The success of Sol Brew shows how well our brands complement each other.” Ellie concurs, adding, “We remain excited to explore possible collaboration opportunities.”

If you’d like to sample Sol Brew, Ellie says you will find it at most Lowe’s Foods, Total Wine and in many local bottle shops and restaurants. She adds that you can also use the Untapped app to discover the nearest location.

Cheers!