Fireforge Crafted Beer marks eight years with return of ForgeFest

Fireforge Crafted Beer is turning its eighth anniversary into a three-day proof-of-health test for the brewery, with ForgeFest set for June 12-14, 2026 at 311 E. Washington St. in downtown Greenville. The weekend runs from 7:00 p.m. Friday, June 12 through 6:00 p.m. Sunday, June 14, and it will be built around an anniversary beer, food from the Fireforge kitchen and live music.

That matters because Fireforge has spent the last eight years turning a homebrewing spark into a repeatable downtown business. The brewery began in Greenville in 2018 as a small-batch brewery and tasting room, founded by Brian and Nicole Cendrowski, and Brian Cendrowski’s beer path stretches back to a homebrewed batch in 2007 after Nicole gave him a homebrew-shop gift certificate. By the time a brewery can spin that origin story into a recurring festival, it has done more than survive. It has built a customer base that shows up for the birthday party.

ForgeFest is also a good example of how anniversary weekends now work for successful taprooms. Fireforge’s schedule leans on familiar names and a social, stay-a-while format, with Second Hand News, Pharaohs DJs, Splitwave, Adam Knight’s Buried Alive, Bunch & Batter Gourmet Cookie Pop-Up and the Greenville Jazz Collective’s Sunday Jazz Jam all part of the 2026 lineup. Fireforge says some parts of the weekend will have low or no entry fees, which keeps the event open to regulars who may just want a pint, a band and dinner without making the night feel like a one-shot ticketed festival.

The brewery’s own calendar gives the celebration even more context. ForgeFest sits on a broader events page that also includes an Oktoberfest later in the year, which is the kind of programming you only see when a brewery has enough confidence in its place in the market to plan beyond one weekend. A local profile has already described Fireforge as one of Greenville’s more awarded breweries, and that reputation helps explain why an anniversary event can be marketed as a destination instead of a house party.

Eight years in, Fireforge is not just marking time. With ForgeFest back in downtown Greenville, the brewery is showing that its beer, kitchen and music calendar are all part of the same business, and that business still has room to keep growing.