Montauk Brewing marks 14 years with beach cleanup and Jalapeño Watermelon Ale

Montauk Brewing marked its 14th anniversary with a beach cleanup alongside Surfrider Foundation’s Eastern Long Island Chapter before shifting the day to the red Brew Barn for a limited Jalapeño Watermelon Ale release. The Saturday, June 27, 2026 celebration ran from 10 a.m. to noon on the beach and from noon until close at the brewery, turning the milestone into a shoreline-to-taproom ritual.

That format fit a brand that has spent years selling Montauk as a place as much as a beer. The company was founded in 2012, but its origin story reaches back to 2009, when Vaughan Cutillo, Joe Sullivan and Eric Moss started homebrewing in a basement. Montauk’s own motto, the “No Frills Good Life,” still frames the label around beach, community and good times on Long Island’s South Fork. Tilray Brands, Inc. acquired Montauk in 2022 and has described it as an iconic Northeast brand with leading market share and distribution, a reminder that the brewery’s coastal identity has become part of its business value.

The cleanup also gave the anniversary a civic edge that matched Surfrider’s local work. The Eastern Long Island Chapter focuses on ocean, wave and beach protection from Montauk Point to the Moriches Inlet, and its volunteer network includes Beach Guardians and the Blue Water Task Force. That water-quality program works with Concerned Citizens of Montauk and Peconic Baykeeper to test more than 70 East End sites, tying the day’s beach work to a broader effort to protect the shoreline that defines the brand.

Back at the Brew Barn, Jalapeño Watermelon Ale was the centerpiece. The beer was sold exclusively there on tap and in 4-packs while supplies lasted, with patio pizza from Fiero’s, a surfboard raffle benefiting Surfrider and live summer soccer coverage rounding out the party. The anniversary leaned on the same formula Montauk has used for years: keep the brand rooted in the coast, give drinkers something seasonal and scarce, and make the whole thing feel like it belongs to the town that gave the brewery its name.