In December 2024, a year’s worth of controversy regarding Wilmington’s Edward Teach Brewing had seemingly come to an end.
A Brunswick County musician had publicly disavowed viral accusations of troubling behavior she’d made against Edward Teach Brewing founder Gary Sholar, who in turn had filed multiple civil lawsuits in the wake of the accusations while pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges stemming from a November 2023 incident at the brewery.
With the accusations retracted and the lawsuits withdrawn, everyone, it seemed, was ready to move on with their lives — albeit in a landscape in which once-ubiquitous Edward Teach products were less in evidence on the shelves of area bars, stores and restaurants, and with the brewery seeing a decline in attendance due to a boycott by musicians and others angered by Sholar’s behavior…