Narragansett Beer will celebrate 21 years since its revival with a birthday party at its Providence taproom on June 24, marking the date in 2005 when founder Mark Hellendrung and a group of Rhode Island investors reacquired the iconic New England brand.
The celebration at the Fox Point taproom will feature the release of a Narragansett Cream Ale, a beer rooted in the brewery’s comeback era, along with a 21-part social media campaign highlighting milestones since the relaunch under the hashtags #GrowingUpGansett, #Finally21 and #HiNeighbor.
Founded in Providence in 1890, Narragansett was reacquired in 2005 after decades of ownership changes and an eventual closure. Since then, the brand has grown from distribution in four states to 27, returned brewing to the Providence waterfront, and risen to become one of the nation’s Top 20 craft breweries, ranked No. 19 by the Brewers Association. It opened its Providence taproom in May 2021 and was named Brewbound’s 2024 Large Brewery of the Year.
“Twenty-one years ago, a stranger at a Newport bar said ‘what you want is a Gansett’ — and that was the moment everything changed,” Hellendrung said. “What followed was the most improbable comeback in American beer. We are finally legal, finally home, and finally ready to celebrate with the neighbors who made all of this possible.”
The brewery said it plans to keep expanding, with distribution growing into new states, an evolving food menu at the taproom, and a new beer release each First Thursday. More information is available at narragansettbeer.com.
