About Scuttlebutt Brewing Company

Founded by Phil and Cynthia “Scuttle” Bannan in 1995, the idea started as a homebrewing kit for Father’s Day 1990. As thoughtful as the gift was, it was also a source of strife – Scuttle wanted to use the kitchen for preparing meals for the family while Phil was crowding her out in favor of homemade beer. To maintain marital bliss we decided to move out of the kitchen and into a larger operation. A business plan was established in 1995 and we grew our operation from 5 gallon buckets to a 20 barrel system.

We brewed our first beer on July 4, 1996 with a 20 barrel system in the brew house, two 20 barrel fermenters and one 20 barrel bright tank. We brewed three styles of beer and finished out that first year with 170 barrels sold. Since then our capacity has grown and we have broadened our product line to include more than 20 styles of hand-crafted ales and lagers.

After more than 25 years Scuttlebutt Brewing Company remains family owned and independent.

What’s in a name?

In order to get Scuttle out of 30 years of retirement, we named the brewery after her. Cynthia was given the nickname “Scuttlebutt” by her father before she was born, because it was the “scuttlebutt” – or gossip at Norfolk Naval Station where they were stationed, that they were going to have another baby. He called her Scuttlebutt when she was born and until her 13th birthday when at her request he discontinued the name by dropping the last syllable. She has been called “Scuttle” ever since.