The Hardywood GBS 2026 season hits its biggest day on Friday, Oct. 23, when Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, Va., releases four members of its Gingerbread Stout family at once. The headliner is Christmas Pancakes, a 9.2% imperial milk stout that pours local maple syrup over the familiar GBS base of ginger, honey, cinnamon and vanilla, according to JollyPint’s release report. Riding along: Gingerbread Porter, Chocolate Babka GBS and Bourbon Caliente GBS.
Bureau anthropologists have long noted that Virginians mark the approach of winter not with a solstice ritual but with a can of ginger-spiked stout. Hardywood GBS 2026 brings the usual ritual plus a corporate subplot. More on that below.
The Hardywood GBS 2026 release calendar so far
GBS, short for Gingerbread Stout, was first brewed in 2011, per JollyPint. Hardywood’s own event listings show Hardywood GBS 2026 arriving in waves rather than all at once:
- Oct. 9: Gingerbread Stout and Bourbon Barrel GBS release at the brewery.
- Oct. 16: Gingerbread Red, a lactose-free red ale built on the same ginger, honey, vanilla and cinnamon spice profile.
- Oct. 23: Christmas Pancakes, Gingerbread Porter, Chocolate Babka GBS and Bourbon Caliente GBS, each listed for 2 to 9 p.m. at the 2410 Ownby Lane taproom.
A note on the math: Hardywood’s calendar and JollyPint both count four Oct. 23 releases in total, Christmas Pancakes included. Add Gingerbread Red from Oct. 16 and you get five newer-season variants, on top of the original GBS and Bourbon Barrel GBS that landed Oct. 9. That makes the Hardywood GBS 2026 roster a crowded one, and the season is only three Fridays old.
Christmas Pancakes: the Hardywood GBS 2026 headliner
Hardywood’s full billing for the headliner reads like a breakfast menu written by a spice merchant: an “Imperial Milk Stout with Virginia-Grown Hawaiian Baby Ginger, Local Wildflower Honey, Vietnamese Cinnamon, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans, and Local Maple Syrup.” The brewery says it “captures the delight of Christmas morning and a stack of hot flapjacks with a fresh snap of ginger in the finish.”
The Bureau has not tasted this Hardywood GBS 2026 batch, so we will not hand you tasting notes beyond the brewery’s own words. What we can tell you is how the parts are supposed to behave. JollyPint points out that much of the sugar in maple syrup is fermentable, while the lactose in a milk stout is not, so it stays behind as sweetness and body. In theory, that gives Christmas Pancakes both maple flavor and a creamy texture. The ginger is the safety rail meant to keep it from sliding into pure syrup.
The can art commits fully to the bit: a gingerbread figure, knife and fork in hand, standing behind a stack of pancakes. Per Hardywood’s event page, the beer comes in four-packs of 16-ounce cans at both Hardywood taprooms. JollyPint adds draft availability at the Richmond brewery.
The rest of Friday’s Hardywood GBS 2026 manifest
- Gingerbread Porter: an imperial porter with chocolate and roasted malts and the GBS blend of local ginger, wildflower honey and spices, minus the milk sugar. Hardywood says it heard “from GBS lovers who don’t dig on lactose.” Four-packs of 16-ounce cans.
- Chocolate Babka GBS: Hardywood calls it “a brand new variant this year,” with cocoa nibs, toasted coconut, cinnamon and nutmeg swirled into the Gingerbread Stout. Four-packs of 16-ounce cans.
- Bourbon Caliente GBS: the brewery’s description is an imperial milk stout conditioned with ancho chiles and Vietnamese cinnamon and aged 26 months in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels. Four-packs of 12-ounce cans.
In this Hardywood GBS 2026 report, we are leaving alcohol figures off everything except Christmas Pancakes until we have them confirmed for this report. Check the can before you plan your evening, especially with anything that spent two years in a bourbon barrel.
The first GBS season under one Virginia roof
This is the first Hardywood GBS 2026 rollout since Hardywood’s deal for Starr Hill Brewery closed on Oct. 1. The two companies announced it Oct. 7, describing it in Hardywood’s press release as an all-equity acquisition that keeps Starr Hill’s ownership, leadership, team and brand intact. Citing NielsenIQ, the release calls them the No. 1 and No. 2 Virginia craft brewers by volume. Together they run nine taprooms that draw more than 900,000 visits a year. We broke down the deal in our report on Hardywood acquiring Starr Hill.
“This partnership reflects a shared belief in the future of independent brewing in Virginia,” Hardywood CEO Eric McKay said in the release. The companies also promised that taproom visitors “will start seeing special releases, guest taps, and merch from each sister brewery in the weeks ahead.” Whether that means GBS on tap in Crozet this winter, nobody has said. The Bureau is watching the Starr Hill tap lists for any Hardywood GBS 2026 sightings with all available antennae.
Bigger than five cans
For collectors, Hardywood is also selling a 2026 GBS Complete Set, the deep end of the Hardywood GBS 2026 pool. Its product page lists 24 beers plus an ornament, including new barrel projects such as Port Barrel GBS and an Apple Brandy Barrel GBS aged 60 months in Laird’s barrels. The holiday-stout arms race is not limited to Richmond, either: Chicago just answered with Bourbon County Triple Barrel Stout, and gingerbread has worked its way into big-brewery lineups like Guinness Open Gate’s gingerbread spiced stout.
Still, few holiday beers have the staying power of GBS, now well into its second decade. The Hardywood GBS 2026 lineup builds out from the original rather than replacing it: dairy-free in the porter, dessert in the babka, heat in the Caliente, breakfast in the pancakes. If you are in Richmond on Friday, bring a cooler, an appetite, and maybe a designated driver from a nearby star system.
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