Roanoke Railhouse Brewery

Located in an old Dr. Pepper bottling plant, this Roanoke, Virginia brewery is marking three years of brewing. The beer is distributed in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. I've heard of the brewery, but sadly, I've never had their beers, nor do I recall seeing it in my limited travels, despite them being available as close as Richmond. Apparently plenty of people have though, and the beers are well-liked. This is evidenced by the brewery's amazing growth story. The Roanoke Times has an informative story giving the history:

Roanoke Railhouse produced its first batch of Track 1 beer in 2009. It was distributed to just a few local restaurants and bars.

As the brewery approaches its third year of business, sales have doubled and the brewery makes two lagers and an IPA that are distributed from Marion to Richmond and from Staunton to Raleigh, N.C.

Davidson has mostly given up his real estate practice, spending long days at the brewery to take care of everything from production schedules to working with distributors. He's hired a brewmaster trained in Germany and employs several others to help bottle and package the beer.

Currently Roanoke Railhouse Brewery offers three beers; Track 1 Lager, Caboose Imperial Lager, and Railhouse IPA. After reading the Roanoke Times article I'm going to be on the look out for these beers. They are definitely on my "must-try" list.

See "Business is brewing for Roanoke Railhouse" to read the complete story.