More Virginia Brewery Expansion

We've heard recently about major craft brewery expansion into Virginia. However, it's not just the big guys, our local craft breweries are growing as well. As excited as I am to see Stone and Green Flash coming to Virginia, the successes of our local brewers is even more exciting.

This week Adventure Brewing posted a help wanted ad to their Facebook page, looking for a full time brewer.

As Stafford County’s first brewery in over 250 years Adventure Brewing Company is dedicated to bringing quality craft beer to our local area. We are a small do it yourself style brewery operating on a three barrel self-engineered brewing system. Although we have been in business for only a short time, demand for our beer has been high and we find ourselves in need of a full time brewer to help meet that demand. We are looking for someone who has a creative entrepreneurial spirit who doesn’t mind rolling up his or her sleeves to accomplish whatever needs doing. The potential candidate must be someone who can operate and fix self-engineered systems and assist in the transition to a larger automated distribution sized system in 2015. We offer a competitive salary, a great working environment and the opportunity to flex your creative muscles. 

Just last weekend we were at Capital Ale House and I saw Adventure Expedition IPA on the menu, and I was very happy to see their beer being distributed. That help wanted ad also points to expanded brewing capacity. Which means we'll be seeing Adventure beer in even more places, soon.

Also this week, BadWolf Brewing posted on their blog news of a future larger location. They have located a space on the east side of Manassas City and plan a Spring 2015 opening. On Facebook they recently reported that a new 10 barrel brew system has been ordered for expanded capacity.

And BadWolf isn't just looking out for themselves. After being deterred by zoning laws in nearby Prince William County, they are being proactive in helping to change the laws to allow for other breweries to come to the county.

This time last year, we began the search for the new space and for one reason or another, it did not work out. There were several options and ideas thrown about. One of the particular jurisdictions we had considered was Prince William County, a place we grew up in and knew well. We almost picked a neat little spot in Woodbridge, which the biggest obstacle were the laws pertaining to breweries in the zone we had our eyes on. I guess "pertaining to" would be incorrect; the issue was the zone would not allow our particular business model to work. We wanted to place a brewery (just like little BadWolf) in a B-2 space. Sadly, we did not have time to wait for the process in working with zoning officials and the county to change the legislation. It was disappointing but at the same time, we had another idea. Why not pave a path for other breweries to make it easier for them to open in the B-1, B-2 zones? 

So, we proposed that they refine and update their code to help other breweries to open up in the future. Jeremy was asked to speak with several local municipalities to clarify our own business practices and current zoning in the City of Manassas. This talk, along with suggestions to the Prince William Zoning Board about ordinances pertaining to breweries is now showing results! They are moving forward with a new proposal to make it legal for a brewery like our little BadWolf model to open up in commercially zoned areas within Prince William County. This is very exciting news!!

Exciting indeed. Virginia craft beer fans are very fortunate that we have so many successful and passionate brewers providing us with good beer.