UPDATE 12/24/2014: Virginia Beer Company officially closed on the lease for the building at 401 Second St. Tuesday. The microbrewery announced the news on its Twitter page at around 4:10 p.m. Tuesday.
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Original Post:
Two College of William & Mary graduates are bringing new beer to an old town.
Owners of Virginia Beer Company Chris Smith and Robby Willey are in the final stages of negotiating a lease for a building at 401 Second St. in York County for a new brewery they hope to open by summer 2015.
The brewery will feature a variety of signature beers that fuse traditional ingredients with unique twists that reflect their slogan: “Old Town. New Beer.”
Their brewmaster, Jonathan Newman, has already begun brewing home batches in his carport. Recipes include an American wheat ale with sweet orange and grapefruit peal, an oatmeal stout with chocolate flavors and a tangy IPA with pineapple, mango and orange aromas.
The brewery will have a taproom, space for an outdoor patio, a green area for lawn games and more. The beers will also be sold on tap in local restaurants.
As Virginia Beer Company finalizes negotiations with the owner of the Second Street building, Smith and Willey can usually be found at a local Starbucks, poring over contracts, leases and designs.
At night, they substitute their coffee cups for beer glasses as they rely on their taste buds to find inspiration. They frequent craft breweries, researching new beers to get ideas for their own while getting the word out about their planned opening for summer 2015.
They have been making their presence known at various beer festivals and can often be found in local restaurants like Dog Street Pub and in York County’s other craft brewery, Alewerks Brewing Company.
“We’ve been received with open arms,” Willey said about Virginia Beer Company’s relationship with other local breweries. “That, to me, is an indicator of the industry.”
Director of Economic Development Jim Noel said York County can benefit from the growing craft brewery industry. He and the Virginia Beer Company owners have already spoken about the creation of a spirits trail as a tourism strategy.
“We’re very excited,” Noel said. “We think it’s a wonderful addition to our business base.”
The Economic Development Authority granted Virginia Beer Company a $43,000 last month to help with the renovations of the building on Second Street.
The EDA recently asked York County to recognize microbreweries as a growing tourism tool.
In September, the Board of Supervisors agreed to sponsor an amendment that addresses bringing small-scale alcohol production — microbreweries, micro-distilleries, micro-wineries and micro-cideries — to the county by creating a specific category in the county code for those uses.
The Planning Commission will vote on whether to recommend the changes in the code to the board Wednesday.
Virginia Beer Company will be the third brewery in the Historic Triangle. It will be joining Alewerks Brewing Company in York County and Toano-based Brass Cannon Brewing, which opened in 2012.
A few blocks down from Virginia Beer Company’s potential site, Copper Fox Distillery will be taking over the former site of the Lord Paget Motel on Capitol Landing Road. Owner Rick Wasmund said he plans to be able to sell unaged products next spring or summer.
The Second Street corridor has been targeted by Williamsburg as an area of potential growth. In April, the city added Second Street to its list of underground wiring projects. Meanwhile, three new businesses will be opening in the Shops at Second Street in December, an offshoot of the Velvet Shoestring’s expansion.
Craft brewers contributed about $14.3 billion in 2013, according to the Brewer’s Association, a national group promoting small and independent breweries. In Virginia alone, there were 61 breweries in 2013, with about one brewery per capita.
“There are so many styles of beer out there and there are so many breweries doing great things,” said Willey.
Willey and Smith’s love of beer began at the College of William and Mary, where they were both studying finance. After college, the two landed jobs in New York and Boston, reconnecting every few months in new cities and growing their love for craft brewery.
They soon began experimenting with home brewing and eventually decided to turn their hobby into careers.
“We did not leave college with the intention of starting a brewery,” Willey said. “One way or another, we all fell in love with the idea of beer.”
The two have faced challenges since deciding to go into business together in 2012, the biggest of which was selecting a city in which to open a brewery.
They looked up and down the east coast, examining cities where breweries were popular, looking at breweries per capita and speaking with local brewers.
“We looked at a lot of other places before we even thought about Williamsburg,” Willey said, explaining the idea to move back to Williamsburg was a “light bulb moment.”
“It’s one of those things where it’s like you’re overlooking one of the most obvious things that’s right in front of you,” Willey said.
Once the partners settled on Williamsburg, the next obstacle was finding a building that would fit their idea for a brewery.
They needed a space that would allow them to expand, Willey said. They needed tall ceilings, a loading dock, a great deal of parking and space for an outdoor seating area, among other necessities.
After rejecting a building on Richmond Road and throwing out the idea of constructing their own building on Bypass Road, the beer lovers got their break.
The Second Street building became available for purchase in late August. It needed some renovations, but it was exactly what they were looking for.
Willey and Smith are currently negotiating a contract with the owner of 401 Second St. If the lease is signed with no glitches, the next step is to hire an architect and contractor to begin designing their dream space and acquire the necessary production equipment.
If contract negotiations go as planned, the owner has agreed to renovate the exterior of the building by providing new asphalt, new parking and new lighting.
Willey and Smith will be using the $43,000 grant from York County to replace all the windows and doors in the building, to purchase a system that will pump suspended solids leftover from beer out of the wastewater and to close one of two road openings to the site.
Willey and Smith have $1.3 million in capital for their new brewery, thanks largely to friends and family who have invested in their company over the past two years.
“So many people have been so supportive in what we are doing and have offered to help us as much as possible,” Smith said. “We can finally show them what we’ve done after so many years of talking about it.”
Related Coverage:
- Interest in Microbreweries Prompts York County Officials to Discuss Zoning Change
- Copper Fox Gets Final OK From City Council
- Growing Craft Beer, Liquor Industry in Historic Triangle Brings Jobs, Tourists
- Williamsurg Distillery Working to Open in James City County
- City Agrees to Sell Former Lord Paget Motel to Distillery
- Copper Fox Distillery Eyes City-Owned Lord Paget Motel Property
- New Timeshare Buildings May Replace Patrick Henry Inn
- City Successfully Bids on Lord Paget Motor Court
