Which of these 14 West Coast breweries could be headed to RVA next?
Another West Coast brewery considers the Finest City on the East Coast for its next operation. BUT WHICH BREWERY? AND WHICH CITY? JK, our city.
Style Weekly’s Ned Oliver reports that a second West Coast brewery is eying Richmond as an expansion location:
It’s too soon to name the brewery considering Richmond because the talks are at an early stage where publicity could kill them, the sources say, but the company ranks among the top 30 on the Brewer’s Association list of top U.S. craft breweries by beer sales volume.
So which brewery is it?
I pulled the Brewer’s Association list from 2013, grabbed the top 40 breweries, and filtered out those not on the West Coast (or those named Stone Brewing Co.). Then I spent some time Googling around to see if any of them had existing East Coast expansions or plans for such a thing in the works. Here’s what I found:
| Rank | Brewery | Location | Expansion? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. | CA | Asheville, NC |
| 2 | New Belgium Brewing Co. | CO | Asheville, NC |
| 3 | Lagunitas Brewing Co. | CA | Chicago, IL |
| 4 | Deschutes Brewery | OR | Considering South Carolina circa 2014, “several years away from making any decisions about an expansion”, also they just started distribution to Washington D.C. last year. |
| 5 | Firestone Walker Brewing Co. | CA | |
| 6 | Anchor Brewing Co. | CA | Considering a second brewery circa 2012, “a second brewery is an inevitability, although he adds it won’t necessarily be an East Coast branch” |
| 7 | Oskar Blues Brewery | CO | Brevard, NC |
| 8 | Full Sail Brewing Co. | OR | Sold to a private equity firm this past Friday |
| 9 | Rogue Ales | OR | |
| 10 | Ballast Point Brewing Co. | CA | Construction of a new $12 million facility in November of 2013, “we didn’t think we were at a point yet to go build something on the East Coast” |
| 11 | Ninkasi Brewing Co. | OR | Completed $15 million expansion in Euguen this past April, and collaborated with Devils Backbone this in December |
| 12 | Odell Brewing Co. | CO | |
| 13 | Bear Republic Brewing Co. | CA | Doubled capacity onsite in 2014 |
| 14 | Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe | CA | Construction on a new facility began in 2014 |
Photo by: Wagner T. Cassimiro “Aranha”
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Wouldn’t be at all shocked by Firestone Walker. I keep seeing their stuff in restaurants and beer stores more and more often in the area.
I’d love to see Ballast Point here. Maybe it would bring the prices down. Sculpin IPA is worth the money, though.
Would love for Rogue or Lagunitas!!!
Came in to say I just wish Deschutes would distribute here and I’m really surprised to see them on the list because I didn’t know they were so big. That would be the greatest! Rogue would be fantastic too.
I’m hearing the interested brewery is also from San Diego, which would mean its Ballast Point.
Ha, ha, do I need to start another petition?
https://www.change.org/p/stone-brewing-install-rooftop-solar-on-new-stone-brewing-complex-in-richmond-va
A quick google search shows that beer and solar power go well together-
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=solar+breweries&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
What will it take for RVA breweries to get with it?
What about AleSmith? It was the #1 brewery in the nation in 2013 and they just began distribution to Raleigh area in Summer 2014. This would be a game-changer.
I’d love to see a Rogue out here!
Hey, as long as we give away lots of land and tax breaks to them while back-charging the Hardywoods for meals taxes, bring ’em all on.
Rogue! Deschutes! Please, please, please…