Original Gravity wants to serve you a beer

Imagine going to get supplies to make a beer and enjoying a beer while getting those supplies. The future is now or will be soon.

July 1, 2014; 10:09 AM • by Richard Hayes

Making beer is easy. Making good beer is not easy. Original Gravity in Lakeside has been helping people make good beer for over two years. Now they’re in the planning stages of adding a nano-brewery to the site with a 31 gallon capacity. For comparisons sake a sixel the smallest keg is often used by home brewers and Legend Brewing brews over 12,000 barrels a year, with each barrel being 31 gallons.

Plans are still very fluid and an expected opening date isn’t mentioned.

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“Current customers might have a beer or fill a growler while shopping for ingredients, but serving beer will also open up more possibilities for customers that don’t brew to stop in and enjoy our beers,” Ammendolia said.

Ammendolia, a Virginia Commonwealth University graduate and 20-year home brewing veteran, is eyeing a 5,000-square-foot space at 6118 Lakeside Ave. that formerly housed antique shop Feathernesters. The storefront is three doors over from the current Original Gravity location, a 1,000-square-foot shop Ammendolia will vacate if he moves into the larger space.

The brewery plans are still in their earliest phases, Ammendolia said. Original Gravity will try to clear one hurdle next month when the store’s landlord will petition for a zoning change to accommodate the brewery.

If he can’t brew from the Lakeside location, Ammendolia said he may look for a new space elsewhere. But he said he’d prefer to stay at Lakeside Towne Center, a roughly 27,000-square-foot retail strip owned by Peter Francisco.