What’s Brewing In The ‘Burg
Despite Proliferation In Recent Years, Friendly City Craft Beer Producers See Bright Future
Posted: May 2, 2015
By VIC BRADSHAW
Daily News-Record
HARRISONBURG — In December 2012, an old Coca-Cola plant on North Main Street was brought back to life.
Three Shifflett brothers — Adam, Jason and Tyler — started producing beverages there again, albeit liquids with a bit more kick. Though none of them had drawn a paycheck from the industry and there was no similar operation locally, they wanted to open a craft brewery.
“I don’t think anyone ever feels 100 percent confident that their venture is going to work,” co-owner Adam Shifflett said, recalling how Brothers Craft Brewing began. “You’re working the numbers as much as you can, making sure you’re not making silly mistake. You’ve got to do your homework on it, but I think part of it, too, is understanding that you’re going to put the effort in behind it and believe that it’s going to be worth something.”
More than two years later, Brothers Craft Brewing is a success.
It’s also no longer alone.
Craft-beer breweries are sweeping America, and they’re hopping in the Friendly City.
Brothers Craft Brewing, formerly known as Three Brothers Brewing, was joined almost a year ago by a taproom and small-batch brewery owned by Charlottesville-based Three Notch’d Brewing, which opened in the Urban Exchange building on East Market Street. Pale Fire Brewing began production in March and opened its taproom last month at the old Cassco Ice House on South Liberty Street. Wolfe Street Brewing is being built on West Wolfe Street.
Long before taprooms opened, Pale Fire co-owner Tim Brady observed, the local market had plenty of craft beers. Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams and similar brands were sold in stores and served in restaurants.
“I can name probably 100 great craft breweries that were sold in Harrisonburg before we came along,” said Brady, who labeled the local population as “definitely very beer savvy.”
Brand Building
To make their businesses work, many craft breweries rely on three revenue streams — draft beer sold off-site in kegs; package beer sold off-site in bottles and/or cans by convenience stores, grocers and restaurants; and taproom sales.
The desire to enhance its off-site sales prompted Three Notch’d to open a Harrisonburg taproom last May, said Scott Roth, the microbrewery’s president and co-founder. The owners wanted to get their beer into Shenandoah Valley restaurants and retail outlets and thought a taproom would promote their brand and provide a place to educate restaurant owners, bartenders and consumers.
The taproom serves beer made in Charlottesville and small-batch brews crafted by head brewmaster Mary Morgan.
“It allows us to bring our customers to the taproom,” Roth said, “to let them learn about our story and what the brewery is all about. It creates a local feel, a local presence, top of mind.”
The strategy, he added, has been successful, as taproom sales have doubled in the last six months and local draft and package sales also are up.
Shifflett said he “loves” having a brewery such as Pale Fire in the city that produces beer served beyond the taproom. Visitors often tour his and Pale Fire’s production areas to learn how beer is made, which helps attract people to the city.
Fifteen percent to 20 percent of the beer Brothers Craft Brewing produces is sold in its taproom, he said, with the rest split pretty evenly between restaurants and retail package sales. New equipment being installed should increase its production and packaging capabilities.
Pale Fire is producing only draft beer now, with bottling likely to begin this fall, co-owner Jamie Long said. Quality assurance is a focus right now, and shelf life for its beers must be determined.
Brian Shull, the city’s economic development director, said the city’s burgeoning craft-beer offerings is a plus for the city, something that’s included in pitches about quality of life when he’s speaking to officials thinking about locating their operations here.
“It’s one additional piece,” he said, “to a very vibrant economy with a lot of entertainment opportunities for people to enjoy.”
604 A Game-Changer
Craft breweries have existed in Virginia for some time, but 2012 was a watershed year for the industry.
Early that year, the General Assembly approved Senate Bill 604. It allowed commercial breweries to sell beer on-site without meeting the food-sale requirements set for restaurants, removing a key barrier keeping would-be brewers from entering the industry.
“Six-oh-four” rolls effortlessly off the tongues of each local brew-business owner, almost like a mantra. It became the legal lifeblood for the industry in Virginia.
Sharon Sykes, director of member services for the Virginia Manufacturers Association-affiliated Virginia Craft Brewer’s Guild, said 63 of the 107 breweries operating statewide have opened since SB604 became law. A study has shown that the craft-beer industry has a $623 million economic impact in Virginia and supports 8,163 full-time-equivalent jobs.
Craft-beer growth isn’t just a Virginia thing. According to data from the Brewer’s Association, a trade organization based in Boulder, Colo., sales of craft brews grew 22 percent to $19.6 billion in the U.S. last year, representing 19.3 percent of the total sold. It’s taking a bigger and bigger portion of total beer sales, which have been relatively flat.
Shifflett said he and his brothers began planning a brewery before SB604 passed and would’ve sold their beer to retailers and restaurants if it failed. The ability to have a taproom has helped boost sales and grow their brand.
Brady, however, said he wouldn’t be part of Pale Fire if he had to run a restaurant to sell draft beer directly to customers. He and Long expect about 500 of the 3,000 barrels, or 93,000 gallons, of beer they’ll make this year to be sold in the taproom.
“One-sixth of our business in year one is massive,” said Brady, who began working in the industry in 2001. “That’s what puts a foundation under us for success in year two and year three.”
Beer Tourism
Craft-beer drinkers like trying different brews, and where better to drink than the source? That’s helped attract people to Harrisonburg who otherwise might not have ventured here.
Shifflett said that when the brewery’s Resolute Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout was declared one of the 250 best craft brews in the world by beeradvocate.com and America’s seventh-best beer by thefullpint.com, aficionados started making pilgrimages to Brothers Craft Brewing. People from as far away as California have grabbed a pint at their taproom.
Detractors might argue that new alcohol outlets would increase drunken behavior, but that’s not been the case. Lt. Rod Pollard of the Harrisonburg Police Department said anecdotal evidence and calls-for-service analysis show that they aren’t problem areas.
Having local breweries and wineries are opportunities to lure visitors, said Brenda Black, Harrisonburg’s director of tourism and visitor services. Black said the demographics of wine and craft-beer enthusiasts are similar, so a touring group could take in both a winery and a taproom to appease different palates.
Local breweries are eligible for inclusion in the Fields of Gold agritourism program, and Black and Staunton tourism officials have teamed to create a tour dubbed “Fire and Ice.” The seven suggested stops include Pale Fire’s brewery in the old ice house.
There’s also talk of working with communities to the north for a tour highlighting the region’s microbreweries, cideries and wineries.
Such efforts are not new. The Nelson 151 Trail along Va. 151 in Nelson County markets seven wineries, three breweries, a cidery and a distillery as well as other agritourism spots and lodging options.
The Shenandoah Valley has plenty of stopping points off U.S. 11 for craft-brew fans. From Rockbridge County to Winchester, no fewer than 13 breweries are operating or in the works.
Can It Last?
So is the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County market and its combined 132,000 residents large enough to support four taprooms and the beers that flow from them?
Shifflett said the question discounts sales outside the market. At many eateries and stores from Northern Virginia to Richmond to Roanoke, fans can order up a Brothers Craft Brewing beer. It plans to expand its distribution territory once it increases capacity.
Roth, the Three Notch’d president, trumpets two ways the local craft-beer audience will grow.
He thinks some local beer drinkers will try and fall for a craft brew and wind up experimenting with others. Then there’s what he termed “the cluster effect,” the concept that multiple breweries and taprooms will encourage more visitors to come to Harrisonburg to sample its offerings.
Eddie Bumbaugh, executive director of the Virginia Main Street program Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, said he’s heard a version of that theory at Main Street conferences.
“Whether its craft breweries or boutiques or crafts or child-oriented things, they say that if you have one strong thing you have a local following, two will draw from the surrounding area, and three or more you can often be a regional destination,” he said. “I firmly believe the number and quality of our craft breweries are putting Harrisonburg in the regional craft brewery destination category.”
Brady and Long think local cooperation should help all the taprooms succeed, characterizing the relationship among local and regional microbrewery owners as one of camaraderie, not rivalry. Long said he and Shifflett even share lab equipment.
Ultimately, they’re convinced that if a brewer makes good craft beer and works hard to market it, he’ll succeed.
“There will always be a space for great beer,” Brady said. “There will always be a space for new breweries that make great beer.”
Contact Vic Bradshaw at 574-6279 or [email protected]
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