E-Malt.com News article: USA, VA: Startup brewery to open in Newport News by the end of the year

Tradition Brewing Co., a local startup, wants to bring a craft brewery to Newport News, Daily Press reported on June 12.

"This isn't just our brewery," head brewer Dan Powell said. "It's really the community's. We want everyone to be a part of it."

Tradition Brewing Co. aims to open a 20-barrel brew house in the centrally located Oyster Point district, Newport News, but is still negotiating multiple lease options, said business operations and construction partner Gray Bowditch.

The brewing company would like to start production by late fall with on-site sales in the tasting room starting by the end of the year, Powell said.

"It's always been in the back of my mind," said Powell, who has been home-brewing for 22 years and has worked with other breweries on research and development. "I finally woke up one morning and said, 'we're opening a brewery.'"

The name Tradition Brewing came to Powell when he looked around and saw symbols of everything he loved: his life's traditions. While invoking pride in local heritage, Bowditch said the name lends itself to creating new traditions, too.

"We're building a tradition personally around our product and experience," Bowditch said.

To make it easier for craft breweries to find a space, Newport News City Council approved amendments to zoning ordinances on May 26. That removed a restriction that craft breweries, also called microbreweries, take up no more than 3,000 square feet of space. Instead craft breweries are now defined as not producing more than 15,000 barrels per year. Another approved change allows microbreweries by right in the commercial places they were permitted with additional rules to prevent outdoor storage and outdoor events past midnight.

Still, Virginia lawmakers in 2012 enhanced the potential for homegrown craft beer production when they passed Senate Bill 604, which allows beer sales by the glass for consumption on-site. Local governments have since been amending their rules to accommodate this retail aspect.

City Manager Jim Bourey believes the ordinance changes and the presence of Tradition Brewing will help the city attract more interest from craft brewers.

"I really believe that it will be a very significant opportunity for the city," Bourey said. "I think that it will really give an appeal from an entertainment perspective to a group we don't appeal to enough - that would be a younger crowd."


17 June, 2015