USA, VA: Blindhouse Beer Co. eyeing late spring opening in Roanoke

Tyler Wert brings a beer brewer’s certificate, job experience at a Richmond brewery, a passion for wild yeast and a beer-themed last name to the challenge of creating Roanoke’s next craft beer venue, the Roanoke Times reported on March 12.

The former head brewer at Triple Crossing Beer in Richmond, Wert, along with his wife, Nicole Davidson-Wert, say they’ll open Blindhouse Beer Co. in late spring. They’ve rented a building a fraction of a mile from A Few Old Goats Brewing, Big Lick Brewing, Golden Cactus Brewing and Twisted Track Brewpub.

Blindhouse, located at 534 Salem Ave. S.W., will be the fifth brand in what some people describe as downtown Roanoke’s “beer alley.”

“It’s going to be a quaint, little, Euro-style cafe vibe,” Wert said.

It is not lost on Wert that his name is pronounced identically as wort, the unfermented malt extract that is the foundation of beer. That brewing step, however, he performs at a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, brewery, Lesser-Known Beer Co. He trucks the wort to his production room for the remaining steps to create beer.

Blindhouse will serve a lineup of farmhouse-style beers on tap and in bottles and kegs.

If you had asked folks who attended the recent Business of Brewing workshop in Roanoke whether Roanoke can support another brewery, the answer would have been yes, according to program coordinator Sally McQuinn. An offering of Virginia Tech, the class attracted about a dozen students, most with beer business aspirations, she said.

“Most of the breweries that have opened up have been successful and until that changes, we have to believe there’s still room for growth,” said Will Landry, a workshop instructor and co-owner of Twisted Track Brewpub. Twisted Track, he said, is profitable and boosted sales by more than 10% in 2022.

Wert, 31, a graduate of James Madison University, went to beer school at the University of Richmond’s school of continuing education, where he completed a year-long certificate course. While still in school he landed employment at Triple Crossing.

After a year in the head brewer’s job, he and his wife decided to move to Roanoke to live in the mountains and, since Wert loved working in beer, they decided to start their own brewery. Nicole Davidson-Wert, 31, is a former high school biology teacher now employed as a city learning specialist who will help manage Blindhouse.

Their business plan sounded good to Landry.

“I believe they’re bringing in unfermented beer from another location and fermenting it here in Roanoke with wild yeast and some bacteria and things of that nature and really creating some styles that aren’t available at any of the breweries in the immediate area,” Landry said, “so they’re going after a niche that is, I think it’s safe to say, underserved in the area. I really hope they do well with that.”

With a tasting room that seats 30 to 40 people adjacent to a small standing bar, Blindhouse isn’t aiming to emulate larger local beer venues such as Twisted Track — which will be able to seat about 300 people as the weather warms up — Big Lick; or Salem’s Parkway Brewing.

Nor will it be an actual blindhouse, an English term for a small, windowless jail. This venue features large windows with a view of a concrete plant, a parking lot and a red brick building that houses a gym.

Wert confirmed that he plans to input wild yeast that he will obtain from 35 acres of forest and prairie in Callaway that belong to his parents. It will be combined with a “classic Belgium saison yeast. Those in combination will ferment the beer,” he said.

Wert and his wife spoke confidently of their plans.

“I felt like there was an opportunity here for somebody offering something a little different,” he said.

12 March, 2023