Virginia Is for Beer Lovers as the Craft Beer Scene Expands Locally and Abroad

Virginia’s craft beer scene is bringing in attention from across the pond and helping out local farmers by using local ingredients.

At Port City Brewing in Alexandria, the taps are on rotation throughout the year, but one that has stood the test of time is Optimal Wit. Crisp and refreshing with citrus notes and a clean finish, it’s been the most popular pour for the 10-year-old brewery. The ingredients to make the Belgian-style beer don’t have to travel very far: The wheat comes from a Virginia farm, Bay’s Best Feed in Heathsville.

“Supporting local agriculture is something that’s important to us as a brewery,” says Bill Butcher, founder of Port City Brewing. “I like to think that it’s an important part of that beer’s story.”

Getting Crafty

With a background in wine, Butcher and his wife saw that the Washington, D.C., metro area was lacking in a craft beer scene. So they opened the brewery in 2011, and since then, craft beer has exploded in the Commonwealth. A decade ago, there were about 40 breweries in Virginia – today, there are more than 200.

The growth has been felt at Port City Brewing, too. They brewed 3,000 barrels their first year, and in 2019, they brewed 16,000 barrels.

That growth is supporting Virginia’s local farms. To make the Optimal Wit, as well as three other beers on the menu, Port City Brewing purchases 100 tons of Virginia-grown wheat each year from Bay’s Best Feed, making them the largest purchaser of food-grade wheat in the Commonwealth. The farm also provides barley to a distiller, who introduced the farm to Butcher.

“The starch content and the overall condition of the wheat was exactly what we were looking for. We did a lot of testing before we moved full scale,” Butcher says. “Bay’s Best has provided us with great quality wheat at a great price, locally produced, and they’ve been able to scale up. As we’ve grown, they’ve been able to grow with us.”

See more: Virginia Distilleries Support Local Farms

British Taste

Craft beer isn’t just catching on locally. Virginia’s craft beers have gotten attention across the pond, too. Andrew Brown, the founder and owner of agribusiness consulting company Andrew Brown & Associates, has been working with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to bring products from the Commonwealth’s breweries and distilleries to the United Kingdom and Europe.

“The Virginia craft beer scene is very young, very dynamic, and it’s changing all the time,” Brown says. “I think that one of the things of great interest is that they’re not afraid to experiment.”

That’s especially the case during the holidays, when flavors like pumpkin or gingerbread seem to be staples in craft beer. Brown says that when his team exhibited Virginia beers at the Brew//LDN craft beer trade show in London, they were a hit, especially among beer drinkers 40 and younger. He says they enjoyed the complexity of the taste and the different flavors.

“People are searching for something that is different, immediate, right-up-to-date and, dare I say it, not like something their fathers would have drunk,” he says.

It’s a flattering compliment, considering that for the U.K. and neighboring countries, beer and breweries are not new.

“We are a nation of beer drinkers, and we have quite a lot of experience with doing so and we really enjoy it!” Brown jokes.

Quality on Tap

For Butcher, the response to his beer and the growing industry in Virginia is motivation to keep expanding. Port City Brewing’s beers are sold from Connecticut to North Carolina. They can be found at Total Wine, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, Wegmans and in restaurants.

But most important is maintaining the quality that got them here in the first place.

“As the craft beer business has gotten more and more competitive, the quality has never been more important than it is today,” Butcher says. “That really, from the beginning, has been a driver of the growth of the brand.”rez-art

See more: Virginia Wineries Get Creative to Drive Sales During the Pandemic