Until this month, the farthest I’d driven to check out locally owned brewery properties was Nickel Beer Company in Julian or Pizza Port’s San Clemente brewpub. But I easily eclipsed the distance to those out-there spots when, while on vacation in Washington, DC, I rented a car and drove south to Richmond, Virginia, to see the 14-acre East Coast incarnation of Stone Brewing.
It sounds funny, but I knew I was there when I saw the huge brown building with no sign. Stone CEO Greg Koch has a rule against such markers, wanting the company’s venues to be enough of a destination that they aren’t simply happened upon. That has worked in the past on Escondido’s Citracado Parkway. When the company’s current headquarters was built, there was little else on that road. 
Such is the case in the Fulton section of Richmond, where the intent is for Stone to play a major role in revitalizing an area of the city that has been mostly ignored or forgotten.
Guests can approach Stone Brewing – RVA from unattached parking lots on the east or north side of the sprawling 200,000-square-foot brewery. Both routes take visitors across bridges of varying lengths and designs. From the north, a covered bridge takes one under an operating set of railroad tracks. On the east, an angled and enclosed two-part bridge traverses a tall-grassed lawn leading to the beginnings of a garden, including vegetation and a retaining pond. Both bring imbibers to a patio area featuring umbrella-equipped picnic benches, most of which were packed with people the Saturday afternoon I stopped by.
Double doors lead into a spacious tasting room. To the right are more tables and more gargoyle merchandise than you can shake a mash-paddle at. To the left is the main-event, a bar stocked with beers from Stone and its sister-operation, Arrogant Brewing. Although the brewery was constructed to handle heavy-duty brewing of core beers such as Stone IPA (a new recipe for which is currently in circulation, replacing the original flagship) and Stone Ruination Double IPA 2.0, a number of rare and seasonal beers are regularly shipped there from the Escondido brewery to keep things interesting and give fans a reason to return.
Brewery tours are offered, in which guests are escorted up a staircase and ushered through a set of gargoyle horn-adorned wooden doors leading to the deck of the facility’s 250-barrel Krones brewhouse. Coming in at the size of competitor Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits’ newest brewing apparatus, it is built for the same purpose—to pump out beer in multiple batches and keep a nation of beer consumers supplied with ales. Currently, Stone Brewing – RVA has eight 1,000-barrel fermenter tanks and as many 250-barrel fermenters, plus four 1,000-barrel bright tanks up and operational. But there’s room for an eventual 40 tanks.
Peter Wiens (formerly of Anheuser Busch-InBev and, more locally, Temecula’s Wiens Brewing Company) is in charge of brewing operations in Richmond. He and roughly eight other employees from the Escondido facility came over to take up various roles in RVA. And a number of other brewing and packaging employees came over from the nearby Budweiser facility in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Beyond the brewery lies a wealth of packaging muscle. Modern technology is everywhere, providing more automation than the Escondido facility. That machinery includes a state-of-the-art Krones bottling line capable of filling 600 bottles-per-minute. In the not-too-distant future, a canning line will be added to the mix. Also on the production floor is a sizeable quality assurance lab that Stone allows lab-less local breweries to use. But that isn’t where RVA brewing camaraderie ends. Already, Stone has brewed collaboration beers with and at numerous Richmond operations.
The projected production goal for Stone Brewing – RVA’s first 12 months of operation is forecast at 100,000 barrels of beer. This will allow the company to distribute that product to all states east of the Mississippi by the end of this summer. Having spent a great deal of time at Stone’s Escondido brewery, I found the layout and innovation behind its Richmond counterpart to be both impressive and encouraging. So, too, was the fact that the seven-days-a-week operation has garnered a good amount of business, while establishing a solid stock of regulars.
Seeing Stone through a new set of eyes—the eyes of the Richmond employees as well as the city’s denizens—felt different…and really good. It reminded me of what it was like to discover Stone back in the late ‘90s, where people found themselves in awe that something so cool was right in their backyard. Best of all—and I mean no disrespect to fans of Arrogant Bastard Ale (it was my first craft-beer, after all)—none of the “Arrogance” has settled into the Richmond facility as of yet. There is no leftover air of you’re not worthy pompousness that needs to be wiped clean. The roughly 60 RVA employees are mostly brand-new and extremely excited to be part of this venture, as well they should be. That leads to a great level-of-service and overall friendliness that I very much enjoyed.
I found myself rather proud to see Virginians enjoying an authentically hoppy and justifiably proud taste of San Diego County, more than 2,600 miles removed from my hometown. Even without the two-story Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens restaurant that will debut down the hill near the James River sometime next year, Stone Brewing – RVA provides plenty of reasons to visit and a great deal of promise for the future.
Green Flash Virginia Beach Update
Just as this article was going to press, Mira Mesa-based Green Flash Brewing Company announced that its East Coast facility in nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia, would open to the public on November 13. In celebration, the company will offer a full week of events, including the third annual East Coast iteration of its Treasure Chest Fest benefiting the Susan G. Komen breast-cancer charity organization the day prior to the official debut, November 12. The estimated annual production capacity for the Virginia Beach facility will be 100,000 barrels. Construction of the brewery can be viewed via an online live-cam.
