Twisted Ales is closing after a year in Manchester. (Mike Platania)For the second time this year, a Richmond brewery is turning off its taps.
Twisted Ales Craft Brewing, which opened a year ago at 212 W. Sixth St. in Manchester, announced last week it is shutting down while exploring a sale.
Married couple Jason and Debbi Price owned Twisted Ales, and Jason also has been working full time in IT.
He said they’re closing Twisted Ales because he received a job offer that would require him and his family to move to Raleigh, North Carolina. He had continued to work full time in IT since they opened the brewery in the Aragon Coffee building last year.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the brewery,” Price said on Friday. “I just got the job offer last week and thought about what I wanted in life, and my family is up for the next adventure.”
“At end of July, I have to be in Raleigh and tie up everything about selling our house so we needed to make the commitment to close (the brewery).”
Though the Prices are ending Twisted Ales’ run, he said, they’re exploring selling the business. That would include the brewing equipment and taking over its lease.
“We’d love for somebody to pick it up,” he said, adding that they’ve heard from a few interested parties.
In addition to selling out of its taproom, Twisted Ales distributed its beer through Virginia Craft Distribution Co., which also recently brought on Richmond’s Castleburg Brewery.
Twisted Ales held an anniversary and last call party over the weekend, but Price said they’ll keep the brewery open until the kegs run dry.
“We’ll be open until beer runs out. I think we have enough to last another week or so,” he said.
Twisted Ales will be the second local brewery to shutter this year, following the January closure of 7 Hills Seafood & Brewing Co. at 115 S. 15th St. in Shockoe Bottom.
That space is set to be taken over by by Shiplock Brewing, a concept by the owners of Southern Railway Taphouse.
Twisted Ales is closing after a year in Manchester. (Mike Platania)
For the second time this year, a Richmond brewery is turning off its taps.
Twisted Ales Craft Brewing, which opened a year ago at 212 W. Sixth St. in Manchester, announced last week it is shutting down while exploring a sale.
Married couple Jason and Debbi Price owned Twisted Ales, and Jason also has been working full time in IT.
He said they’re closing Twisted Ales because he received a job offer that would require him and his family to move to Raleigh, North Carolina. He had continued to work full time in IT since they opened the brewery in the Aragon Coffee building last year.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the brewery,” Price said on Friday. “I just got the job offer last week and thought about what I wanted in life, and my family is up for the next adventure.”
“At end of July, I have to be in Raleigh and tie up everything about selling our house so we needed to make the commitment to close (the brewery).”
Though the Prices are ending Twisted Ales’ run, he said, they’re exploring selling the business. That would include the brewing equipment and taking over its lease.
“We’d love for somebody to pick it up,” he said, adding that they’ve heard from a few interested parties.
In addition to selling out of its taproom, Twisted Ales distributed its beer through Virginia Craft Distribution Co., which also recently brought on Richmond’s Castleburg Brewery.
Twisted Ales held an anniversary and last call party over the weekend, but Price said they’ll keep the brewery open until the kegs run dry.
“We’ll be open until beer runs out. I think we have enough to last another week or so,” he said.
Twisted Ales will be the second local brewery to shutter this year, following the January closure of 7 Hills Seafood & Brewing Co. at 115 S. 15th St. in Shockoe Bottom.
That space is set to be taken over by by Shiplock Brewing, a concept by the owners of Southern Railway Taphouse.
Not a surprise. The area is reaching a saturation point for breweries so it’s kind of expected some of the smaller, weaker ones will close.
I was going to post the same question. One has to wonder how much room this has to grow in our area. Like frozen yogurt stores ….
Curious also for the Descheutes to shelve its Roanoke expansion due to market conditions, along with Stone which seemed to be more a money grab and city cronyism at its best than actual demand for their product
How many IPA’s need to be on the grocery shelves before people give up and just grab a 6 pack of what they’re used to?
Fred; I don’t know if you’re a brewery person, but Hardywood and the Veil both have lines around the block on a regualr basis. theya re not going anyplace, and for younger people who grew up with craft beer they are never going back to bland mass market beers. Compare the failure rates for breweries to other businesses and you’ll see how strong the sector is, I’d say its much harder to keep a sport bar open in Richmond ,judging by the failure rate. Twisted Ale is closing because the founder got a better job offer, and the 7 Hills… Read more »
I was referring more to the larger players a few years ago claiming Virginia was the next hot spot….I just don’t see the results from stone in terms of jobs in the city and descheutes certainly hasn’t provided any jobs
Also, if breweries are so hot. I would have assumed folks would have been lining up to take over twisted ale when their owner decided to relocate. Which I realize his decision from what we can tell was not based on lack of demand for their product.
oh, I bet it was due to lack of demand. And poor advertising. But I don’t think it says anything about changing tastes in beer, which are real.
I get what you’re saying but my point is we will see weaker breweries flounder in this market. I have been in small business lending for nearly 20 years in Richmond, so I see the back end that most don’t see. Strong players like Hardywood will no doubt survive and thrive but for every strong Hardywood there’s another brewery that’s skimming by.
The amount of breweries in the Richmond area per capita is actually pretty low compared with some other cities. Places like Denver, Portland (OR) and Seattle have more than 8/100,000. For Richmond’s metro population of 1.2 mil that would equal 96 breweries. Not saying Richmond would ever get there, but it does leave a lot of room for growth. Plus that doesn’t even come close to the amount per capita in places like Asheville, NC that are no know as a destination for beer lovers. Richmond is getting known as one of those destinations so I would argue between beer… Read more »
I am going to say there is still penty of room in the Richmond area for breweries. I think one thing that seperates the winners from the losers is , all the places that do well have invested in social media and event planning. Many of them have full time social media managers, and event after event after event to draw people in. I agree that Stone SO FAR has been a dud, and if i was Hardywood I’d be asking the city why they gave out of towners so much help. I have been to stone, took the tour,… Read more »