Kindred Spirit Brewing has been operating in Goochland since 2016. (Mike Platania photo)
A Goochland brewery is branching out into the city of Richmond by picking up a taproom that was recently left vacant.
Kindred Spirit Brewing is preparing to open its first satellite taproom at 1626 Ownby Lane near Scott’s Addition.
The space, just down the street from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s downtown taproom, had been home to Castleburg Brewery for the past eight years until it closed just before the new year.
Kindred Spirit, led by John Barefoot, Joe Trottier and Merryl Gutierrez, spent the past few years mulling an expansion beyond its original taproom at 12830 West Creek Parkway. When the Castleburg space opened up, Barefoot said they jumped on it.
The new spot will be called Kindred Spirit Brewing’s Satellite. Barefoot said the plan is to decorate it with a celestial, space theme and brew a lot of small-batch, experimental beers, along with Kindred Spirit’s flagship IPA, Headspace.
“We were looking to do something a little bit smaller and a little bit of a blank slate,” Barefoot said. “This space will not be exactly like the mothership, as we call it.”
Kindred Spirit’s Goochland brewery occupies about 11,000 square feet in a business park near West Creek, a setup that Barefoot said draws plenty of workers from the nearby corporate offices of CarMax and Capital One. With Satellite, he said the brewery hopes to capture a slightly different market.
“We have an age group that’s probably a little bit higher,” he said of the Goochland location. “We’re expecting a little bit of a younger crowd at the new location, which is why the décor and probably the beverage selection will be different.”
Castleburg closed at 1626 Ownby Lane in December.
Satellite also will feature a full kitchen, but Barefoot said the menu hasn’t been finalized.
“It’s probably going to be smaller plates – sandwiches and other bar-type food. It won’t be a full restaurant,” he said.
Satellite will have a stage for live music and Barefoot said the business is working to get the appropriate ABC licenses to also sell wine and canned cocktails.
The brewery signed on with a two-year lease for the roughly 5,600-square-foot space on Ownby Lane. Ahead of its closure, Castleburg owner Karl Homburg bemoaned a proposed rent hike, but Barefoot said that the owner of 1626 Ownby Lane, downtown-based Crenshaw-Singleton Properties, also owns Kindred Spirit’s Goochland spot, and that he felt the business got a fair deal.
“Our landlord has been very fair and great to work with. We were happy to go work with them again,” Barefoot said.
Satellite is aiming to open in March. Kindred Spirit’s Goochland location will continue operating.
Barefoot said the decision to make Satellite different from the original Kindred Spirit was made in part because of shifting consumer habits.
When Kindred Spirit opened eight years ago, Barefoot said breweries were able to simply serve a beer that was brewed on the premises.
“Now people want to go out and have an experience, and that can be a multitude of things – great food, great beer, atmosphere, a unique space, outdoor space, activities,” he said. “It’s just morphed over the years to be about the entire experience.”
Beyond its two taprooms, Kindred Spirit distributes its beer to over 1,000 shops and restaurants throughout Virginia, Maryland and coastal North Carolina. Barefoot said IPAs remain the most popular style, but Kindred Spirit has seen demand grow for lower alcohol-by-volume beers like lagers, pilsners and lighter brown beers.
“Our seltzer lineup has changed over the years,” he said. “We added a (hard) seltzer three or four years ago and that’s become a bit higher volume over the last couple of years.”
Kindred Spirit Brewing has been operating in Goochland since 2016. (Mike Platania photo)
A Goochland brewery is branching out into the city of Richmond by picking up a taproom that was recently left vacant.
Kindred Spirit Brewing is preparing to open its first satellite taproom at 1626 Ownby Lane near Scott’s Addition.
The space, just down the street from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s downtown taproom, had been home to Castleburg Brewery for the past eight years until it closed just before the new year.
Kindred Spirit, led by John Barefoot, Joe Trottier and Merryl Gutierrez, spent the past few years mulling an expansion beyond its original taproom at 12830 West Creek Parkway. When the Castleburg space opened up, Barefoot said they jumped on it.
The new spot will be called Kindred Spirit Brewing’s Satellite. Barefoot said the plan is to decorate it with a celestial, space theme and brew a lot of small-batch, experimental beers, along with Kindred Spirit’s flagship IPA, Headspace.
“We were looking to do something a little bit smaller and a little bit of a blank slate,” Barefoot said. “This space will not be exactly like the mothership, as we call it.”
Kindred Spirit’s Goochland brewery occupies about 11,000 square feet in a business park near West Creek, a setup that Barefoot said draws plenty of workers from the nearby corporate offices of CarMax and Capital One. With Satellite, he said the brewery hopes to capture a slightly different market.
“We have an age group that’s probably a little bit higher,” he said of the Goochland location. “We’re expecting a little bit of a younger crowd at the new location, which is why the décor and probably the beverage selection will be different.”
Castleburg closed at 1626 Ownby Lane in December.
Satellite also will feature a full kitchen, but Barefoot said the menu hasn’t been finalized.
“It’s probably going to be smaller plates – sandwiches and other bar-type food. It won’t be a full restaurant,” he said.
Satellite will have a stage for live music and Barefoot said the business is working to get the appropriate ABC licenses to also sell wine and canned cocktails.
The brewery signed on with a two-year lease for the roughly 5,600-square-foot space on Ownby Lane. Ahead of its closure, Castleburg owner Karl Homburg bemoaned a proposed rent hike, but Barefoot said that the owner of 1626 Ownby Lane, downtown-based Crenshaw-Singleton Properties, also owns Kindred Spirit’s Goochland spot, and that he felt the business got a fair deal.
“Our landlord has been very fair and great to work with. We were happy to go work with them again,” Barefoot said.
Satellite is aiming to open in March. Kindred Spirit’s Goochland location will continue operating.
Barefoot said the decision to make Satellite different from the original Kindred Spirit was made in part because of shifting consumer habits.
When Kindred Spirit opened eight years ago, Barefoot said breweries were able to simply serve a beer that was brewed on the premises.
“Now people want to go out and have an experience, and that can be a multitude of things – great food, great beer, atmosphere, a unique space, outdoor space, activities,” he said. “It’s just morphed over the years to be about the entire experience.”
Beyond its two taprooms, Kindred Spirit distributes its beer to over 1,000 shops and restaurants throughout Virginia, Maryland and coastal North Carolina. Barefoot said IPAs remain the most popular style, but Kindred Spirit has seen demand grow for lower alcohol-by-volume beers like lagers, pilsners and lighter brown beers.
“Our seltzer lineup has changed over the years,” he said. “We added a (hard) seltzer three or four years ago and that’s become a bit higher volume over the last couple of years.”
Was Castleburg acquired by Kindred Spirit, or are they just moving into the space?