Steam Bell Beer Works in Chesterfield was one of the largest local breweries to close in 2024. (BizSense file photos)
The most recent data from the Brewers Association, a craft beer industry trade group, showed sales were down over 5% nationally in 2023. That trend, which came after more than a decade of steady growth, created headwinds that the industry has battled throughout this year.
The Richmond-area brewery scene has not been immune from those broader industry troubles. More breweries closed in the region in 2024 than any previous year since the craft beer boom began about 10 years ago.
Steam Bell Beer Works closed in Chesterfield over the summer before going into bankruptcy. Dancing Kilt Brewery, a smaller operation in Chester, closed up shop in October after four years in business, and Prince George’s Holy Mackerel Small Batch Beers was sold and replaced by a new restaurant.
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery in Goochland closed in January, with its owner saying she hoped it would only shutter temporarily. However, it has yet to reopen as of this report. In Manchester, Basic City Beer Co. was sold to an employee that kept the establishment open, but as a bar and restaurant rather than a brewery. In Church Hill, Petersburg-based Trapezium Brewing Co. scrapped its plans for a taproom that had been in the works for years.
The future of the city’s longest-running brewery is also up in the air, as Legend Brewing Co. listed its Manchester real estate for sale in the spring and began discussing selling some of its recipes and assets. No such deals have been struck as of press time.
It wasn’t all bad news for the local industry in 2024, though.
Two local meaderies, Black Heath and Funktastic Meads, launched brewery offshoots, and Goochland’s Kindred Spirit Brewing opened a satellite taproom, aptly named Satellite, in the old Castleburg Brewery space near The Diamond.
Kindred Spirit’s Satellite opened near The Diamond this year.
And some new breweries are on the way for the region, specifically south of the river.
Väsen Brewing Co. recently finalized a lease for a Forest Hill taproom, its first expansion outside Scott’s Addition.
The owners of Chester’s Brew Craft Bar & Kitchen opened a new microbrewery in 2024 and have plans to open another in 2025, and downtown Hopewell is set to get its first brewery in Good Ship Brewing and Eatery.
A turnkey brewery space also recently became available in Manchester when the former Dogtown Brewing Co. building went back up for lease this fall after years in limbo because of its owner’s legal troubles.
A rendering of Väsen’s planned Forest Hill taproom. (Courtesy Fultz & Singh Architects)
I’d remove Holy Mackerel as we went a couple of times and never saw a house-brewed beer. It was a restaurant/bar that promised to be a brewery and it never materialized.