Hampton Roads may not have landed on the map for the top 50 craft brewers list last week, but it’s about to be in good company.
San Diego-based Green Flash Brewing Company, which will open an East Coast plant in Virginia Beach this year, ranked No. 41 for 2015. The Brewers Association, a national trade group that put out the list, based the rankings on sales volume.
Green Flash’s business is fermenting. Despite meeting the association’s definition of a craft brewer (fewer than 6 million barrels annually and independent), it’s also No. 49 on the list for all U.S. brewing companies’ sales volume.
Mike Hinkley, founder and CEO of Green Flash, acknowledged at an HR ACRE craft beer panel discussion last month that his company is bigger than the little guys and smaller than the big guys.
“Green Flash might be in a squeeze in the middle a little bit,” he said.
The West Coast brewery picked Virginia Beach for expansion after the passage of a state law in 2012 that allowed pint sales in brewery tasting rooms.
And move over, Back Bay, Commonwealth and Wasserhund brewing companies. Virginia Beach officials say there’s another craft brewery interested in entering the market. Farmhouse LLC, proposed for 1805 Kempsville Road, is slated to appear on the May Planning Commission agenda.
[“source-Business2community”]
