Brewery Brouhaha Raises Questions

I read with interest Michael Paul Williams’ op-ed about Armed Forces Brewing Company’s pursuit to open a brewery in Norfolk (“A beer brouhaha in Norfolk typifies our national divide,” Dec. 6). I have no beer expertise, but I find the craft brewery explosion across Virginia intriguing.

Curiously, on the brewer’s website, under Who We Are, in the first sentence they call themselves a “craft brewing company.” Four sentences later, they state: “We aren’t a local craft beer.” Further reading makes it clear that brewer leaders aspire to be bigger than a neighborhood craft brewery.

If the brewery wants to develop their brewing operations for mass production with a distribution network beyond Virginia, then I question if the brewery site in Norfolk has the capacity to meet their long-term goals. Might brewery leadership be wiser to consider the availability of larger production facilities?

For example, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing announced an agreement on March 23 to purchase from Constellation Brands a 259,000-square-foot production brewery in Daleville, Virginia.

Craft brewers have a camaraderie among themselves. I wonder how Armed Forces Brewing Company will be accepted among Norfolk’s established craft brewers?

We will soon find out. On Dec. 12, by a 6-to-1 vote, the Norfolk City Council approved the brewery’s plan. I’m not surprised.

More concerning to me are Mr. Williams’ points about our division. No matter where we look — churches, public schools, politics — our divisions are troubling.

We are far removed from the jovial theme of division that sold many barrels of Miller Lite beer— “less filling/tastes great.” Sadly, our divides are over filling with a bitter taste.

Maybe over a beer at a craft brewery, we can meet like Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan and start the conversation to solve our division.

Avoiding this conversation will only deepen our divides.

Bill Pike.
Henrico.

Author’s note: I was honored to have this letter to the editor published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Thursday, December 21, 2023.