It’s now official: Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery, a pioneer in craft beer and one of the largest and best known in the business, has announced a new home for its East Coast operations. The winner is Roanoke, Virginia, a city selected for its culture and beer- centric community that make it an ideal choice for an operation like Deschutes. Founder and CEO Gary Fish sees Roanoke as the perfect match for his business.
“We started Deschutes Brewery when craft beer wasn’t burgeoning and led with a beer style that wasn’t popular at the time – Black Butte Porter,” said Fish. “This pioneering approach was a key driver behind our decision to go with Roanoke, as that same spirit exists in this community and its fast-growing beer culture.”
Roanoke’s future brewery has been named “Brew 4” as it is the fourth Deschutes brewery to open thus far. It follows in the footsteps of the original Bend, Oregon public house (Brew 1), the production facility in Bend (Brew 2) and the Portland, Oregon public house (Brew 3). The new Roanoke operation will be built on the eastern edge of the city, with construction slated to begin in 2019. Once open, the new brewery will create approximately 100 new jobs for the area and will produce about 150,000 barrels of beer, with enough extra space to expand further if demand calls for it. Deschutes will start shipping beer from the new Roanoke facility in about five years.
Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill couldn’t be happier with Deschutes decision.
“Roanoke is honored to be chosen as Deschutes Brewery’s East Coast location after a very thorough review of several communities in the Southeast,” said Morrill. “It is a company with a strong culture of community engagement, recognized for its craftsmanship and will be a perfect fit for Roanoke’s vibrant outdoor lifestyle. We are thrilled to welcome Deschutes as we continue to build a diverse, resilient economy.”
Deschutes Brewery had been eyeing the East Coast for a new production brewery for some time. Demand for Deschutes beer has increased rapidly and once distribution reached the Atlantic seaboard, it made sense to scout the eastern USA for a new brewery location. With a new production brewery in the eastern United States, Deschutes will be able to ship beer to these eastern states more efficiently and maintain better quality.
Deschutes Brewery president Michael LaLonde admits that the decision wasn’t an easy one, but he is confident that Roanoke was the right choice.
“Although it was a tough decision – we loved so many of the communities that we visited over the past two years – we are very excited to be heading to Roanoke”, said LaLonde.”We love the region and everyone we’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with during this process has been incredible. We have absolutely been blown away with how the community rallied around bringing us here and has given us such a warm welcome. #Deschutes2Rke we’re on our way and proud to be able to now call Roanoke our second home.”
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