Hardywood Park Craft Brewery is expanding once again.
The Richmond, Virginia-based brewery yesterday shared plans to open a new brewery and taproom in Charlottesville later this year. The announcement comes less than one year after the company said it would build a new $28 million production campus alongside Virginia’s Tuckahoe Creek.
Located on the ground-floor of a privately-owned student housing complex for the University of Virginia, the new location will feature a 3.5 barrel brewing system and 1,100 sq. ft. of retail space that will include a taproom and outdoor beer garden.
In a press statement, brewmaster and co-founder Patrick Murtaugh described the venture as a way for Hardywood Park to expand its experimental brewing program.
“The brewhouse is 5 times the size of our current pilot system and will give us the opportunity to pursue more collaborative brewing efforts and to experiment with innovative recipes in a dedicated facility, while gathering meaningful feedback on these new concepts,” he said.
The taproom will feature 12 Hardywood Park draft lines, and the company plans to place particular focus on R&D batches brewed in house. Additional taps will also be devoted to locally produced coffees and kombuchas.
Hardywood Park co-founder Eric McKay said the $300,000 project would also provide the rapidly-growing company with another key outpost to promote its brand with consumers and retailers — more than 100,000 tourists already visit the 5-year-old company’s main brewery in Richmond each year.
“As we’ve learned in Richmond, our taproom is the most impactful vehicle for sharing our story, and we hope to create similar enthusiasm for our beers at retail accounts throughout Charlottesville,” McKay said.
The new location will also support Hardywood Park’s reputation as a green company — 100 percent of the brewpub’s electricity will be renewably resourced from wind, solar or biomass outlets.
Slated to open in September, the company plans to hire four full time and 12 part time employees to man the brewery and taproom.
News that the company would build in Charlottesville, comes just weeks before Hardywood Park planned to begin construction of its new 60,000 sq. ft., 60-barrel brewing and packaging facility in Goochland County. Construction will occur in multiple phases and is expected to conclude in spring of 2017.
In an interview with Brewbound last summer, McKay said Hardywood had averaged 100 percent year-over-year growth since its founding in 2011.
