The number of licensed breweries in Virginia has grown 468 percent since 2012, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced last week.
In a press release, Gov. McAuliffe said Virginia was now home to 206 licensed beer companies, ranking the mid-Atlantic state no. 13 in the U.S. for number of breweries.
“The beer industry is a significant economic driver that spans several sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and tourism,” McAuliffe said via the release. “I am proud of the success we have had making Virginia a premier destination for craft brewers and consumers from all over the world.”
The press release cited the 2012 passage of SB604, a tasting room bill that gave Virginia breweries the ability to sell beer for on-premise consumption as well as to go beer for off-premise consumption, as a key driver of brewery growth within the state.
McAuliffe himself is well known for championing the craft brew industry, and was instrumental in convincing four prominent west coast craft beer companies – Stone Brewing, Ballast Point, Green Flash and Deschutes – to build their east coast production facilities in Virginia.
Over the last two years, he’s embarked on brewery recruiting visits in California, Boston and at Craft Brewers Conference events in Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
“Governor McAuliffe has led the way in the promotion of Virginia’s beer industry, and the results are paying off,” Dr. Basil I. Gooden, the state’s secretary of agriculture and forestry said in the release.
The number of breweries in Virginia has more than doubled since McAuliffe assumed office on January 11, 2014, the release stated.
“I commend our Virginia breweries for their hard work in making world-class beer, and for playing a key role in building the new Virginia economy,” McAuliffe said in the release.
The announcement, which cited a recent Beer Serves America study commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, also noted that Virginia’s beer industry contributed more than $9.3 billion to the state economy in 2016.
“The craft beer industry, both homegrown small production breweries and large out-of-state and international operations, has contributed significantly to our efforts to build and grow the new Virginia economy,” Todd Haymore, the secretary of commerce and trade said via the release. “In addition to the direct economic impacts of manufacturing, the industry generates increased tourism-related revenues, provides new production and sales opportunities for our agricultural producers, and enhances community revitalization and development efforts in both rural and urban areas of the Commonwealth.”
The Virginia beer industry employed over 28,000 people in across the brewing, distribution and retailing tiers in 2016. It also contributed nearly $1 billion in state and local taxes in 2016, according to the Beer Serves America study.