And the winner is.....

[Beer-lord]

It’s a long road with plenty of twists and turns that has led Stone Brewing Co. to the site of its future eastern U.S. brewery, but today, an official announcement was made by the governor of Virginia that we have signed a letter of intent to construct our highly anticipated brewing project in the city of Richmond. Located in the Greater Fulton Community, the project comprises a 200,000-square-foot, energy-efficient production brewery that will be equipped with a 250-barrel brewhouse, packaging hall, administrative offices, Stone Company Store and Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Richmond, all on a 14-acre footprint. Construction of the project will occur in phases, with the brewery being completed in late 2015 or early 2016 and the other components becoming operational one to two years after that.

Though we are over-the-moon excited about bringing our West Coast-style beers to the East Coast, we admit this is a bittersweet moment for us. When we put out our request for proposals for this project, more than 200 communities responded with impassioned, next-level pitches for us to come to their locales. We had a tough time ruling any of them out and personally inspected more than 40 sites. Through it all, fans assembled social media groups and campaigns, held special events and even crowd-participation contests to show us just how much they wanted us in their regions. It was one of the most touching experiences of our company’s 18-year lifespan, and we thank everybody for expending all that time, energy and effort on our behalf.

If we could be everywhere, we would, but since that isn’t feasible just yet, we’re going with the city that was able to best meet our frankly stringent demands. We hope you’ll be able to come visit us, and look forward to brewing up plenty of bold, fresh, flavorful beer for fans east of the Mississippi. Cheers to craft beer across this great nation. But not just any beer—OUR beer!

[BlackDuck]

Congrats to them....but being from the Columbus area, I'm bummed!!!

[Beer-lord]

But we all win in a way as we're likely to get almost every beer they put out now. I can see it now, Enjoy This!

[BlackDuck]

It's OK....Columbus has this to hang their hat on:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... nsion.html

They brew Creeper, an Imperial India Pale Ale. Which took gold medal in that category at this year's Great American Beer Festival. Pliny won the Bronze. Now that's saying something...at least in my opinion!!! And they took bronze with their Bodhi in the American Styple IPA category. Hopefully this expansion will allow them the room to bottle both of these also, they are currently only available on draft.

http://drinkupcolumbus.com/2014/10/04/c ... s-at-gabf/

[Beer-lord]

What a problem to have.......I need more space at my house but I can't add on since no one's paying for my beer.
Wow, a gold medal! That's awesome. I've not heard you speak about Creeper before though your version of the Bodhi was very enjoyable.

[D_Rabbit]

May have to organize a brew club trip down there since richmond is only a few hours away from me now!

[teutonic terror]

2 hours from my front door!
Hooorray Virginia and hooorrraayyy beer!

[Sparrow]

Yeah, I was hoping for Norfolk, so I could stop by after work, but Richmond is on the way to the in-law's house.

As a consolation, Green Flash breaks ground on Monday not 2 miles from my front door!