When Bill Butcher first opened Port City Brewing (3950 Wheeler Ave, Alexandria, Va) on February 5, 2011, the kind of craft beer marketplace that the D.C. area has wholeheartedly embraced did not exist.
“We were the first packaging brewery to open in the area”, said Butcher. “Before we opened, D.C. was the only major metro area in the country that didn’t have a packaging brewery.”
There was no way that Butcher could have known that his brewery would some day be part of a vibrant, inventive local beer scene. While it’s true mere months later DC Brau would open its doors, becoming the first packaging brewery within D.C. city limits since 1956, Port City has the distinction of being the first to the table in the area. Butcher’s goal remains the same—to make distinctive, high quality beer that can hold its own in the creatively-competitive American craft beer scene.
For Butcher, launching Port City was an opportunity to invest in Alexandria, a community that his family has been a part of for over a century, and to continue to work in the Mid-Atlantic alcohol business.
“I’ve been in the drinks business ever since I’ve been old enough to drink alcohol,” said Butcher. In high school and college he worked in restaurants, and after college he took a job working for vineyard guru Robert Mondavi. For nearly 20 years Butcher worked in the wine industry while watching the rise of craft beer. Whereas beer was once, in the words of Butcher, “just what you drank at parties,” craft breweries worked to establish themselves across the U.S., particularly in the Northwest. However, the D.C. metro area remained curiously brewery-free.
The brewery that Butcher remembers being the most local was Virginia-based Old Dominion, a brand that was eventually purchased by Fordham Brewing Company in conjunction with Anheuser-Busch. After the purchase, production was moved to Delaware and the area was left without a packaging brewery.
“The fact that they moved left a hole in this market, and there was really something missing,” said Butcher. “That’s one of the things that compelled my wife and me to open this company. Looking at it, we thought, ‘Why hasn’t someone done this before?'”
It’s safe to say that Port City has succeeded. In the five years since the brewery has opened, it has taken home a slew of major awards, including gold and silver medals from both the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Championships for its flagship Optimal Wit and Monumental IPA. Butcher is quick to credit Brewmaster Jonathan Reeves, a seasoned brewer who had already racked up numerous awards prior to being hired by Port City.
Now, on the eve of their fifth anniversary, Butcher and Port City have reached a point where their greatest challenge is their own success. “The struggles that we’ve had here have been trying to keep up with demand,” said Butcher. When Port City first opened, its production capacity was about six thousand barrels per year; today production has hit 14 thousand barrels. Where mechanical failure or issues with the brewing process created setbacks in the past, now the biggest struggle is a lack of storage space.
To fix this, Port City plans on increasing their storage capacity fourfold in the near future, a plan that is still in development. Fans of the brewery need not worry though, as Port City has no plans to either leave the area or sell out to a larger conglomerate.
“I was convinced that if we could do something of very very high quality, that people would give it a chance,” said Butcher. Based the reception that Port City’s beer has had on both a local and national level, it would seem that his gamble has paid off.
Port City will be releasing a new beer, dubbed the Colossal Five, at its two-day anniversary party beginning Friday at 2 p.m. Enthusiasts can reserve a four-pack of the limited edition beer here.
