After two years of planning and construction, Brew Republic Bierwerks opened this past weekend. They kicked 12 kegs.
The 4,000-square-foot facility is home to a 10-barrel brewing system and a tasting room with six rotating beers on tap, including The Night Mare, a dark oatmeal stout; the Mother Ship, an amber ale; and Requiem, a Baltic porter.
“I never would have guessed in a million years I’d be in the brewing business,” Brew Republic founder Jeff Frederick, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, says. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Brewing runs in the family, as Frederick’s father-in-law, who died in 2013, was high up the chain of command at Yuengling & Son Brewing Company. Frederick and his wife reached out to Yuengling and offered to rebuild an offshoot of the Yuengling brand, the James River Steam Brewery, in Richmond.
“Yuengling gave us the go-ahead, and we partnered up with my brother-in-law, Eric, who has been in the restaurant business for years, and decided to go for it,” Frederick says.
Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition, as a fire at a Yuengling brewery in Tampa shifted the company’s focus elsewhere. “We spent all this time doing research and making plans, so we decided to open our own brewery, which ended up being Brew Republic,” Frederick says, who runs the operation with brewmasters Ryan and Darcy Heisey.
Food options include beer-braised weisswurst and crab-stuffed, fire-roasted peppers. Coming up: Petoberfest on Oct. 8, a costume party on Oct. 29 and tours of the facility every Saturday. Additionally, there will be trivia nights, tastings and live music. // Brew Republic Bierwerks: 15201 Potomac Town Place, Woodbridge
