USA, VA: Twisted Ales Craft Brewing to launch in Richmond’s Manchester area this month

A new husband-and-wife owned craft brewery is planning to open in Richmond’s Manchester area this month, Richmond.com reported on June 5.

Jason and Debbi Price — transplants from California who moved to the Richmond area more than a decade ago — are planning to open their brewery, Twisted Ales Craft Brewing, on June 17. The brewery is in the historic Aragon Coffee Co. building at 212 W. Sixth St.

The brewery is in the space formerly occupied by Blue Bee Cider before it moved last year to a new location in the Scott’s Addition area of Richmond.

“I started home brewing about five years ago,” Jason Price said. “My wife encouraged me to get started brewing beer. We entered some competitions and won a couple of awards, and decided we would like to have the opportunity to work together because we both worked separate jobs. We figured we would open a brewery to allow us to work together.”

The brewery occupies about 4,700 square feet of leased space, with about a third dedicated to beer production. The taproom has about 60 seats along with standing room for about the same number, and Price said they plan to add an outdoor patio.

The couple settled on the Manchester area partly because it has not developed the same concentration of craft beverage makers that Scott’s Addition is seeing. Manchester also is home to the Richmond region’s eldest craft brewer, Legend Brewing Co., which is nearby.

“We looked at a number of spaces before we chose this area,” Jason said. “We looked at Scott’s Addition. We ultimately settled on Manchester. We are really excited about the revitalization that is going on in Manchester. It is a good opportunity for us to have a nice, steady flow of customers coming in.”

The building “fit well for what we wanted to have — turn-of-the-century architecture,” Jason said.

Twisted Ales Craft Brewing plans to be open seven days a week in the afternoons and evenings after its grand opening scheduled for noon to 11 p.m. on June 17. It will make a variety of beer styles, but Jason said they expect to start with two IPAs, a brown ale, and a pale ale with mango.

Jason said he has worked for 25 years in information technology, while his wife has a background in pharmaceutical sales and as an academic adviser.

“A lot of people think the craft brewing industry is saturated,” said Jason, referring to the explosion of more than two dozen breweries in the region over the past few years.

“I think Richmond still has an opportunity to grow,” he said. When it comes to craft breweries per capita, “we pale in comparison” to Asheville, N.C., and San Diego.

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