Wild Wolf Brewing Company to open

There will soon be a third option along Va. 151 for beer drinkers to stop and have a pint in Nelson County.
Wild Wolf Brewing Company will be opening the doors on the first and only home brew shop in Nelson in September, and is in the process of purchasing property to construct its own brew pub near Nellysford at the intersection of Va. 151 and Virginia Lane.
“A third (brewery) just brings more people down the road,” Mary Wolf, co-owner and operator of the Wild Wolf Brewing Company said. “That’s proven itself in other locations. The craft brew beer and the brew pubs are just so popular that a third on will just add to (Nelson County) as a destination.”
Wolf got bitten by the brewery bug in December, when she attended a conference with her son Danny Wolf, a brewer, in Chicago.
Since then, the process of opening the brewery has been “full light-speed ahead,” she said.
So the Wolf’s put together a business plan and in less than a year have begun getting the Wild Wolf Brewing Company name out there.
Danny, 26, said this is something he has wanted to do since his 21st birthday.
“I bought a home brewing kit down in Richmond because I really liked Starr Hill’s ale,” he said. “That year I put at least every penny I made into brewing ingredients, supplies and equipment. I fell in love with beer and wanted to be working with it all day.”
Danny attended the brewing school at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago and will now be the brewer for Wild Wolf Brewing Company.
Currently, he’s working on batches of home-brewed beers the company will sell at their shop in Nellysford that is set to open in September.
The home brew shop was an idea Mary and Danny had as a tool to get the company’s name out in the beer world while they wait for their pub space to be constructed over the next two years.
“This was sort of just a great way to market ourselves early,” Mary Wolf said. “We intend to have the home brew shop in our new space as well.”
It doesn’t hurt either that the same supplies the family will be selling in the shop will be those Danny needs to make the ales and lagers Wild Wolf selling.
Mary said the property she is intending to purchase for the brew pub location is currently “under contract” and that they are working through issues to finalize the sale.
She said they also plan to grow hops and produce on the 13-acres of land the pub will sit on, incorporate solar power into their energy system and collect rain water to use in the beer.
“In my business plan there is a whole section on all the environmental stuff,” Mary said. “We’re trying to be really green and use as much local product as we can.”
The parcel of land puts the pub directly on the Brew Ridge Trail, a coalition of five breweries in Nelson and Albemarle counties.
“With the addition of Wild Wolf Brewing Company, Nelson County and the Brew Ridge Trail have one more attraction in our already strong agri-tourism product inventory,” Maureen Kelley, the director of economic development and tourism for Nelson County, said.