We’re honored to be featured in Imbibes 2019 July/August issue. Check out their article and learn a little more about Commonwealth!

Opening a brewery by the beach requires, frst and foremost, a ferce afection for the sand, water and weather. Commonwealth’s Biggie arrived in Virginia Beach right out of college, working hard as a nuclear submarine engineer and easily ftting into the laid-back lifestyle. “Tere was a tight-knit community of people that love to get together and get out on the water,” he says. Engineering took him away to northern Virginia, where he started homebrewing, Virginia Beach never sailing far from his mind.

“I always thought it would be a great place to open [a brewery],” Biggie says. Upon his petitioning, the city gave him the goahead to convert the old fre station into Commonwealth Brewing, which opened on Labor Day weekend 2015. Like a fast-moving submarine, it’s been full speed ahead ever since. “Right now, we’re probably the only brewery in the state, if not the whole country, that uses valet parking on weekends,” Biggie says.

Sales for the brewery’s lagers, Belgian-style beers and juicy IPAs have been so berserk that Commonwealth expanded this year by buying every building on its block, including small residential homes that’ll be torn down and transformed into needed parking. Even with extra square footage, Commonwealth still can’t make enough beer. “We have a demand that exceeds our ability to produce the beer, even in the slow season,” he says. “During the summer, the supply-demand gap grows even larger.”Opening a brewery by the beach requires, frst and foremost, a ferce afection for the sand, water and weather.

Commonwealth’s Biggie arrived in Virginia Beach right out of college, working hard as a nuclear submarine engineer and easily ftting into the laid-back lifestyle. “Tere was a tight-knit community of people that love to get together and get out on the water,” he says. Engineering took him away to northern Virginia, where he started homebrewing, Virginia Beach never sailing far from his mind. “I always thought it would be a great place to open [a brewery],” Biggie says. Upon his petitioning, the city gave him the goahead to convert the old fre station into Commonwealth Brewing, which opened on Labor Day weekend 2015.

Like a fast-moving submarine, it’s been full speed ahead ever since. “Right now, we’re probably the only brewery in the state, if not the whole country, that uses valet parking on weekends,” Biggie says. Sales for the brewery’s lagers, Belgian-style beers and juicy IPAs have been so berserk that Commonwealth expanded this year by buying every building on its block, including small residential homes that’ll be torn down and transformed into needed parking. Even with extra square footage, Commonwealth still can’t make enough beer. “We have a demand that exceeds our ability to produce the beer, even in the slow season,” he says. “During the summer, the supply-demand gap grows even larger.”