A Virginia brewery originally built during Ballast Point’s high-flying expansion years is getting a new life under New Belgium Brewing.

New Belgium has announced that its new Liquid Center taproom in Daleville, Virginia, will officially open on November 6, bringing public hospitality back to the massive production facility for the first time in seven years.

The 259,000-square-foot brewery was originally built for Ballast Point in 2017, two years after Constellation Brands stunned the craft beer world by acquiring the San Diego brewery for $1 billion. Ballast Point was expanding aggressively at the time, and the Virginia brewery was designed to significantly expand its East Coast production presence.

But Ballast Point’s fortunes changed quickly.

After production peaked at nearly 431,000 barrels in 2016, volume fell to 320,000 barrels by 2018. Constellation closed the Daleville taproom and restaurant in September 2019 and later sold the Ballast Point brand and most of its brewing operations to Kings & Convicts Brewing, while retaining the Virginia facility.

New Belgium acquired the Daleville brewery from Constellation in 2023 as it searched for additional capacity to support its fast-growing Voodoo Ranger family.

And the location made considerable sense.

New Belgium Brewing is currently owned by Lion Little World Beverages, which is the craft beverage division of the Japanese multinational brewing and food conglomerate Kirin Holdings. It already operates its East Coast brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, and Daleville sits roughly four hours away, giving the company another major production hub in the eastern US.

At the time of the acquisition, New Belgium had no plans to reopen the former Ballast Point taproom. Three years that has changed.

The new Liquid Center will return a public-facing beer destination to the Daleville brewery, although without the permanent kitchen that was part of the old Ballast Point operation. Instead, New Belgium plans to work with local food trucks and vendors.

It’s an interesting second act for a brewery built during one of craft beer’s most spectacular expansion stories.

Ballast Point built it for a future that never quite arrived.

Turns out, New Belgium needed it.

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