Norfolk’s Benchtop Brewing is expanding to Richmond — and making the ‘world’s first snobby seltzer’

For years, Richmond and Hampton Roads have had a somewhat one-sided beer exchange program, with Richmond breweries such as Legend and The Veil opening outposts in Southeastern Virginia.

Well, now we’re sending one back.

By early next year, Benchtop Brewing plans to open a satellite location in Richmond’s fast-developing Manchester neighborhood at 400 Hull St., in a beery warehouse zone that already includes breweries Legend and Basic City. The news was first reported by Richmond BizSense.

The area is a bit similar to Richmond’s most famous beer neighborhood of Scott’s Addition — or what it looked like a few years back. This is something Benchtop owner and brewer Eric Tennant sees as an opportunity.

“Walking around that neighborhood it became evident to me: There are a tremendous amount of new residential condos in that space, all within stone’s throw from the taproom,” Tennant said. “It could really be the next Scott’s Addition.”

For a little more than four years, Benchtop Brewing has been making some of the most accomplished and inventive beers in the region — including a Mermaid’s Scorn gose that won first prize at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival the first year Benchtop was open. The next year, one of its IPAs was named among the 25 best hazies in the country by Paste Magazine.

But Benchtop remained a bit of a locals’ secret in Hampton Roads, even as it expanded into a range of inventively spiced stouts, a singular barrel-aged lager program and fruity “Jouble Jeuce” experiments.

A Bradford watermelon-infused farmhouse beer called Jouble Jeuce, at Benchtop Brewing in Norfolk. As seen Aug. 20, 2020. (Matthew Korfhage)

That may soon end as the brewery moves to what’s likely the densest and most prominent beer city in the state.

“Based on the level of craft beer (in Richmond), the number of craft beer consumers, for us to play in that sandbox that would be a really good opportunity,” Tennant said.

He’d almost pulled the trigger last year.

“We were five minutes away from signing,” he said.

But they saw the pandemic on the horizon and realized an expansion would be too much to handle. Instead, they now hope to open the new Richmond space in January — with some fancy touches like a side-pull lager tower with four taps, which will act as a centerpiece for the brewery’s bar.

Norfolk will continue to be the hub of brewing and operations. The Richmond location will add some barrel space and fermenters, which will put the finishing touches on beers brewed in Norfolk. What’ll be entirely new in Richmond is a kitchen.

“I came from a food science background and so this was something we’d always wanted to do,” Tennant said. “But we never had the space, and, frankly, opening a brewery was enough work.”

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Details on the food are forthcoming, but as a former sausage expert at Smithfield Foods, he says he’ll likely work with a local butcher to make Benchtop-exclusive meatcraft. The brewpub license in Richmond also will allow him to add occasional guest taps and ciders for the gluten-free.

In the meantime, Benchtop is expanding in another regard: The brewery has made its first hard seltzer.

The Bubbler, he said, will be “the world’s first snobby seltzer.” He watched other craft breweries try to “out-White-Claw White Claw” with low-cost seltzers made using dextrose and flavor extracts. He figured he’d do the exact opposite.

The Bubbler will be made with raspberries and an ultra-high-tech ingredient called phantasm made by freeze-drying the skins of sauvignon blanc grapes. The seltzer is fermented to bone dryness from cane sugar then aged in a foeder barrel to impart oaky flavors.

“We actually just kinda went crazy with it,” he said. ‘It’ll be the world’s first phantasm seltzer. It probably costs more to make than beer.”

Benchtop’s Richmond location is planned for early 2022 at 400 Hull St. The Bubbler hard seltzer will be released Friday at noon at the Norfolk brewery, at 1129 Boissevain Ave. Details at benchtopbrewing.com and facebook.com/BenchtopBrewing.

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com