Virginia’s Three Notch’d Brewing Acquires Former Wild Wolf Brewing Facility

Charlottesville, Virginia-based Three Notch’d Brewing Company has acquired the former Wild Wolf Brewing Company production facility and its 13 acres of land in Nellysford, Virginia.

Wild Wolf shuttered at the end of January after a decade in business. Although financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Three Notch’d will acquire the structures, property and brewing equipment, according to CEO George Kastendike. Wild Wolf’s intellectual property was not part of the deal.

Three Notch’d said the new facility gives it “a major outpost in an area known for beer tourism,” close to Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Devils Backbone and Artisanal Brewing Ventures-owned Bold Rock Hard Cider, as well as the Wintergreen Ski Resort, which is open year-round.

Between the Nellysford facility and the existing Three Notch’d production brewery in Charlottesville, the company has 55,000 barrels of capacity.

In 2021, across the five Three Notch’d locations (Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, and Richmond), the company produced 23,000 barrels of beer, Kastendike said, after the company topped the 16,000-barrel threshold in both 2019 and 2020.

Kastendike credited much of that growth to moving from self-distribution to partnering with Blue Ridge Beverage (a Molson Coors house) in central and southwestern Virginia in 2018. Last December, Three Notch’d sold the rest of its distribution rights in Virginia to the Reyes Beer Division.

“Blue Ridge, in particular the Archer family, they just rolled up their sleeves and worked tirelessly to help us hit our targets and have been a great partner of ours,” he said.

As for Reyes, the largest wholesaler in the U.S. bought into the vision to make Three Notch’d a top-five craft brand in Virginia.

“We’re ready to hopefully put some more gasoline on our well-lit fire here,” Kastendike said.

Within Virginia, Kastendike sees room to grow market share and dollar volume. Driving that growth is its IPA portfolio, led by Minute Man New England-style IPA. Three Notch’d has also leaned into hazy IPAs with the Nephology series, named for the study of clouds.

The lion’s share of that growth has come in the grocery channel, but Kastendike said Reyes will help the company build its previously non-existent convenience store presence. To go after that business, Three Notch’d will release 19.2 oz. single-serve cans of Minuteman IPA and a yet-to-be-determined hazy IPA later this year.

In Nellysford, nine-year-old Three Notch’d plans to invest about $1.5 million to renovate its property to create a more “family friendly” experience, both indoors and outdoors, with live music and ax throwing, Kastendike said. The brewery will also connect to a public water utility that taps into a well that feeds from the Blue Ridge Mountains, he added.

Expected to be operational in fall 2022, the new facility will produce Three Notch’d beers, as well as support the company’s entry into non-alcoholic beer and spirits-based products.

Three Notch’d plans to launch a yet-to-be-branded, regional-focused, non-alcoholic beer brand in September, Kastendike said. The company has already tested a non-alc IPA in the market, which he said is the second best selling craft independent NA beer SKU in Virginia, with limited distribution.

The Nellysford facility will also house Three Notch’d Distilling Company, which will focus on whisky and bourbon. The company plans to launch a line of spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails.

In addition to distilling in Nellysford, Three Notch’d is approved by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to operate distilleries at its brewpubs in Virginia Beach and Richmond, Kastendike said.

Three Notch’d isn’t done expanding its own-premise footprint in Virginia either. The company is actively exploring locations for its next outpost, this one in northern Virginia.

To help drive those growth initiatives, Three Notch’d has hired Natalie Gershon as chief growth officer. Gershon previously served as VP of marketing for Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri, for four years before resigning from her post last year.

Kastendike admitted that Three Notch’d hasn’t done a good job of marketing itself in the past, and Gershon was brought into the fold to drive its priority growth projects.

“We brought her on board about a month ago, and she hit the ground running, and she’s got a plate full of stuff that is all growth-oriented,” Kastendike said. “It’s all very exciting.”