A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Beer

by Leonard Shapiro

They werebest pals at Loudoun Valley High School and now they are the three young partners in a fledgling, foamy craft beer business located in Leesburg that is definitely not your grandfather’s favorite watering hole.

It’s called the Craft Beerco and is located in a strip mall right behind the Red, Hot and Blue restaurant on Market St. And almost from the day they opened this past November, they’ve attracting a steady stream of customers looking for something far different than the brewskies you can buy at the Safeway or Food Lion. 

“Once you drink craft beer, you can’t go back to Budweiser,” said co-owner Sam Cockburn of Middleburg, the grandson of widely-known horse- and cattleman Gordie Keys. “We’re offering something totally different, and more and more people are starting to come in.”

When customers walk in the door, they’re confronted with an array of 300 different craft beers in bottles and cans on the store’s well-stocked shelves. Behind the bar are 40 taps offering a wide variety of draft, craft beers to either sample in two-ounce plastic cups, or fill up 64- or 32-ounce jugs also known as “growlers.” Another half-dozen spigots are reserved for temporary “tap takeovers,” with various craft breweries providing new products they want to test on the market.

It’s not a tavern where everyone knows your name and the hamburgers are grand and a tad greasy. Far from it. Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control rules prohibit the sale of beer or other alcohol to be consumed on site unless food is also being served. At Craft Beerco, only munchies like potato chips are available. The store will give a customer as many as six free two-ounce tasting samples from the beer taps, a total of 12 ounces in all, the better for patrons to decide which beer will go in their growler for consumption off the premises, and preferably at home.

The idea for the store came from Jesse Powell, who’s parents own the Old 690 Brewery in nearby Hillsboro. Powell and Cockburn were both students and fraternity brothers at Mississippi State, and surprise, surprise, had plenty of first-hand experience as beer consumers. One day last winter, Cockburn knocked on Powell’s door and got no answer. That went on for several days.

“Jesse just disappeared for three days,” Cockburn said. “When he came back, he said he’d had an idea. He drew up a 30-page business plan, and when I saw it, I told him ‘I’m in.’” Another high-school friend, Colby McDaniel, was attending Coastal Carolina college at the same time, and he wanted a piece of the action as well.

All three decided to drop out of their respective schools about a year short of graduation and invest in the new business. They now share the workload, much of which involves educating many of their customers on the wide variety of choices they can make in the store.

 “I was studying environmental economics,” Powell said. “I just knew it wasn’t something I wanted to do when I finished school. I came up with the idea and pitched it to Sam and Colby. They came up with the money, and we just did it. Had the idea in March. Had the business plan in April and signed a lease for this place last June 15. We opened Nov. 15. It all happened pretty quickly.”

Prices for the draft craft beers in 64-ounce growlers range from $10 to $40. Six packs of the beer on the shelves can go from $10 to $45, mostly based on the amount of alcohol in each. A beer known as “Tweak” made by the Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, Colorado sells for $15 for a 12-ounce bottle. It has 17 1/2 percent alcohol; Budweiser, in comparison, is about 4 1/2 percent.

The demographic customer base, according to Cockburn, is usually younger adults in the 25- to 45-year-old range, many with families.

“They’re people who don’t really want to go out to the bars and drink,” he said. “If they’re younger and single, they’ll go to a bar. If you’ve got a family, you’ll look for a good draft beer to take home. And people like to come in and just have conversations about the beer.”

And do the millennial owners find it a tad tempting to have a few samples from all those taps during their work day?

“Not really,” Cockburn said with a smile. “If you drink your own beer, you won’t make any money. That’s the whole idea.”