San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing Co. won’t open the doors to its new Virginia Beach brewery until 2016, but Virginia drinkers won’t have to wait until then to get “San Diego prices” on their beer. Starting this February, the brewery began selling its entire lineup at San Diego prices, about 20 percent less than what Virginia residents pay now, and Virginia will be the first on the East Coast to receive Green Flash six-packs and special draft-only beers.
“What we wanted to do was send a message not just to Virginia, but to the whole East Coast: When we start saving all of this money on freighting beer across the United States, we’re going to pass the savings on to our customers,” Green Flash CEO Mike Hinkley told All About Beer.
Green Flash is one of five Western-based breweries that are opening, or have opened, a second brewery on the East Coast, along with Stone Brewing Co., which plans to open in Richmond, VA, and New Belgium Brewing Co., Oskar Blues Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in North Carolina. An East Coast expansion means reduced freight costs for breweries and a lot more beer being produced out East.
“If we were to start up the brewery in Virginia Beach today, about 47 percent of our beer would ship out of Virginia Beach,” said Hinkley.