It’s high summer in southeastern Virginia, and everyone is thinking about how to stay cool. The breweries in the Williamsburg area have an answer, and it’s not just about the beer.
They offer beer, of course — often brewed on-site — but they also offer non-alcoholic beverages, food and social activities. The food might be in the form of food trucks parked outside, or options cooked in-house. As for social activities, breweries are offering live music, trivia and a variety of other options. Most places sell canned beer to go or to consume on-site, along with merchandise like shirts, caps and mugs. Surprisingly, televisions don’t provide the entertainment focus for most of these venues. Only a couple of these places have any televisions at all, and where they do exist they do not dominate the ambiance.
Several of these breweries have shelves with board games for visitors who want to take it easy for a while. And while none of them has décor that would be labeled luxurious, they feel welcoming — individuals, couples, families with small children and friend groups of all ages can have a pleasant experience.
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Alewerks Brewing Company
189B Ewell Road
This brewery boasts 16 taps, providing stouts, lagers, IPAs, sours and more in their taproom or outside on their covered outdoor seating area. Regular features include Military Mondays, Teacher Tuesdays and First Responders Fridays along with regular trivia nights and live music. In addition to packaged snacks, Alewerks hosts food trucks most nights. They also have a regular Sunday brunch, including “beermosas.”
There is also a second location, the Little Auxiliary Brewery, or L.A.B., at 5711-36 Richmond Road in the Williamsburg Premium Outlets. The L.A.B. brews small batch-beers as well as offering the same beers that the larger location offers. The hours (Saturday-Monday 12-6 p.m., Tuesday-Friday 12-8 p.m.) make this a nice place to rest and recover from a shopping trip.
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Billsburg Brewery
2054 Jamestown Road, across from Jamestown Settlement
This brewery is nicely situated on the James City County Marina. From the elevated deck seating area, patrons have a good view of activity in the marina and the neighboring estuary and wetlands. Additional outdoor seating is available in a large pavilion or under the trees on the spacious grounds. There is also ample indoor seating.
New this summer is the owners’ food truck — the Waterfront Grill — where the cooking is done by Chef Neval, well known to Williamsburg foodies. Visitors who wish to kayak or stand-up paddle can do so from the dock. The location is near the terminus of the Capital Trail, making it a good place to recover from a run, walk or bike ride.
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Frothy Moon Brewhouse
1826 Jamestown Road, about a mile from the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry
This newer brewery offers a number of interesting beers, along with non-alcoholic options. The seating inside is spacious, while the outside seating is comfortable and accommodating, with a large number of shaded tables, firepits and recreational activities (cornhole, for one). People who aren’t interested in the beer also have coffee options to choose from (giving the word “brew” a double meaning). The parking lot for the Powhatan Creek Park and Blueway is across Jamestown Road from the brewery, making it a good place to refresh after a canoe or kayak excursion.
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Precarious Beer Project
110 S. Henry St., in Merchants Square
Precarious Beer Project is a unique combination of brewery and stand-alone food offerings. In addition to the bar where customers can order from the wide range of drink options, this location has two food stations — Ol’ Dominion Burgers (offering smashburgers and other similar items) and Electric Circus Taco Bar. One inside area also has pinball machines and other arcade games. Outdoor seating (including firepits for cooler weather) offers pleasant views of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg across the street.
The Merchants Square location means that it is common to find local residents, tourists and college students sharing the long tables and benches that provide most of the seating.
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Amber Ox Public House
525 Prince George St., a block from Merchants’ Square
Amber Ox is a quality restaurant that serves the beer brewed at Precarious Beer — not surprising, as the founders of Precarious got their start a few years ago in the brewery portion of Amber Ox. Amber Ox fits the description of “gastropub” — a pub that serves restaurant-quality food. Visitors to Amber Ox will find exactly this — a wide and changing variety of beers (brewed at Precarious) along with meals that are creatively imagined and prepared. In addition to the full regular menu, diners can take advantage of specials every night of the week — Tiki Mondays (tropical theme), Beer Can Chicken night (Tuesdays), Fresh Catch Fridays (what it sounds like) and Saucy Sundays (featuring pasta).
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Strangeways Brewing
1430 High St., the Shops at High Street facing Richmond Road
Strangeways Brewing advertises dozens of beers in a spacious and welcoming space. The company motto: “Think strange. Drink strange.” defines their approach to making beer. The result is an unusual variety of beers that are, well, strange. The eclectic décor (check out the car-sofas) and high ceilings create a comfortable space to kick back and relax. Two outdoor spaces give visitors options additional seating options. This business has three other locations — two in Richmond and one in Fredericksburg.
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Virginia Beer Company
401 Second St., in the Edge District
Virginia Beer Company is an unpretentious brewery that looks like it used to be a warehouse. That’s because it was a warehouse — a decrepit building that was an eyesore until the founders (two graduates of William & Mary) turned it into a brewery in 2016. The company’s slogan is “Beer. People. Purpose” and its website will tell readers a lot about what drives the owners of this business. They are interested in producing time-tested flagship beers as well as creative and experimental small-batch beers. They describe their taproom as a “test kitchen” for new beer recipes, which they then sell across the country and around the world.
Karen McPherson is a retired teacher, volunteer at Literacy for Life and instructor at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at William & Mary. She can be reached at kamcpherson168@gmail.com.
![If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]](https://www.pilotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6SCYSOUXX5GSHC7UWSYZ2RSEAU.jpg?w=408 "If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]")
