Hugh Burns likes beer. He likes it so much that while in the Air Force, rather than drinking the usual canned drivel, he began brewing his own. "Fighter pilots tend to be very competitive, so the attitude was, if you can do it, I can do it better," he says.

When he left the Air Force in 1994, he and his wife Nadia decided to start their own company. His love of beer, plus his biology degree and chemistry minor made a microbrewery the perfect choice. After looking at various locations in Virginia, including Charlottesville and Norfolk, the Burnses chose to set up shop in Williamsburg. Norfolk looked good on paper, but it’s more demographically diluted for the kind of customers he thought they’d target. Williamsburg, however, as one of the East Coast’s largest tourist attractions, had the customer base they were looking for. They brew old-style American beers, so their product blends well with Williamsburg.

The couple opened Williamsburg Brewing Co. in 1998 and, after six months in business, turned a small profit by serving their microbrew in the Tidewater area. They were ready to expand outside their local market. But that plan took a little longer to ferment than expected.

"We got so busy doing business [in Williamsburg] that we just couldn’t open another market," Hugh Burns says. Now, three years later, the Burnses are finally ready to branch out. By the end of summer, Burns hopes his pale ales, wheat ales, porters and specialty beers will be the toast of the town in restaurants and homes all over Richmond and Western Virginia.

"We’ve talked with several distributors," Burns says, adding that they’re most likely to choose a national company that has experience in distributing microbrews. "We’ll hopefully be in Richmond and what we’re calling the Interstate 81 corridor — basically Blacksburg, Staunton and Harrisonburg," Burns says.

Burns projects that the increased distribution will triple Williamsburg Brewing’s business and profits. "We’re in a pretty big market now," he explains, "but it’s not the sweet spot. I think Richmond will be at least as big as what we’re in now."

The jury’s still out on how well central and western Virginia will embrace the Williamsburg brew, but Burns is already envisioning his ale bubbling over into Northern Virginia and beyond.

— Catherine Leitch