Richmond Welcoming Its First Craft Seltzer Company in the Coming Year

The first craft hard seltzery is coming to Richmond, VA! Richmond Seltzer Co. expects to have innovative hard seltzers and a storefront in RVA by August 2021. Started by Vanessa Gleiser and Iain Gordon, all of their seltzers are handcrafted in small batches and made with the finest ingredients.

It's a tough time to have to pay for a storefront and brewing materials. One of the owners has a full time job and the other one is laid off, so it's tricky, but the two are staying positive and motivated! Aside from that, the effects of COVID-19 haven’t been too bad. They are happy to bring some excitement to Richmond during such tough times.

The community can support Richmond Seltzer Co. by following them on social media (Instagram: @richmondseltzer_co and Facebook: @richmondseltzer) and sharing their posts. It helps them reach more people and get the word out about their new startup. They also plan to have branded merchandise in the next few weeks which will be available to purchase on their website! The money they raise from selling merchandise will go straight to buying a storefront for their business.

As of now, they plan to have a storefront in the next 12 months and one additional staff member. Their choice for location is still TBA (it's hard to choose!) but, they aspire to be downtown close to the river, in Scott’s Addition, or in The Fan.

Iain and Vanessa are childhood friends who reconnected in Richmond and felt the city was perfect but was missing one thing…craft spiked seltzer. The couple took it upon themselves to make RVA’s first seltzery and began crafting and bottling hard seltzer in their tiny apartment kitchens. After opening a storefront with a larger space, they will be able to produce more seltzer and invite people into a small tasting room to enjoy the craft beverage straight from the taps!

Vanessa comes from a Marketing background and found her passion for small businesses while taking up internships around the city. Craft beverage became of interest to her when one of the clients from her internship was Virginia Cider. She then became the Marketing Manager at a local Richmond cidery, and decided she was going to make her own business within the industry, but she knew she wanted it to be new and exciting.

Iain comes from an Engineering background with entrepreneurial dreams and tendencies. He loves the craft beverage industry as well so when Vanessa came to him with this big idea, he was quick to jump in. He took it upon himself to experiment with different recipes and ingredients to create the perfect handcraft hard seltzer.

Visit Richmond Seltzer Co.’s website to learn more: https://www.richmondseltzerco.com/.