by Victoria Bourne
After nearly four years in business, Bold Mariner Brewing Company is saying “Goodbye Lamberts Point. Hello Ocean View.”
The brewery is moving into the former Bank of the Commonwealth building on E. Ocean View Avenue, walking distance to the beach. Co-owner Kerrie Stacks says they’re shooting for a late July opening.
Bold Mariner Brewing Company will open a brewery in Ocean View later this summer. The brewery will be at 1901 E. Ocean View Ave.
To celebrate, Bold Mariner, which opened in November 2015 on Bowden’s Ferry Road, is hosting a moving party from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday. Bar-Q and Taste of Asia 757 will be slinging food and DJ Sugarbearzzz will be spinning beats.
Stacks, who co-owns the brewery with husband Michael Stacks, says they’re expecting a large crowd and more than a few tears. “It’s been quite an adventure over these last four years,” she says. “We put our heart and souls into that building.”
Monkey’s Fist, a coconut wheat beer released Friday, will be on tap, as will Bold Mariner’s Powhatan Rye Porter. The brewery will also serve Young Frogman, an unfiltered version of the brewery’s Frogman Lager.
Stacks says this week has been full of people coming in for their final pints, and staff have been busily canning and stock piling Frogman Lager, which recently won gold at the eighth annual Virginia Craft Beer Cup in the International Lager category.
The new location in Ocean View has a wraparound white balcony and at 7,000 square feet, about 3,000 square feet more space than at Lamberts Point. Stacks says it’ll still have a 10-barrel brewhouse, but Bold Mariner is adding two new 20-barrel fermenters. A second floor provides space for weddings and parties, she says; there will also be a small menu with in-house food options. The new spot will have a slightly different vibe, too; more modern and less warehouse.
But the brewery’s popular bartop at Lamberts Point will find its way into the Ocean View decor, infusing a little old with the new. That’s a response to customer requests, Stacks says.
Bold Mariner Brewing Company’s Frogman Lager took home the gold medal for International Lager at the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild awards June 17, 2019. Pictured are Bold Mariner’s owner Michael Stacks, left, and head brewer John O’Reilly.
Ocean View was initially to be a second location and taproom for Bold Mariner, but Michael Stacks told The Virginian-Pilot early this year that they were scaling back those plans in favor of a more conservative approach that would allow the brewery to focus on quality beer.
“With Norfolk getting so crowded and more and more people coming, we started to look at it and thought it would be better to focus on Ocean View than do two at the same time,” he said in January.
Bold Mariner owners Michael and Kerrie Stacks.
By phone Friday, Kerrie Stacks said her husband is still active duty Navy with maybe five years or so left until retirement, and they didn’t want to take on too much. She says so far the feedback from Ocean View has been positive; the brewery hosted a St. Patrick’s Day party on the property this year.
“Hopefully the downtime won’t be too long, and we’ll welcome everybody to the new place,” Stacks says.