Final gravity: a measurement taken at the completion of a beer’s fermentation process, which is used to help guess the alcohol content of the beer; also, the name of a now award-winning brewery tucked away in the Lakeside area of Richmond.
Final gravity: a measurement taken at the completion of a beer’s fermentation process, which is used to help guess the alcohol content of the beer; also, the name of a now award-winning brewery tucked away in the Lakeside area of Richmond.
This article was featured in RVAMag #26: Fall 2016. You can read all of issue #26 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
Despite working with a brewing system that could fit in some living rooms, Final Gravity scooped up four medals at this year’s Virginia Craft Beer Cup Awards, the most of any brewery that competed. That’s an impressive feat, but definitely not a fluke. Final Gravity is only about a year old, but founder and brewer Tony Ammendolia has been brewing beer since 1993. He honed his brewing skills at home, and opened up Original Gravity in 2011 to spread the good word about that hobby. Final Gravity serves as a continuation of that gospel, exhibiting a vast array of styles at all times, and from what I’ve tried, every one of them is well-represented.
To learn a bit more about what it’s like to be the only home brew shop/brewery in the area, and what the future might hold for the brewery, I asked Tony a few questions and he graciously answered them in the middle of an already busy weekend, which saw Final Gravity competing in another craft brewing competition.
How did Final Gravity come to fruition?
When I opened the home brew shop Original Gravity in 2011, it was the second choice to opening a brewery. I found though that I could open a home brew shop for a much smaller investment than a brewery and I already had a background in retail management as well as a passion for brewing beer and teaching others about brewing beer. The desire to open a brewery didn’t go away though and once Virginia passed SB604 that allowed breweries to operate a tasting room and sell directly to their customers, it became possible to operate a financially sustainable brewery on a much smaller scale.
What kind of brewing system are you working with and are you able to brew as much as you’d like with it?
We brew beer at Final Gravity exactly like home brewers. Our system is a two barrel (62 gallon) electric system from Blichmann Engineering. If you wanted to buy a system just like ours, we could sell it to you at Original Gravity because it’s all home brewing equipment. We also keg our beer in five gallon soda kegs just like home brewers do. We have been able to keep up with demand so far and we usually have twelve beers on tap at all times, but that may change now that we won four medals at the 2016 Virginia Craft Brewers Cup. We placed with more beers than any other brewery in the state!
It seems like Final Gravity has a fairly diverse draft list at almost all times. What is your focus?
We want to offer something for everyone so we try to cover a range of styles. We love the hoppier beers, but we appreciate a lot of different beer styles and want to make sure that if you come in with a group of friends, everyone can find at least one beer they can enjoy.
You guys seem to have a lot of fun with adjuncts and infusions. Is there anything that you’re dying to work with, but haven’t been able to get into a Randall yet?
The Randall thing just kind of happened. As a beer drinker, I don’t usually go for flavored beers. We infused some beer early on just for fun and found that people just love that stuff. Whatever we run through a Randall always sells quickly and from a producer’s perspective, it is a lot of fun coming up with flavor ideas and pairing them with the right beer. So far there aren’t any ingredients we want to try that we haven’t been able to.
Do you think the setup of the shop will encourage more beer drinkers to pursue home brewing?
That was our hope when we opened the brewery, but we have found that most people coming in to try our beer don’t have any interest in making their own. The home brew customers do enjoy being able to get a beer while shopping though!
Do you think it more beneficial for people to know how you made a certain beer? I’d imagine you sell most if not all of the products used in creating your brews, so some customers could try their skill and see if they could replicate a Final Gravity beer.
We’re not giving away all of our recipes, but it is part of our plan to start selling kits for some of our beers. All of our beer is made with the exact same ingredients we sell to our home brew customers.
Would you ever want do small runs of bottles or cans in the future? Is that even feasible?
We plan on doing some small bottle releases over the next year including bottles of some wine barrel aged wild beers and sours.
