Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has acquired Starr Hill Brewery, merging Virginia's two largest craft beer makers into a single, Richmond-based company. The all-equity deal closed on October 1, and both companies say they will keep their separate brands, breweries and taprooms running as before.
The acquisition amount was not disclosed, according to RichmondBizSense, which first reported the closing. Hardywood and Starr Hill had been operational partners since 2025, and in a joint release, Hardywood said both breweries will continue brewing at their current locations and operating their existing taprooms. Employees of both organizations will stay in their current roles following the closing, the company said.
As Axios reported, the combined operation now sits under one Richmond-based owner, bringing together breweries that NielsenIQ data cited by Hardywood ranks as Virginia's No. 1 and No. 2 craft brewers by volume, respectively. RichmondBizSense likewise reported that Hardywood and Starr Hill were the two largest Virginia breweries by volume in 2025, citing Nielsen figures the companies provided. Hardywood is on track to brew about 25,000 barrels of beer this year, per the same report.
Who's Running the Combined Company
Eric McKay will serve as CEO of the combined company, with Hardywood's Kate Lee overseeing day-to-day operations as COO and Josh Cromwell serving as CFO, according to Hardywood's announcement. Hardywood and Starr Hill have roughly 180 employees combined, and the companies say all of them will be retained.
The companies plan to roll out special releases, guest taps and merchandise swaps between the two sister breweries in the coming weeks, per the same release. That builds on groundwork already laid the previous summer, when Hardywood began producing and distributing some of Starr Hill's flagship beers under an earlier agreement — a relationship that grew into the operational partnership the two brewers formed in 2025.
How Many Taprooms, Exactly?
Hardywood's announcement states that nine Starr Hill and Hardywood taprooms located throughout Virginia collectively draw more than 900,000 annual visits. Virginia Business, however, reported that Hardywood has two taprooms and brewing facilities in Richmond and Goochland County, while Starr Hill operates six taprooms — a count that would put the combined total at eight rather than nine, according to Virginia Business. Neither figure has been reconciled publicly.
A Shrinking, Crowded Market
The deal lands amid what RVAHub describes as a craft beer market that has gotten crowded and expensive over the past several years. The companies say sharing production, distribution and hospitality resources gives two independent brewers more room to work with than either had alone, according to RVAHub.
Nationally, the numbers back up the squeeze. U.S. craft beer production fell 4% in 2025 to just over 22 million barrels, and the number of operating U.S. craft breweries dropped 2.9% from 2024 to 9,578, according to the Brewers Association. New brewery openings fell sharply to 300 in 2025 from 518 the year before, while craft beer's retail dollar value slipped 2.8% to $28.0 billion, the trade group reported. Craft beer did manage to outpace the overall beer category, which declined 5.7% by volume, and its market share edged up from 13.2% to 13.4%.
Richmond's brewing scene has already shown signs of this consolidation pressure this year. Hardywood agreed in June to produce and distribute Legend Brewing Co.'s flagship Brown Ale while Legend keeps ownership of the recipe, a licensing arrangement that RichmondBizSense tied to Legend's shrinking market and the sale of its Manchester property. Axios had earlier reported that the Hardywood-Legend partnership came amid historic declines in production and sales tied to changing consumer tastes and market oversaturation.
A Partnership Years in the Making
Hardywood had previously described its earlier arrangement with Starr Hill as an operational partnership rather than a merger, with both breweries remaining independent companies at the time, according to the brewery's own prior statement. That changed with this month's all-equity acquisition, which Hardywood has characterized as uniting the state's two premier craft brewers under one roof while keeping each brand's identity intact.
