Something’s brewing in Chester, literally.
Louis Scheer recently opened a craft beer brewery in Molly’s Bicycle Shop.
The brewery – officially known as Molly’s Blind Dog Brewery and named after one of Scheer’s dogs, an Australian Shepherd who was deaf and mostly blind due to a birth defect – offers six brews at 4515 W. Hundred Road.
Scheer – who purchased the bike shop in 2013 when it was located at 2126 E. Hundred Road in Enon – said he “grew up in the business.” His dad was a bicycle mechanic and worked at two bicycle shops in San Diego and owned one in Carson City, Nev.
Scheer worked as a firefighter in San Diego and Lake Tahoe for 12 years or so and for a manufacturing business in San Diego for nine years. He lived in Boston and Dallas/Fort Worth for about a year each, but said he got tired of working for other people.
“I was looking at two bike shops for sale; one in Chesterfield and one in California,” he said. The one in California had an offer on it, so he went for the one in Virginia. “This was just a hole in the wall,” he said, adding that he invested his savings ($30,000) into it in 2013. He relocated the business to Chester in 2016.
“Growing up in the [bicycle]shop, it was a barber-shop feel, hanging out after a haircut. I wanted that back,” he said. “I wanted a bike shop, coffee shop and brewery.”
The coffee shop aspect will come later.
It’s about community, a place where families can be, he said.
Scheer – who has five employees, including his sister Sherry Kelley – plans to offer outdoor seating in the near future.
Chad Ritter – who is also opening a brewery in Moseley – is the head brewer.
Chris Battle of Integrated Millwork made the bar countertop and the tap handles.
Molly’s offers a West Coast and East Coast IPA (India Pale Ale), blonde and brown ales, a chocolately stout, and a wit, or white, flavored beer. Scheer hopes to add a gluten-free beer.
The brewery will generally be open from mid-to-late afternoons into the evening hours Monday through Saturday. For more information, call (804) 530-9022.
Editor’s note: Dancing Kilt Brewery plans to open at 12912 Old Stage Road, and Hillside Development of Virginia Beach plans to open a “craft beer place” at 4410 W. Hundred Road in the Chester Village Shopping Center.
