The story below is from our January/February 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: ©Georgianne Vecellio
Photos below: ©Liz Long
Blindhouse Brewing offers a unique style of craft beer thanks to wild yeast and locally sourced ingredients.
Tyler Wert knows wort. As the Head Brewer/Co-Founder of Blindhouse Beer Co., Wert, 32, is well-versed in all aspects of brewing, not just the wort (unfermented beer).
A native of Winchester, Wert’s interest in beer started when he spent time in Colorado, due to the many craft breweries. Unsatisfied with the results of home brewing kits, he moved back east and enrolled in the Craft Beer Certificate Program at the University of Richmond. Wert worked at Triple Crossing Beer in Richmond for over five years, working his way up to the head brewing position. He enjoyed the experience, but wanted to be able to create his own brews. “It felt like an itch he had to scratch,” explains his wife, Nicole Davidson-Wert, also 32.
With a degree in Sustainability and Environmental Science, plus his previous brewing experience and his own research and experimentation, Wert has found a niche in crafting unusual styles of beer using locally-sourced ingredients and wild yeast. Since yeast is present everywhere in nature, clippings from flowers, fruits and tree bark are added to the wort to ferment it without any chemical ingredients. This process isn’t uncommon in commercial brewing, but to Wert’s knowledge, Blindhouse is the only local brewery to utilize it.
The Werts met and married in Richmond, moved to Roanoke in May 2022 and opened the brewery in April 2023. In the middle of the process, they welcomed their son.
Davidson-Wert, a Buffalo, New York, native who works full-time for the Virginia Department of Health, is an equal investor in the startup, and handles the finances and works as a server along with three other staff members. She and her husband love the space on Salem Avenue, which is the perfect mix of industrial and retail. They do a lot of pop-ups like Kefi Food Truck, Food Hut Rke and Eatza Pizza, and support local vendors like Hot Knots Pretzels and Kind Baking Co. They also have acoustic music inside the cozy tasting room.
The Werts enjoy the social aspect of owning a brewery, but Davidson-Wert also points out “I don’t mind having free, high-quality beer!”
Taste it for yourself at 534 Salem Ave SW in downtown Roanoke and visit blindhousebeer.com or @blindhousebeer on Instagram for more information on their hours, events and more.
The story above is from our January/February 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
