HOT SPRINGS — The growing popularity of craft beers and a sense of community have helped make Bacova Beer Co. one of Bath County’s most successful business ventures
In fact, the pub brewery in Hot Springs has become known as “Bath County’s front porch,” among some locals.
“It’s really taken a life of its own,” said Seth Ellis, who along with his wife, Emily, started Bacova Beer Co. in 2008.
“We have a lot of awesome local people who support us and draw people to us,” Ellis said in a recent edition of “Beyond the Tower,” a weekly podcast produced by the Omni Homestead Resort.
Ellis came to Bath County seven years ago while working for the U.S. Forest Service. It was while traveling from Warm Springs to Covington that he first caught a glimpse of the sprawling Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs.
“Not knowing it was here and seeing this massive hotel and resort complex was kind of breathtaking, to be honest with you. It was pretty amazing,” he said.
The Homestead traces its origins to 1776 when Thomas Bullitt built a lodge. In 1832, Dr. Thomas Goode, a physician, purchased the land from the Bullitt family and expanded the medical therapies, establishing European-style spa treatment and hydrotherapy. It has hosted vacationers ever since, including 23 U.S. presidents.
The modern resort dates from 1888–1892, when a group of investors headed by J. P. Morgan, a financier and banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age, bought the business and started rebuilding it from the ground up. The original hotel buildings burned in 1901 caused by a fire in the bakery. The main Homestead hotel was constructed afterward, one wing a year, with the main lobby reconstructed in 1902.
“Somebody had a vision, and for me, being an entrepreneur, I used that to start a company and start a brewery. Whoever had the original vision for this resort and this hotel is pretty amazing,” Ellis said. “Hot Springs is in the middle of nowhere now, and I can’t imagine 250 years ago.”
Ellis, who is originally from Alabama, named the brewery using the first two letters of Bath County Virginia as a homage to his adopted hometown.
In casting his vision for the Bacova Beer Co., Ellis was seeking to become part of one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. But 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought challenges.
According to an annual report from the Brewers Association — a not-for-profit trade association representing small and independent American craft brewers — 2020 saw only 23.1 million barrels of beer produced, marking a 9% decline from the year before. The first production decline in the modern craft beer era.
However, while most businesses hunkered down hoping to ride out the economic downturn, Ellis decided to take the opposite approach.
“We went on the offensive and started delivering beer,” he said.
Bacova Beer Co. began canning beer in January 2020 — two months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And during the pandemic, the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board relaxed its restrictions on deliveries of alcohol.
Originally, Bacova Beer started delivering locally, but thanks to social media, word quickly spread to Blacksburg, where Ellis once lived. Bacova Beer also started making deliveries to the Charlottesville area.
“Really, I think by going on the offensive, we are in a much better position,” he said.
Bacova Beer has even expanded and opened an adjacent restaurant that offers pub fare, salads, flatbreads, and sandwiches.
“It was the hardest year ever the food and beverage industry has ever seen and we opened up a kitchen. The opportunity was there. That is pretty awesome,” Ellis said.
But it’s the family atmosphere that Ellis fosters in his business that he’s most proud of his. His wife and children work at Bacova Beer and he treats his other employees as extended family.
Each Tuesday, the staff gathers for a pot-luck meal and beer taps are opened.
“We just come together and have a family meeting, then we have a serious meeting about the state of the business,” Ellis said.
Bacova Beer is continually casting a vision for the future. On Oct. 1, it will introduce its first logger.
“People came out of COVID hungry for community and meaning. We are social animals. People want that. Bacova Beer is a place for everybody. It’s a place everybody feels good about,” Ellis said.