As we ring in 2026 we’re bringing you news from the commonwealth: Cedar Run in Nokesville is no longer brewing and will close when they run out of beer, Hawkley Brewing will open in what was Juicy Brewing and Aslin’s original location in Herndon, Herndon is also getting an outpost of Voodoo Brewing, and Dynasty in Leesburg is contract brewing at Crooked Run Fermentation in Sterling. Got it? Let’s take these in order.
Cedar Run’s beer rarely made it into the District, but the farm brewery was a mainstay on the draft lines at The Brew Shop in Arlington and elsewhere, and for good reason. The Prince William County brewery brought “home hardware from the VA Craft Brewers Guild Cup Competition every year since we first entered in 2020,” former head brewer Matt Ryan tells us. He’s now a free agent, and with brewery and kitchen experience he should be in high demand.
In late December Jim and Jean Gehlsen, the owners of Cedar Run Brewery, announced that they were closing, with a final date to be determined. In social media posts, the Gehlsens write:
“We have made the difficult decision to close the brewery. This was not an easy choice. Cedar Run has been far more than a business to us – it’s been a place where friendships were formed, milestones were celebrated, music filled the air and our community came together week after week. That part will always mean more to us than words can fully express.
We want to say thank you to the people who made this place what it was.
To our staff – past and present – thank you for your hard work, your loyalty, and the care you showed our guests every single day. You helped shape the atmosphere and heart of this place.
To our vendors and community partners, thank you for supporting us, believing in us, and standing alongside us through the ups and downs…. The good news is this: the tanks are full, the beer is flowing, and we are still very much open.
We will remain open until the beer is gone, there is no immediate closing date. Our hope is to share these final months doing what we’ve always loved — pouring good beer, hosting friends, and making memories on the farm.
If Cedar Run has ever been a place you’ve enjoyed, now is the time to come back. Bring friends. Have a pint. Take it all in one more time. When the beer is gone, that chapter will come to a close.”
For his part, Ryan is circumspect. “It’s a bummer seeing a place that’s meant so much to so many people in the community suffer a fate that’s become all too familiar in craft beer in the past couple years.
It was a pleasure to see the joy in the faces of the people who’d found their happy place at Cedar Run. I’m proud of the beers I brewed there and was tickled bringing home hardware from the VA Craft Brewers Guild Cup Competition every year since we first entered in 2020.
I’m grateful for all the memories made with guests who became friends, and coworkers who became family. I’m thankful for the community that embraced us as Nokesville’s Oldest Brewery from the beginning. It was a tough year, and I’m sorry it became something the Gehlsen’s felt like they couldn’t sustain. I wish them well,” he writes.
One brewery closes, but another one opens. Hawkley Brewing is planning a February opening in Herndon, in what was Aslin’s original location. The location was most recently home to Juicy Brewing, which closed amid juicy allegations. Mike Kulha, who has worked at Brooklyn’s Circa Brewing and Lost Boy Cider, is the brewer.
Staying within Herndon, a franchise of Voodoo Brewing will open near the Innovation Center Metro station later this year. Time for us to update the Silver Line Beer Trail! According to their site, Voodoo has two locations in Virginia: Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. If you’ve been in DC for seven or more years, you may recall Voodoo briefly occupied 625 T Street NW, across from Right Proper Shaw, in 2019. The Herndon location will include a restaurant.
Dynasty is done in Ashburn, but continues to operate a taproom in Leesburg. One of their beers is now brewed at Sterling’s Crooked Run Fermentation.
A late edition to this piece, Heritage Brewing in Manassas, woman- and veteran-owned, will close, though there’s no date set. Their statement below.
In 2025 the Brewers Association “tracked 268 new brewery openings and 434 closings. While striking in headlines, closings still represent a relatively low percentage (4.4%) of total operating breweries, especially when compared against leisure and hospitality businesses broadly.”Much hay has been made about this statistic from 2025. But we hope DC, Virginia, and Maryland will have a stronger showing this year than last, yet remain weary as we head towards choppy waters. Within DC proper, we saw City-State avoid closing, converting to a public house. This is tapered by the sad news that Urban Garden Brewing, which would have been the first Black- and woman-owned brick and mortar brewery in the area, has terminated its lease in Fort Totten. Per the brewery, “Due to a combination of factors including ongoing design delays, challenges accessing additional funding, and the current political and economic climate, our Fort Totten lease has ultimately been terminated. We were preparing to begin construction in late October and worked diligently to bring the project to the finish line, but circumstances beyond our control prevented us from moving forward as planned.” We expect Right Proper Eckington to be the first District brewery to come online in 2026, but as anyone who’s built out a new brewery/restaurant/pub/house addition knows, delays are common.
Jake Berg and Mike Stein jointly wrote this article, all errors are Jake’s.
