New Manassas Brewery Aims to Open, Despite Being Scammed by Con Artist

Jeremy Meyers keeps fondly glancing over at the large piece of stainless steel suspended from the ceiling behind the custom bar inside his business, BadWolf Brewery in Manassas.

Giving it a quick pat, he tells his wife, Sarah, and an employee that he feels the installation of the ventilation system is a major step toward the slated mid-June opening of Bad Wolf, which he co-founded with Sarah.

The young couple was running full speed toward the opening of what will be the city's first nano-brewery when they were tripped up by a scam artist.

The couple and Manassas Police say Jeff Robinson posed as a contractor and took them for $3,200 after saying he would order and install the BadWolf ventilation system.

Instead he skipped town leaving the couple without the system, delaying the business opening by a month, the couple said.

Police deemed Robinson the Manassas Fugitive of the Week earlier this month.

The couple said they don't even care about ever getting their money back.

"I just want to see him do jail time," Sarah Meyers said.

Since the setback, the couple has continued preparing for the opening. 

Three brew kettles sit ready for operation, and the crack grain ready for mashing—the critical point when hot water from one of the brew kettles meets the grain and forms what brewers call "sweet liquor" another term for sugary water.

For starters, he hopes to have as many beers on tap as possible, Jeremy Meyers said. BadWolf has six taps, but at least one of them will be used for soda, he added.

The plan is to eventually brew a different beer weekly, he said.

Wednesdays will be brewing day and he hopes to have customers in to watch the process, Jeremy Meyers said.

The 33-year-old has been brewing for more than a decade. He started shortly after returning from a trip to Germany. Before going, he wasn't a fan of the brew readily available in the states, Jeremy Meyers said.

"I really didn't like beer at all; I mean I couldn't stand it. And then I went to Germany and I realized I liked beer that didn't suck," he said.

After he returned he found a "Mr. Beer" kit in a store and brewed his first batch while his parents were out of town.

He later told his mother, who decided it was OK for her son to drink a little as long as it was his own beer he brewed at home.

After opening this summer, Jeremy and Sarah would love to sell its beer to other Old Town Manassas businesses, but Virginia law requires that all breweries have a distributor with no stake in the business itself.

Having a distributor cuts into the profit of the brewery and the recipient businesses, so the Meyers are working with Virginia Del. Richard Anderson of Prince William County to get the law changed.