RICHMOND, Va. -- The Veil Brewing Co., an award-winning brewery in Richmond's Scott Addition neighborhood, apologized to the community Tuesday after the release of a new beer drew a large crowd and long line. Virginia, like much of the country, is attempting to limit crowds in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
"We had no idea with the release of Sector 5 today what the response would be," the brewery posted on its Facebook page."We were quite honestly ill prepared to handle today’s response appropriately."
The Veil added there had not been long lines at its previous releases recently and employees opened up additional registers to help the line die down. It took about an hour to disperse the crowd, the brewry shared.
"Today completely caught us off guard and we’re working hard to find a resolution to prevent this in the future," the post continued. "As a first step to further ensure the safety of our customers and team we’ll be enforcing our policy of no more than 10 people allowed on the property at once (including adjacent sidewalks). "
Comments under the Veil's apology ranged from people blaming the brewery for not knowing better to people blaming customers for not adhering to the governor's stay-at-home order and social distancing recommendations.
"People are individually responsible for social distancing," commenter Beth L. wrote. "Thank you for doing what you can to make that easier, but the customers made their own poor decisions, and that is not your responsibility."
"What y'all did today was dumb!" self proclaimed Veil superfan Jeffrey S. countered. "When have y'all ever seen no line for a big beer release? Be honest."
In its post, the Veil reminded customers it was delivering and shipping throughout Virginia.
"We hope that we can work together with our community to still be able to provide our beer, but with a priority on safety," the post concluded.