Hear from Catherine Portner, Co-Founder of the Now Open Portner Brewhouse

Last week, we wrote about the launch of the Portner Brewhouse in Alexandria’s West End. This week, we had the chance to speak via email with Catherine Portner, co-founder of the brewhouse and great-great-granddaughter of Robert Portner. She offers insight both on the launch of her endeavor with her sister Margaret and on the local beer scene overall. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

DCBeer: The Portner Brewhouse’s opening was a long time coming. What were some of the stiffest challenges you surmounted in getting to this point?

Catherine Portner: Finding the right location within the City of Alexandria was very important to us from the beginning. Initially, we limited our search only to the Old Town area, as this was also the original location of our family’s brewery. The site is presently occupied by a Trader Joe’s. It became apparent that the Old Town neighborhood had significant restrictions on how we would be permitted to operate as a business and also on changes to an e