Virginia Craft Beer - June/July 2016

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ingredients 6 News Briefs 8 News World Beer Cup

Results

10 News Steve Crandall Speaks 20 Beercations 30 Scott’s Addition Beer Trail 32 I-64 West Beer Trail 34 Kindred Spirit 36 Lake Anne Brew Pub

38 Lost Rhino 44 Rip Rap 46 Pleasure House 48 New in Cider 50 Brew Reviews 52 Events 63 Brewery Guide

PUBLISHER/EDITOR Jeff Maisey ADVERTISING/MARKETING Jennifer McDonald Brian Koski CREATIVE DIRECTOR Brenda Mihalko CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Diane Catanzaro Steve Deason Elizabeth Erschens Jeff Evans Lee Graves Chris Jones Joshua Learn Robey Martin Chuck Triplett Allen Young CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Kathy Keeney

Illustration by Hal Weaver

WEBMASTER Giorgio Valentini INTERN Kendall Winn Copyright 2016 Ghent Media, Inc. Virginia Craft Beer Magazine is published bi-monthly

by Ghent Media, Inc. PO Box 11147 Norfolk, VA 23517 For advertising and subscription inquiries: 757.403.5852 jennifer.mcdonald@hotmail.com For editorial inquiries: 757.237.2762 jeffmaisey@yahoo.com virginiacraftbeer.com

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publisher’sNOTE It’s summertime and the beer is flowing throughout

the state. There’s not a better time to start making your summer travel plans than right now! And, we are making it easy for you with our cover story – Beercations! Virginia offers so much summertime fun -- From historical sites to lush parks and scenic drives to outdoor adventures and sunny beaches, there’s so much to do. We tell you how to incorporate these activities along with your quest to experience great beer throughout the state. Jeff and I highlight breweries in the vicinity of the following summer hot spots - the Historic Triangle, Civil War Battlefields & Sites, Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Skyline Drive, and more.

Brew News is packed full of beer and brewery related info.

Lee Graves gives a recap and state-of-the beer nation from the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewAmerica Expo held in Philadelphia in May. Congrats to the Virginia Breweries who won awards in the World Beer Cup which concluded the week’s festivities! Jeff shares his interview with Devils Backbone’s Steve Crandell on his sale to Anheuser-Busch/ InBev. Plus, we’ll tell you about two new beer trails, the COVA Beer Trail and Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail.

Jeff Evans and Chuck Triplett visit with Jasper Akerboom, who runs the yeast program and lab at Lost Rhino Brewing Company, and share his extensive knowledge in their Q&A style interview.

Annie Tobey provides a cider wrap-up including Buskey Cider, Blue Bee Cider, and Courthouse Cider. Wade Reynolds takes us on a tour of Scott’s Addition in RVA. And, brewery profiles include Pleasure House Brewing in Virginia Beach, Lake Anne Brew House in Reston, Rip Rap Brewing in Norfolk, and Kindred Spirit in Goochland.

All of this plus a packed calendar of brewery events and festivals in Keepin’ Tabs.

There’s so much great beer to explore in Virginia this summer! Happy Adventuring!

Cheers!

Jennifer

HAMPTON ROADS’

OLDEST CRAFT BREWERY

WWW.STGBEER.COM VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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brewNEWS

Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail unveiled by (L-R) Billy Kyger (Rockingham County BOS Chair), Maurice Jones (Secretary of Commerce and Trade), Adam Shifflett (Brothers Craft Brewery), Governor Terry McAuliffe and Delegate Steve Landes

New Beer Trails Launched

By Jeremy Bender

T

he Hampton Roads area craft breweries now have an official beer trail dubbed Coastal Virginia Beer Trail at COVAbeertrail.com. The site – with the tagline “Where craft beer and water meet” – is designed largely as a tool for tourists and beer-cationers hoping to add a local craft brewery experience to their itinerary while visiting popular destinations like Virginia Beach and the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg/ Yorktown/Jamestown).

The site and its promotional materials were created by Jeff Maisey and Jennifer McDonald of Virginia Craft Beer Magazine. In addition to their knowledge of the beer industry, Maisey has an extensive background in travel writing.

“We approached this beer trail from the viewpoint of someone wanting to visit the region looking for a true locals’ guide,” said Maisey.“When I travel to Belgium and visit breweries with friends like Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones, we also build in time to be flexible enough to visit museums, go shopping and ride bikes. These enhance our trip. I think people who travel to Coastal Virginia will be looking to do the same.”

Coastal Virginia (COVA) is currently home to 19 craft breweries with several others scheduled to open soon. Because the COVA region encompasses a large, spread-out geographic region, the website suggests three primary sections to get the most out of your brewery touring experience.

A full day should be devoted to each – The Peninsula,Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Since Smithfield and Chesapeake have only one craft brewery, either of these can be included as “add-ons” before the Norfolk tour.

For more details on each brewery, the website has an interactive Brewery -6-

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COVA Beer Trail logo

Guide. In addition, the site also suggests a range of accommodations, dining options with sizeable craft beer available, and things to do such as cool art galleries, museums, music venues, and outdoor adventures.

COVAbeertrail is unique in that it is programmed with suggestions of the locals who know the region, breweries, bars, restaurants etc inside out. Explore for yourself at CovaBeerTrail.com.

Devils Backbone/O’Connor Among Fantastic 50

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce announced its 2016 Fantastic 50 Awards honoring the fastest growing businesses in the Commonwealth. Devils Backbone Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail Brewing Company took home the top Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail was honor in the manufacturing category for unveiled with the tagline “Valley Fresh, the second consecutive year.

Valley Brewed” and can be found at “I am very honored to have our Beerwerkstrail.com. company be the recipient of the The beer trail is a collaboration Vanguard award again this year. The between the tourism offices of Fantastic 50 is a true testament to Harrisonburg, Lexington/Rockbridge, entrepreneurship success in the state and Staunton/Augusta/Waynesboro. of Virginia, for the many self-started The site asks visitors to “Explore our businesses that continue to grow,” great outdoors and enjoy great beer, says Heidi Crandall, Co-Founder and too. Come tap into that authenticity you Vice President of Branding for Devils crave. Real fields and farms. Pristine Backbone. “This adventure all began waters. Endless mountain views. Hiking trails. Farmers’ markets. Mountain biking. with a vision, and now eight years later we have approximately 150 employees Music festivals. Fascinating small cities. and will complete 2016 brewing close And local characters.We’re all that and to 95,000 barrels of Devils Backbone more.Wherever your adventures take beer.” you, we’ve got a brewery nearby to O’Connor Brewing Company, based in quench your thirst. Refresh yourself on Norfolk, also made the list ranked at #16. the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail.”

“The 50 companies being The breweries include Seven Arrows, recognized are the ones who are Staple Craft, Pale Fire, Basic City, Brothers Craft, Three Notch’d, Redbeard, leading that success by raising personal incomes of Virginians, Shenandoah Valley, Blue Lab, Devils attracting top talent, and making their Backbone (Lexington),Wolfe Street and communities better places to live and Queen City. work,” said Barry DuVal, the president Like COVAbeertrail.com, the and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Beerwerkstrail.com site brands craft Commerce. “We are pleased to honor breweries as part of an overall active the entrepreneurial spirit and hard lifestyle. The branding slogan state work of these business ventures.”

“Drink In the Shenandoah Valley.”

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brewNEWS / industry

Awards and Takeaways from Craft Brewers Conference

By Lee Graves

T

he City of Brotherly Love served as the gathering ground for some 13,000 brewers and beer industry folks who spent several days in May toasting growth, tasting beers, attending seminars and, in a sense, circling their wagons.

The record attendance at the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewAmerica Expo reflected the meteoric rise of a sector of the beer industry that has enjoyed double-digit growth in eight of the past 10 years. That growth amounted to 13 percent by volume last year, according to the Brewers Association of Boulder, Colo., the not-for-profit trade group that supports small and independent brewers in the U.S. “By any objective measure, the state of the union is very strong,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO of the association. “But we cannot, we must not rest on our laurels.”

The proposed purchase of SABMiller

by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the continued acquisition of craft breweries by ABI and other elements in the business landscape provoked images of storm clouds, castle walls and embattled breweries among the week’s speakers. Pease said the association is fighting to ensure that craft brewers have fair access to resources and markets. “We are right in the middle of that battle, and we must not cede an inch,” he said.

In a “state of the industry” address, Bart Watson, the association’s chief economist,

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noted that the rate of growth dropped from 2014, when the increase was 18 percent by volume. Craft beer’s share of the market in 2015 was 12 percent by volume and 21 percent by dollars. The hottest part of the sector was among microbreweries (those selling less than 15,000 barrels annually), which grew 24.2 percent. IPAs and seasonals are still the top styles, and pilsners, golden ales and other sessionable styles may be “the next frontier.”

While many breweries are expanding and seeking wider distribution, the benefits of staying small and local were stressed in one seminar. Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner of Russian River Brewing Co. in California, said that success is measured not just by volume. Russian River produces about 16,000 barrels annually, is wholly owned by her and her husband, Vinnie, and limits much of its distribution. She advised brewers not to lose the joy of their passion and to strike a balance between their business and life in general.

The conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., in 2017, included sessions on a range of topics—historic beer styles, technical aspects of brewing, marketing strategies, understanding trends, raising capital, ensuring consistent quality and improving the science of food and beer pairings.

In addition, a major program to document the modern history of brewing

was announced at the conference. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is launching a threeyear initiative to collect, document and preserve memorabilia and other elements of brewing history to tell the story of craft brewers and their impact on society over the past 30 years. The effort, which is part of the Smithsonian Food History project, is made possible by a donation from the Brewers Association.

The museum already has a collection dating from 1870 to the 1960s. The rise of craft brewing warrants its own chapter, given that the number of U.S. breweries last year surpassed the previous high of 4,131 in 1873. The new initiative will include artifacts, oral history, at least two public programs a year and other features.

The conference concluded May 6 with the World Beer Cup, which featured competition from breweries in 55 countries. Several Virginia breweries came away with medals: Devils Backbone Brewing Co., gold medals for Schwartz Bier and Reilly’s Red; Crooked Run Brewing, gold for Supernatural; Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, silver for Coconut Delight; Lost Rhino Brewing Co., silver for Rhinofest; Pale Fire Brewing Co., bronzes for Salad Days and Red Molly; Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, bronze for Ruse; O’Connor Brewing Co., bronze for O’Connor’s Dry Irish Stout.

Here’s the list of Virginia-brewed winners in their categories: Field Beer 57 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Ponce Quest Brewing Co., Greenville, SC Coconut Delight Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, Goochland, VA Cranberry Beet Wild Night Swamp Head Brewery, Gainesville, FL

American-Belgo-Style Ale 61 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Snowcat White IPA Rock Bottom - Chicago, Chicago, IL Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale Boulevard Brewing Co., Kansas City, MO Salad Days Pale Fire Brewing Co., Harrisonburg, VA

Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout 152 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

A Night to End All Dawns Kane Brewing, Ocean, NJ Darkstar November Bottle Logic Brewing, Anaheim, CA Ruse Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA

German-Style Maerzen 34 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Hissy Fit Marzen Lager Bitter Sisters Brewing Co., Addison, TX Rhinofest Lost Rhino Brewing Co., Ashburn, VA Ur-Saalfelder Buergerliches Brauhaus Saalfeld, Saalfeld, Germany

German-Style Schwarzbier 51 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Schwartz Bier Devils Backbone Brewing Co. - Outpost, Lexington, VA Magnetron Schwarzbier Metropolitan Brewing, Chicago, IL TAPS Schwarzbier TAPS Fish House & Brewery - Brea, Brea, CA

Other Belgian-Style Ale 43 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Supernatural Crooked Run Brewing, Leesburg, VA Chump Change Oak Highlands Brewery, Dallas, TX Sugarfoot Belgian Table Beer Spangalang Brewery, Denver, CO

Irish-Style Red Ale 66 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Reilly’s Red Devils Backbone Brewing Co. - Outpost, Lexington, VA Piper Down Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, San Diego, CA Red Molly Pale Fire Brewing Co., Harrisonburg, VA

Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout 42 Entries Gold

Silver

Bronze

Minoh Beer STOUT A-J-I Beer, Minoh, Japan Irish Stout Carver Brewing Co., Durango, CO O’Connor’s Dry Irish Stout O’Connor Brewing Co., Norfolk, VA VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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brewNEWS / beer biz The Devils Backbone crew during a photoop after the Outpost opened in Lexington

Devil of a Deal

BY JEFF MAISEY

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ews this spring spread like wildfire when it was announced Anheuser-Busch/Inbev would acquire Lexington, Virginia based Devils Back Bone Brewing Company.

Many craft beer enthusiasts responded swiftly and harshly on social media. But many in the craft beer world seemed to understand the dilemma Devils Backbone faced behind the scenes. So did Virginia’s top politician.

“Through Anheuser-Busch’s network of distributors, Devils Backbone will soon be available nationwide,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in an official statement.

Could DB’s award-winning Vienna Lager become the best selling beer in America one day?

Why not?

Devils Backbone Brewing Company was founded in 2008 by Steve and Heidi Crandall. The brewery started as a brewpub, which it still operates, in Roseland, Virginia. Due to demand, Devils Backbone opened a large scale production facility in Lexington. The brewery had repeated successes at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver as well as in the World Beer Cup competition.

However, even with its expansion to become Virginia’s largest craft brewery, it struggled to keep up with demand for - 10 -

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its award-winning brands such as Vienna Lager and Eight-Point IPA. To find out more about the deal I called Steve Crandall to see what he could share.

Following is an excerpt.

How much did Anheuser-Busch/InBev pay for Devils Backbone?

It’s a wonderful number, but I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement. I can’t give you that information.

Steve, we have observed Devils Backbone start as a brewpub in Roseland and then expand several times in capacity to produce beer at the Lexington facility.You’ve won numerous prestigious awards in national and international competitions. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce has named Devils Backbone the top growing manufacturer for the past two years. How much did this rocket growth factor into your decision to sell?

We were making good money, but we were literally at the point that we couldn’t afford to fill the potholes in the parking lot because every dime we had in excess cash when to capacity – in terms of fermentation tanks or employees. Last year we hired a

new person every 10 days. It was insane growth. That’s the key here.

If we had slowed down the growth we wouldn’t have had to sell the company, but it would have taken us 15 to 20 years to do what we’ll be able to do in a very short period of time.

On the financial side of the things, the income that we are generating from sales cannot support the growth.

In January of last year (2015), I started going to our existing bank – and other banks because I didn’t believe what they were telling me – which was that financing our growth was impossible for them under the current banking regulations because they had to look at current financials. They can’t look at financials a year down the road, and that’s when you really start making money on your added infrastructure. When you bring-in things like new brewing systems or 960-barrel fermenting tanks, that whole process takes six months to a year.You’re having to spend the money and you’re not going to generate any money off of that purchase for a least a year because it takes a while to ramp that up.

The banks absolutely had their hands tied.

When I was going through this process Anheuser-Busch called and wanted to visit. continued

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Quite frankly I was a bit humbled they knew we were on the radar. They came in here and expressed an interest and desire to buy us. I politely told them, “Hell, no.

I’m not interested in selling my company.” They left. We continued working on the problems subjugated with funding the business. We got to the point where we knew we couldn’t Could this be the best go it alone. selling beer in America Four of the five years from now? investors in the company, which includes myself – and I was the youngest – are 60 to 77 years old. We’d already invested $12 million in the business and there wasn’t a desire to continue from that pool. We’d borrowed about the same amount from the banks. So we had 20-some million dollars invested in the company and the banks weren’t going to give us any more money.

I went to First Beverage Group based out of California. I had known some of the guys. JB Shireman is one who’s a bit of a soothsayer in the beer biz. He was one of the original employees at New Belgium and is in Mergers, Acquisitions & Support for people trying to understand financial issues related to the beverage business.

I went to them to say, “Hey, I’m interested in figuring out a problem I’ve got: I cannot fund my growth.”

Right now we have 150,000 barrel capacity. We are expected to do 90,000 barrels this year – before we signed with A-B. We’re only operating in 38,000 square feet of space. We don’t have room to put pallets of cans or anything inside. We’re putting tarps over them outside. We don’t have room to put our cooperage inside. That was going to hinder our growth.

First Bev Group came in and said you’ve got a lot of options. They educated me on the options. One of them was a private equity investment. There are plenty of guys out there willing to loan you money, but the terms and conditions and the exit are pretty challenging – at least they were for me. Private equity guys are looking to get in and get out within a relatively short period of time – 5 to 10 years – because they want to make a return on their investment, right?

That wasn’t a good solution for me so I started looking at this other group of people. There were roughly 20 names on - 12 -

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the list of potential interested parties to do either mergers or acquisitions of our company. Some were in the craft space and some were the larger brewers around the world. We limited the list down to six or eight names. We had people flying-in from all over the world very interested in who we were. We even talked to the biggest names in the craft beer world that were interested in taking some smaller craft companies on.

As we worked through that list we had several offers. The guys at Anheuser-Busch were the ones that kept rising to the top.

They really, really listened to what our hopes and dreams were for our brewery; what we wanted to do; where we wanted to go.

We actually had an offer from another great company that was more money upfront than what we got from AnheuserBusch, but they weren’t supportive of the build-out and the backend. They felt like we had to grow into that. But therein lies our problem, of course.

As we worked through with A-B we began to see these guys weren’t Martians. They were actually really neat beer guys.

The way I look at it, A-B has different divisions.You’ve got the traditional division with guys working hard every day to win.

You have the High End division, and those guys are out to win too. There may be differing approaches and even conflicts with what they do. The guys in the High End are all about craft.

I began to understand what I would do if I signed on with A-B was I was getting a different bank. The Bank of Bud, I was calling it to my staff. Our existing bank was maxed. They couldn’t do any more.

And here were these other guys who had much deeper pockets and a very similar approach to monitoring our business as the banks did. The banks checked our financials every month; told us where we could spend money; and what we could do.

Well the Bank of Bud is effectively doing the same thing with the exception they’re bringing a ton of knowledge and have deeper pockets. They believe in my dream and my vision and they will allow me, as the CEO of this standalone company, to build this thing out the way I’ve always wanted to do it. That was incredibly important to me, but not as important to me as supporting my employees. That was a big concern, and that concern was quickly put to bed by these guys. They do not want to alter a single thing that we’re doing. They want our DNA. They want to learn from us. They said, “We think very highly of your company.

We’re not going to tell you what to brew.

We’re not doing to tell you what market to go into. That is your decision.”

They have incentivized us to grow the business over a five-year period, and

beyond potentially. We have this amazing amount of autonomy to build this business and grow it, and still play in the craft space.

We’re excited about that.

What is your vision for Devils Backbone moving forward? Do you want to be a national brand?

I never had a desire to be a national brand.

I had the desire to be what some people refer to as a super regional. I suspect three, four, five years down the road that we will be a national brand. Initially we’re going to focus on the East Coast for our expansion.

None of that has been quite nailed down yet. I don’t see us making any big moves this year. There’ll be a big move for us next year.

Through the Bank of Bud we’re going to be able buy more capacity right at the beginning of next year and bump us up to 180,000-barrel capacity.

We had been building this brewery to the 250,000-barrel capacity mark. Right now we’re just adding fermenters and chillers to get us there.

We’re going to be doing a 50,000-squarefoot addition to what we have. This will be for shipping and receiving. We’re moving our packaging to the new facility to allow us to pick up our 30-barrel system and move it to where the packaging was. We’re going to get into a very serious barrel-aging program here. It’s something that’s been in the plans forever but we could never afford to do it or had the space to do it. Our brewers are ecstatic about being able to have that level of creativity.

Once that 30-barrel vacates its space we then have the ability to triple the size of the taproom and be able to project it out of the east side of the building. So a lot of change is going to happen at the Outpost facility and the Nelson County facility.

One of the things they required of us in this deal was that we continue having our festivals. That experiential aspect and the importance of that was something I felt was critical and that they got immediately. So we’re going to do more impactful festivals.

We will go ahead and finish the Meadows area. There will be some incredible things we’re not disclosing yet. We’re hiring an engineering firm to go in and start laying out the rest of the 100-acre property for permanent camping, RV hookups, cottages, office buildings.

We want to continue supporting craft beer at any level in Virginia. As you know, we’ve been very instrumental in growing and supporting craft in Virginia through legislation, the Guild and the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest. We’re not in this thing to crush anybody. We’re already the largest brewery in Virginia. This is about expanding outside the state of Virginia.

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mugSHOTS

COVA Beer Fest & Food Truck Rodeo Virginia Beach

Photos by Sean Maritimus - 14 -

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Legend Brewing Company 22nd Anniversary Party Richmond

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mugSHOTS Rocktown Beer Fest Harrisonburg

Common Grounds Beer Fest Virginia Beach

Photos by Kristy MillerBitney

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The Veil Brewing Company Grand Opening Party Richmond

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Burning

for Beer

Beer enthusiasts will love these one-of-a-kind, handmade, wood burned coasters. The set of 4 includes IPA, Lager, Porter, and Stout. Each is made of basswood and the design is hand drawn and burned into the wood. $30

Huck and Bear Design, Arlington etsy.com/HuckandBearDesign

hops drop

A perfect hops bloom preserved in clear resin on 30” antique brass chain. It’s the perfect conversation starter when you are out at a party, beer festival, or brewery. $47

Leaves of 3, Gate City etsy.com/Leavesof3

beer CRAFT These talented Virginians are getting their craft on in celebration of the beer lover in all of us!

It’s a Sign!

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If you get lost and can’t find your way back to the beer, this colorful “Cold Beer” sign will lead the way! It is hand painted and made from 100+ year old farmhouse wood and would make the perfect addition to your party room, kitchen, or man cave. $22

Blue Ridge Mercantile, Huddleston etsy.com/BlueRidgeMercantile

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By Jeff Maisey & Jennifer McDonald

By growing numbers and due to the exploding awareness and popularity of craft beer, people are choosing their weekend excursions and family vacations based on the idea of enhancing their experience with a brewery tour or following a designated beer trail. For many, beer is the destination!

For this feature we looked at some of Virginia’s top tourism and themed destinations and paired them with breweries in close proximity. You can party like a revolutionary patriot in Williamsburg or seek the perfect local brew to compliment the fish you just reeled in from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean; take a day off after hiking Spy Rock to raise a pint in the Shenandoah Valley or surrender to the temptation of a big ABV beer following a tour of Civil War battlefields.

Enjoy the finest Virginia has to of fer.

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Alewerks Brewing Company has returned Williamsburg to the beer map

HISTORIC TRIANGLE PAIRED WITH TRIO OF BREWERIES Beer has been a part of Virginia history since the first settlers arrived in Jamestown! So, why not make beer a part of your summer vacation plans and at the same time learn a little something about life in Colonial Williamsburg? Beer lovers and history buffs will rejoice because there is no shortage of either in the historic triangle. The Colonial Parkway is a 23 mile roadway that provides scenic views and connects your three destinations. Start your adventures at Jamestown Settlement, the home of the first English colonists. Learn about their way of life and challenges they encountered in 17th century America. Visitors can board replicas of the three ships that carried the colonists from England and explore Powhatan village. Next on the agenda is the Yorktown Victory Center.

Here, visit the site of the decisive Battle of Yorktown, 1781, where the American and French forces defeated Cornwallis and the British army causing the British to surrender and thus ending the American Revolutionary War. Lastly, entrench yourself in Colonial American life by visiting Colonial Williamsburg. Here you can explore government buildings, shops, homes, gardens and taverns and meet townspeople such as shopkeepers, tradespeople and political figures and learn about their daily life and struggles in Revolutionary times. A few musts for beer enthusiasts is the tour of the Governor’s Palace Kitchen and the Arts & Mysteries of Brewing seminar. Beer was a common beverage in 18th century America and considered safer to drink than water. This demonstration will show the brewing

process as it was practiced in colonial times. If you want to actually taste Colonial era beer, stop by Chowning’s Tavern and order an Old Stitch, a brown ale, or Dear Old Mum, a golden unfiltered Mum style ale flavored with coriander and grains of paradise. Both are brewed by Alewerks Brewing Company and are only available in the taverns and the Alewerks tasting room.

Speaking of tasting rooms and now that you have had your history lesson, it’s time to tour the breweries that call Williamsburg home. We recommend starting in northern Williamsburg at Alewerks Brewing Company. Located in an industrial area near the outlet malls, Alewerks has an array of highly rated beers including Lover’s Greed (a sour), Café Royale (Bourbon barrel aged coffee stout), Bitter Valentine (Double IPA), and Shorty Time (Session IPA). Just down the street is Brass Cannon at their soon to open new location housed in a newly built Old West freestanding structure. Be sure to sample their Angry Scot (heavy Scottish ale), Barrage Brown Ale and Muzzle Flash American Amber. Conclude your brewery tour at the recently opened Virginia Beer Company, located in close proximity to Colonial Williamsburg. Beers to try include Elbow Patches Oatmeal Stout, Wrenish Rye Amber Ale, and Free Verse IPA. Following the brewery tour, if you are still in need of beer or food, an excellent option is DoG Street Pub, located in the heart of Merchants Square. Be sure to visit their bottle shop, Hair of the DoG, and take home a few bottles to enjoy later.

If staying overnight in the historic center, it’s within easy walking distance.

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Make a stop at Strangeways on your Civil War trek in Richmond

CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS & BREWERIES Virginia was in the middle of the bloody crossroads of the American Civil War. Its six Civil War National Battlefield Parks draw millions of visitors each year.

Two major bloodbaths took place on the Bull Run stream on what is Manassas National Battlefield. The first was considered the first major battle of the war. Both battles were won by the Confederacy.

Manassas has two craft breweries: Heritage Brewing Company and Bad Wolf Brewing Company. Where Heritage is owned and operated by veterans of the military, Bad Wolf prides itself on German-influenced brews. Nearby Tin Cannon Brewing Company is actually closer to the battlefield.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is the site of four major battles in which some 100,000 soldiers died just on the edge of the historic downtown of Fredericksburg. These battles include Battle of Fredericksburg (1862), The Battle of Chancellorsville (1863) and the Battles of The Wilderness and Spotsylvania (spring 1864).

Remember the dead by raising a pint glass at Adventure South, Spencer Devon Brewing Company, and Maltese Brewing Company. At Adventure South be sure to order the Civil War themed Stonewall Stout and Fred Red Amber Ale. Both are leftovers from the former Blue & Gray brewery that - 22 -

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was on this site. Absolute must-have beers at Spencer Devon are Bittersweet ESB and Rocko’s Milk Stout. Go for the Salted Lime Saison, Mango IPA, Pineapple IPA and Vanilla Brown Ale. Downtown Fredericksburg makes for an excellent overnight coupled with quaint shops and Capital Ale House as a way to enjoy dinner and a fine glass of beer.

Richmond National Battlefield is focused on two major events: Seven Days Battle (1862) and Cold Harbor, which defied the Union’s General Grant from entering the city in 1864. Both the Cold Harbor Battlefield and Gaines Mill Battlefield are east of Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.

Unlike Gen. Grant, everyone today may enter the city, considered a prime destination for craft beer enthusiasts.

Because we’ve recently featured all of the RVA breweries in this magazine, we won’t go into detail this time around. The list of both accommodations and restaurants is long as well.

That said we encourage visitors to patronize the breweries, including Legend, Extra Billy’s, Stone, Ardent, Isley, The Veil, Hardywood Park, Strangeways, Triple Crossing, The Answer, Garden Grove and 7 Hills.

Northwest of Richmond, the Union won the Battle of Cedar Creek in convincing form in 1864. Today the Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historic Park commemorates the battle and offers tours of the Belle Grove Plantation House.

The battlefield is near the town of Middletown and just down the country road to Backroom Brewery. The brewery is unique in that it’s on an herb farm and specializes in herbforward artisanal beers.

Another close-by brewery is Woodstock Brew House. The brewery makes use of a refurbished work clothes factory in downtown Woodstock. Beers to try include Beckford Parish Extra Pale Ale, Casey Jones Vanilla Porter and the malty Tipsy Squirrel Nut Brown Ale. Appomattox Courthouse and National Historical Park is famous as the place Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union’s General Ulysses S. Grant and ended the Civil War. While Appomattox is without a craft brewery, the nearby city of Lexington is home to two, thus providing a great destination for overnight accommodations, dining and a fabulous brewery tour.

Devils Backbone Brewing Company operates its large production facility on the outskirts of downtown Lexington.

Visit its tasting room for such award-winning beers as Vienna Lager, Eight Point IPA and Schwartz Beer.

Go from large to small at Blue Lab Brewing Company in downtown Lexington. Owned by Washington & Lee University alum, it’s like a house brewery, only the living room is a tasting room. Beers to try include the Summer Blonde Ale, Belgian Wit, and from July/August order a Green Chile Ale.

You’ll find

lots of Growlers along this

mountain trail

No, not bears or mountain lions. This trail is the

VIRGINIA’S BLUE RIDGE BEERWAY and it leads to good times. Explore six unique breweries at your own pace, taking time along the way to enjoy quality craft beer made in small batches by expert brewers. Bring your friends and enjoy responsibly.

www.vabeerway.com

VIRGINIA'S BLUE RIDGE

blbc

Brewing Company

Roanoke, Virginia botetourt county, virginia

Big Lick Brewing Company

Chaos Mountain Brewing Company

Flying Mouse Brewery

Sunken City Brewing Company

Brewery and taproom in Downtown Roanoke specializing in craft beer with an emphasis on quality and variety. “Rarely will we have the same beer twice.”

Nestled in the Blue Ridge with 12 beers on tap, from flagships to seasonal and limited releases, we offer something for everyone. Bring the kids and pets!

On 15 acres near the Appalachian Trail and 76 Bike Route, our brewery is focused on the experience and enjoyment of craft beer as part of an active outdoor lifestyle!

Located at beautiful Smith Mountain Lake, only 30 minutes from Downtown Roanoke, our Brewery & Taproom offers a variety of award winning ales and lagers. Free weekend entertainment, bring the whole family!

Hours: Thursday 5-7pm, Friday 4-8pm, Saturday 2-8pm, Sunday 1-5pm

Hours: Change seasonally, visit SunkenCityBeer.com

135 Salem Avenue, SW Roanoke, VA 24011 540-562-8383

Hours: Thursday 5-9pm, Friday 4-9pm, Saturday 1-9pm

3135 Dillions Mill Road Callaway, VA 24067 540-334-1600

Hours: Thursday-Friday 4-9pm, Saturday 1-9pm, Sunday 12-6pm

221 Precast Way Troutville, VA 24175 540-992-1288

D R I N K R E S P O N S I B LY.

40 Brewery Drive Hardy, VA 24101 540-420-0476

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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RED, WHITE & BREW Many people stay and play in Northern Virginia after a day of exploring the sites in Washington, DC. These are optimized on weekends since commuter traffic is less of an issue.

There are a couple options and figuring out a specific itinerary should be based on personal expectations.

One way of doing DC/NOVA is to get an early start Saturday and Sunday, explore the attractions before noon and then hit a few breweries in the afternoon. The Jefferson, Lincoln, Vietnam Vets and Washington monuments can be experienced on a crack-of-dawn bike ride with views of the White House and US Capital building. The Smithsonian museums open at 10 AM daily. The shops in Georgetown also bustle beginning at 10 AM. On the Virginia side of the Potomac, American history is also explored at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery. Many thrifty contemporary home décor shoppers make the pilgrimage to IKEA at Potomac Mills as well.

Paying your cultural vacation dues early allows for rewarding yourself the rest of the day with beer.

A great option as a home base is Old Town Alexandria. It’s only a 15-minute drive to DC and has a charming centralized business district with retail shops, restaurants and bars.

Just on the outskirts of Old Town is Port City Brewing Company. The award-winning brewery has a fun, bright tasting room. Be sure to sample its Monumental IPA, Optimal Wit and Porter.

Another possibility for lodging and restaurants is in Arlington/Shirlington.

Capitol City Brewing Company is another award-winning NOVA brewery with an array of must-try beers. It’s also a brewpub so it makes for an extended stay.

Its signature beers include Pale Rider Ale, Amber Waves Ale and Capitol Kolsch.

The DC/NOVA region is sort of known for its kolsch-style beers and a big reason is Bill Madden over at Mad Fox Brewing Company. Madden is considered Virginia’s Kolsch King and for good reason. Mad Fox is located within the Capital Beltway in Falls Church. It has a large tasting room and also serves as a brewpub with an extensive menu. Be sure to have a Kellerbier Kolsch, Orange Whip IPA, English Summer Ale and The Funk, a dry-hopped Saison.

If time allows, we encourage you to - 24 -

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go just beyond the Beltway and spend an hour at some of NOVA’s other exceptional craft breweries. Fairwinds Brewing Company and Forge Brew Works are a dynamic duo located right off of I-95 Exit 166. These would provide a great one-two punch to any NOVA brewery tour.

A bit further west and north in the areas of Reston and Vienna, consider a stop at Caboose Brewing Company, Aslin Beer Company, Lake Anne Brew House and Beltway Brewing Company.

Capitol City Brewing Company in Shirlington is an ideal craft beer/dinner option after a visit to the National Gallery in DC

CRAFT BEER & OUTDOOR ADVENTURe Nothing says summertime adventure like The Shenandoah National Park. The Park features 196,000 acres of protected wilderness and showcases the splendor of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, and the heart of the Appalachian Trail. Outdoor activities such as hiking, horseback riding, and rock climbing abound. If hiking isn’t your thing, you can still experience the breathtaking views by driving along Skyline Drive, the national beltway that runs the length of the park. Day hikes include trails such Fox Hollow, Hawksbill Summit, Dark Hollow Falls, Story of the Forest, Bearfence Mountain, and Ivy Creek. We recommend a day hike on the Lewis Falls Trail, a 3.3-mile circuit hike from the Big Meadows amphitheater to the observation point. It is well worth the effort and you’ll be rewarded by seeing the 81’ waterfall. Another great hike is up to Spy Rock, with its 360-degree view near Massies Mill. Lodging options include Skyland, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain Cabins or for the more adventurous, camping.

A summertime adventure in the mountains would not be

The restored school house and patio of Wild Wolf Brewing Company provides relaxation after any outdoor mountain adventure

Explore our great outdoors and enjoy great beer, too.

Come tap into that authenticity you crave. Real fields and farms. Pristine waters. Endless mountain views. Hiking trails. Farmers’ markets. Mountain biking. Music festivals.

Fascinating small cities. And local characters. We’re all that and more. Wherever your adventures take you, we’ve got a brewery nearby to quench your thirst. Refresh yourself on the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail.

beerwerkstrail.com

Brought to you by Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro Tourism | Harrisonburg Tourism | Lexington & The Rockbridge Area Tourism ©2016 Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail. Please Drink Responsibly.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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complete without beer. Luckily, you’ll be close to several of the award-winning breweries in the state. If you exit Shenandoah National Park at the Southern access point at Rockfish Gap (I64 & US 250), you’ll be able to hit all of the breweries along the Brew Ridge Trail as well as a few others. From US250, head east to Route 151 to explore the breweries along the Blue Ridge Trail.

First up is Blue Mountain Brewing Company, which offers breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains from your seat on their spacious outdoor dining area. Grab a snack and try a Hopwork Orange (orange infused IA), Full Nelson (Virginia Pale Ale) or Rockfish Wheat (summer Weiss beer).

Next up, take a break from beer, and visit Bold Rock Cider.

It’s housed in an expansive, rustic cider barn which boasts tranquil views of a meadow and stream located at the back of the property. Sip on Draft Amber Apple Cider (made with local Blue Ridge apples) or try the Pear Apple Cider (made with New Zealand pears and local Blue Ridge apples). Both are refreshing options!

Next on the itinerary is Wild Wolf Brewing Company. The farm-to-fork restaurant is located in a 100 year old schoolhouse and the brewery sits adjacent to it. A large outdoor seating area includes corn hole and a play area for the kids. Beers to try include Blonde Honey (an unfiltered Belgian style Blonde Ale), Primal Instinct (an American IPA), and Strawberry Schwarzcake.

The last stop on the Brew Ridge Trail is Devils Backbone Basecamp & Brewpub, located on 100 acres surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It offers a ton of outdoor activities and live music throughout the summer.

Must try beers include the award-winning Vienna Lager, Eight Point IPA, and Trail Angel Weiss. Trail Angel is a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen and gets its name from the “trail magic” or random act of kindness Appalachian Trail hikers sometimes encounter along the way. DB offers AT hikers their own magic by providing rides from the trail head and a refreshing beer!

If you are up for more tastings, you can get back on US 250 and head east to Crozet. Here, you will find Pro Re Nata Brewing and Starr Hill Brewing Company. Pro Re Nata is a farm brewery located in a former Moose Lodge building. The Coconut Coffee Stout is delicious. Starr Hill is one of the oldest breweries in the state. With a redesigned and expanded tasting room, it’s the perfect place to enjoy a Northern Lights IPA, The Love (wheat beer), or Jomo Lager (a Vienna-style lager).

If you prefer a shorter excursion from Skyline Drive, head - 26 -

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west on US250 and visit Seven Arrows Brewing Company, located in Waynesboro. Notable beers to try are the Eventide IPA and the Aurora Pils.

Note, there are a total of four entry/exit places along Skyline Drive. If you exit from another point, you can visit the breweries along the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail.

End of the WWII line in Norfolk is the IPA-rich Smartmouth Brewing Company

WORLD WAR II & A BREW Norfolk is home to the world’s largest Navy base and is the headquarters of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation – the Alliance’s only North American facility.

Norfolk, of course, is steeped in naval history. To get a complete overview, visitors can tour the Hampton Roads Naval Museum with Nauticus. The tour includes an opportunity to board the gigantic USS Wisconsin battleship docked right beside the museum. The Wisconsin saw battle in the Pacific fighting Japan. This connection is made stronger by including a visit just three blocks away to the MacArthur Memorial Museum, where the famed General Douglas MacArthur is entombed.

Now that you’ve satisfied your quest for World War II history, it’s time for a beer.

Norfolk is the only city in Coastal Virginia where travelers can

easily bike from brewery to brewery. This five-brewery tour is perhaps best explored by starting at Bold Mariner Brewing Company. The brewery is owned and operated by two active duty military guys and their wives. Beers to try: Bold Dominion Ale and Red Maiden Irish Red. Next we recommend heading to O’Connor Brewing Company. Like Bold Mariner, O’Connor is located in an industrial area but within two blocks of the trendy neighborhood of Ghent. O’Connor is the region’s largest brewery and it features an enormous tasting room. Check their website for events as they have numerous. We highly recommend several of their beers including El Guapo Agave IPA, Norfolk Canyon Pale Ale, Great Dismal Black IPA, and whatever seasonal they offer in the tasting room.

From O’Connor, make your way over to Rip Rap Brewing Company. This snug brewery is owned and operated by two members of the Coast Guard who share a passion for beer.

Highly recommended is the Wandering Sloth Saison.

A quick ride over the railroad tracks will bring you to Coelacanth Brewing. This brewery is located within the Ghent Business District in a converted warehouse surrounded by restaurants. Coelacanth focuses on malt-forward brews.

Beers not to miss: Coelia (Rosemary Lemon Wheat), Holla Bock

lto Col A n Inn t o t e p r St e Ha m elson 450 N .

E 4 401 VA 2 gton, Lexin

(Traditional German Bock) and CBPB (Traditional British Bitter style).

You’ll complete your Tour de Norfolk at Smartmouth Brewing Company in the Chelsea neighborhood. Smartmouth’s sleek, modern tasting room offers a view of a giant copper brewing kettle. Beers not to miss include Notch 9 Double IPA, Rule G India Pale Ale, Alter Ego Saison, and the seasonal on tap.

After your Norfolk brewery tour, we highly recommend a stroll over to the nearby bar called The Birch, named one of the Top 5 beer destinations in America. Dinner and a nice selection of beers can be had next door at Tortilla West.

BEACH & BEER The Virginia Beach Oceanfront has long been a tourist destination. People come from as far as Quebec to stroll its 45-plus block Boardwalk and take in a variety of local bands performing live on music stages at 31st Street, 24th Street and 17th Street.

The resort area also hosts numerous festivals including the American Music Festival, Funk Fest and Virginia Beach Craft Beer Festival.

Looking for outdoor adventure? Obviously, surfing and

Hike the

Brew Ridge

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VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Surfing for German-style beers at Wasserhund Brewing Company in Virginia Beach

swimming are popular, but you may also consider deep sea fishing or casting your line from the pier. Hiking the many Spanish moss covered trails at First Landing State Park are a great way to earn the reward of a cold beer.

Virginia Beach has more craft breweries than any other city in the Coastal Virginia region. The breweries are also spread out so a car is essential.

There are two likely directions in which to string these together in one long day. We suggest starting your Beach adventure in the Chick’s Beach neighborhood at Commonwealth Brewing Company. The brewery is housed in a former fire station. It specializes in Belgian-influenced beers and has begun an ambitious barrel-aging program. Must try brews include The Wealth Saison, Dysphotic Black Saison, Cheval de Trait Quadrople and Marvolo Imperial Chocolate Stout.

While Commonwealth is on Pleasure House Road, your next stop is up the road on Shore Drive to Pleasure House Brewing, which is known for its experimental as well as traditional beers. Because there’s always some new recipe being served on tap, part of the fun is choosing a random beer or two to sample. They do have a few favorites flowing yearround such as Worthy Sir Double IPA, 1608 Cream ale and Lesner Sunrise, a Belgian Pale Ale. From Pleasure House Brewing head over to Home Republic brewpub for lunch and a beer a block from the boardwalk.

Beers to pair with food include King Kolsch, Juice Sea Fruit IPA, and Smoked Maple Porter.

After lunch, take a quick stroll on the boardwalk to catch your second wind, and then motor to Wasserhund Brewing Company. This brewery focuses on German-style beers, pizza and a beachy, surf decor. Recommended are the Maibock, - 28 -

JUNE 2016

Hefeweizen, Black Forest Lager and Rascal Roggenbier.

From here, head over to Back Bay Brewing Company. The brewery tasting room interior has a beach shack feel to it.

Beers to drink include False Cape Ale, Beach Cruiser Pale Ale and Sailor’s Delight Red Rye IPA. Young Veterans Brewing Company is next on the itinerary and as its name suggests the owner/operators are two former vets of the Iraq War. Located in an industrial park, Young Vets small brewery and tasting room creates instant friends. Must try beers include Pineapple Grenade Hefeweizen, Jet Noise Double IPA, Pride Session IPA and Night Vision American Stout.

The Beach Tour of locally-owned breweries ends at the pirate themed Reaver Beach Brewing Company, where strong IPAs and sour beers are in demand. The brewery is located very close to Young Vets. The brewery prides itself on its barrel-aged program and has a Belgian-style coolship.

Make sure to try these beers: Hoptopus Double IPA, The Reaver Sour Ale, Sea Devil Imperial Stout, and a wide array of limited releases such as Ruse de Guerre (a coolship beer re-fermented with black currants) and Reaver’s Bounty (a sour re-fermented with strawberries).

Note: You may extend your Beach brewery tour by visiting the Gordon Biersch location in Virginia Beach’s Town Center.

The chain brewpub offers a good selection of food and the beers are brewed on-site.

An excellent choice for dinner near Reaver Beach is Whiskey Kitchen, featuring fine fare and a copious supply of craft beer as well as…whiskey.

Also of note, San Diego-based Green Flash Brewing Company is expected to open in Virginia Beach by late summer/early fall of 2016.

FRESH. LOCAL. BEER.

Did someone say craft beer? With five great breweries, an eclectic lineup of gastropubs, and one of the nation’s top 5 beer bars, Norfolk is serving up some serious fermented fun. Now strap on your beer goggles and get a taste of our local flavor. We’re here to take you from A-to-Beer as quickly and safely as possible. Cheers!

1-800-368-3097

See what’s on tap at visitnorfolktoday.com

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Beer Trails

Ardent Craft Ales at twilight.

Scott’s

Addition: A Trail of Mid City RVA

By Wade Reynolds

It’s 3:58 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. The parking lot of The Veil Brewing Company is filling up fast and there is significant walk up traffic, creating a small crowd waiting for the 4 o’clock opening of Scott’s Addition’s newest craft brewery. A long-overlooked corner of Richmond bordered on the south by Broad Street and the east

by Boulevard, Scott’s Addition has become one of the hottest, up trending neighborhoods of the city. With the recent April 16 opening of The Veil, the area now houses three craft breweries, forming what amounts to Richmond’s first easily walkable beer trail. Standing at Ardent Craft Ales, the midpoint of the three, it’s about a three-to-four minute walk to The Veil and slightly longer over to Isley Brewing Company going the other way, distances that any beer enthusiast should be able to manage on even the most challenging days.

Isley (Oct., 2013) was the first craft brewery to open in this longingored section of Richmond. With the opening of Ardent, in June of 2014, the area accelerated its resurgence. In the past two years, Scott’s Addition has gone from forgotten industrial waste land to trendy, hip hotspot. Currently housing three craft breweries, one cidery and one meadery, the area projects to accommodate two more breweries and one additional cidery by the end of the year. Even in the face of Virginia’s fast-growing craft beer industry, Scott’s Addition is one of the state’s hottest, fastest growing neighborhoods.

The current beer trail starts, or ends, at The Veil. A mere two weeks old as of this writing, the brewery opened with a significant hype, largely due to the track record of head brewer Matt Tarpley.

Apprenticing in such far-flung beer havens as Vermont and Belgium, Tarpley’s reputation preceded The Veil’s debut. With a focus on “hopforward beers”, The Veil had little trouble attracting attention even before it first opened its doors. Katie Puerini, a Tidewater resident and a member of the Coastal Virginia Chapter of Barley’s Angels, was in Richmond to see for herself what was going on. “There was a big hype; big word-of-mouth about The Veil down there. Many places don’t live up to their hype,” she mentioned, “but if a place has a good IPA, it’s going to be good.

The Master Shredder and the Crucial Taunt are both very good.”

The Master Shredder is a wheat IPA with a citrusy aroma. Fresh and clean, it leans a little too much to the wheat side for true hopheads, but is a very drinkable beer, especially in the warmer months. On the other hand, it’s not too hoppy for the average beer drinker, which leads me to predict it will become a popular seller.

Crucial Taunt is a smooth double IPA that goes down easily, not too hoppy as many doubles tend to be. Also of note is Sleeping Forever, an anniversary imperial stout. Available as a limited release this spring, the next batch is currently aging in oak barrels in anticipation of next year’s one-year anniversary.

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JUNE 2016

Photo by Chris Johnson.

Trailing along to the next stop, Ardent Craft Ales is about a 3-4 minute walk further into the depths of Scott’s Addition. An established venue with a solid two-year track record, Ardent offers, among other attributes, a comfortable outdoor space and a slew of delicious IPA’s for those who may be interested. In choosing a flight and sticking strictly to IPA’s, I was still forced to narrow my choices from six currently available down to four. All were good and worth coming back for. The New England IPA was mildly hopped, recommended for those leaning in this direction and wanting something a little stronger than a pale ale although it comes in a little heavy at 7.8% alcohol. Batch 6.3 blends citra and mosaic hops, has a nice aroma and taste, and goes down very smooth. For those looking for a bit more hops, try Batch 20, combining simcoe with the two previously mentioned hops. With a cloudy texture, the beer has a nice blend of mild hopiness without being overpowering. Taking it one step further, the DIPA, double IPA may be the ultimate destination of hops-minded beer drinkers.

Well-blended, tasty yet not overpowering, this double should satisfy hopheads and less hop seeking beer drinkers alike. And, if none of the above pleases you, there are usually more IPA’s on tap to sample, along with other selections.

Isley Brewing Company, in business since October 2013, is the grand daddy of Scott’s Additon craft breweries. Isley offers a Plain Jane Blueberry, a variation of its Belgian wheat, with a nice blending of blueberry flavoring into the beer. The Mos Eisley, a very drinkable brown, has a Star Wars connection to its name. Its flagship beer is The Bribe, an oatmeal porter, available year round.

When questioned about the limited availability of IPA’s, several staff members claimed they were so good that they disappeared soon after each brewing. After sampling an advance helping of Voo Doo Lady, an imperial red IPA, I’m convinced, which leads to the question: “Why don’t you make more of it more often?”

With a soon-to-be connected 8 barrel bright tank, stand by for further information on this front. In the meantime, Isley features an outdoor sippage space on its Urban Patio, a grittier variation of its neighborhood brothers that in many ways characterizes and reflects the neighborhood of which it is so much a part.

It’s clear that Scott’s Addition has a lot to offer, both in its current and projected lineups. “The more the merrier,” says Patrick Bisha, Isley’s general manager. He recognizes the opening of Buskey Cidery a week after The Veil and just down the street from Isley as a positive addition to the neighborhood. Referencing the current occupancy of three breweries, one cidery and one distillery with the projected addition of two more craft beers and another cidery by the end of the year, Scott’s Addition is not only on the map but also projected to be there for some time.

On a recent Saturday the Richmond Beer Lovers made a trek

Pints a plenty at Isley Brewing Company.

Photo courtesy of IBC.

Photo courtesy of The Veil.

The Veil’s attractive tasting room bar.

through the Scott’s Additions Beer Trail, hitting all three of the breweries. In addition, some members found time to visit Buskey Cidery, Black Heath Meadery, and Reservoir Distillery. A loosely knit organization, members inevitably got strung out along the way. Katie Bratisax, this event’s host, noted that “It’s really exciting with all the new places opening up. We celebrate diversity,” again referencing the variety of places both currently and projected to be available in Scott’s Addition. Richmond Beer Lovers co-founder Tammy Farrall remembered that the idea for this trek was planned as far back as January but put off until the end of April for various reasons, one of them being the weather. With the warmer weather just around the corner and Scott’s Addition growing rapidly on all levels, look for this to be a growing trend.

At approximately eight blocks by eight blocks, Scott’s Addition is big enough to wander around in yet still small enough that you won’t get lost. Use the nearby CBS TV tower for guidance if necessary. In addition (pun intended?), a handful--soon to be a half dozen--of other local craft breweries form an almost perfect circle around Scott’s Addition within a 5 mile radius: Strangeways to the northwest, Final Gravity to the north, Hardywood Park (and soonto-open Castleburg) to the east, Triple Crossing to the southeast, and Garden Grove to the south. Given the close proximity of these breweries, the new Scott’s Addition Beer Trail can make a case, at least geographically, of being the most beer centric site in Richmond, possibly in Virginia. To paraphrase Charlie Daniels, “Ain’t it great to be alive and in Richmond!”

HARDYWOOD PARK CRAFT BREWERY

M O R E AT H A R DY WO O D . C O M VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Beer Trails

I-64 West Brewery Trail

By Rayner Johnson Summer is here and along with it comes beer festivals and the opening of the beer gardens/patios. So far this year things have been a little slow with new breweries opening. As I write this, there are 139 breweries in Virginia, of which 137 are craft breweries. I am watching a few more that might be opening or closing by the time this article appears in the magazine. I know that the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in Arlington is closing due to the mall getting a makeover.. Also Callaway BC in Callaway has closed and Jefferson Street Brewery has ceased brewing, but the restaurant is still open. I have two remaining Trails to do: I-64 East from Williamsburg to the Virginia Beach area and I-81 from Winchester to Bristol.

I named my route the I-64 Trail because I started it with breweries close to the interstate even though further along the trail it goes off 64 to pick up some breweries that are not near any other major road. After Crozet, the Trail will basically follow US Route 29 down to Danville. I did include one Richmond brewery on this Trail as the others have been listed on the I-95 Trail. The same applies with the I-64 East Trail. Again, I tried to put the breweries in some sort of order so that you are not driving all over the countryside, even though you will see some nice scenery when pursuing the Trails.

When visiting the breweries you will need to check their Facebook page or website for their hours and see if they have food or food trucks available. When Chuck Triplett and I travel, we take bottled water with us to stay hydrated.

We always plan on getting something to eat, but we usually forget to get the food as the beer and breweries are our goal.

The first stop for this Trail is the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in Richmond, then off to Midlothian for Extra Billy’s Smokehouse & Brewery, both of which serve food. Your next two stops will be Midnight Brewery in Rockville and Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery in Goochland. They both are basically breweries with tasting rooms.

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JUNE 2016

food trucks.

Now you will cross I-64 to get on VA 151 and won’t return to US 29 until after the Barrel House. This is probably why I should have named the Trail 64/151/29.

Blue Mountain BC in Afton is less than 10 minutes south of I-64. Continuing south 10-12 minutes you will arrive at Wild Wolf BC in Nellysford. Another 10-12 minutes south is Devils Backbone BC, Base Camp. These 3 breweries are also restaurants. The last brewery on the Blue Ridge Trail is the Blue Mountain Barrel House which has food trucks.

The next breweries will be a challenge as they are a little spread out. After the Barrel House you will be getting back on 29 to get to Loose Shoe BC in Amherst.

The next brewery will be Apocalypse Ale Works in Forest. The brewery in Lynchburg has ceased brewing. From Forest you will stop at White Rock BC in Goodview on the north side of Smith Mountain Lake which brews occasionally so you will need to call to see if they are Big beers at Apocalypse open and have beer. A 20-25 minute Ale Works in Forest, VA. drive around the lake will bring you to Sunken City BC which is located in Courtesy photo.

Hardy, but Hardy is a ways from the brewery. The brewery is located near The next brewery is in Orange (thirty the Booker T Washington Memorial. plus miles up US 522) at the Willow Get back on 29 for the last brewery, 2 Spring Brewery in The Light Well Witches Winery & Brewery in Danville.

Restaurant, which is about 30-35 minutes I have heard there is another large north of I-64. I would call to make sure brewery going into the area which will they have their beer on tap. From there you go down US 15 to get to Scottsville for make it not as bad of a drive.

I am sure there will be some brewery the James River BC which is 20-25 minutes openings in VA but am not watching south of I-64, you will then take VA 20 any that might be open on this Trail. If to Charlottesville where there are four breweries to be visited. Three Notch’d BC, anyone hears of a brewery in the works, please let me, raynerj@verizon.net know C’Vill-ian BC and Champion BC are all so I can follow their progress. Right now breweries with tasting rooms. The fourth brewery is South Street Brewery, which is I am watching 157 breweries that are a restaurant and brewery that is owned by planning to open in VA, of which, 57 are planning on opening in 2016.

Blue Mountain Brewery.

To find the up to date Virginia brewery You will pick up the Blue Ridge Trail listings see the back of this magazine. at South Street and be on it for the next For Virginia and other states use the six breweries, leaving Charlottesville BCCA website: bcca.com, which you can and heading west on I-64 for your next sort by state, city or brewery, I use it all two stops. These two breweries can be of the time. The new website has the US visited in any order, as you will go pass Brewery List in the upper left corner of Pro Re Nata BC on your way to and from the Home page.

Starr Hill BC. Both are breweries with

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Purchase tickets at Festevents.org or call 757.441.2345.

Three-day weekend pass, $30 advance purchase only. $15 Daily Admission Call Festevents office for Boater Package information.

Plus: The Brass-A-Holics

For the 11th consecutive year, the Arts Council of New Orleans hand pick the most desirable and one of a kind artists from Louisiana to share their stories, culture and craft. More than 15 artists will be on site selling & displaying their work.

Gill Landry Anders Osborne Friday at 8:30pm

Dr. John and the Nite Trippers Royal Southern

Saturday at 8:30pm Cowboy Mouth Sunday at 4:30pm

Brotherhood

Buckwheat Zydeco New Breed Brass Band Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Cha’s

Authentic Louisiana Restaurants Chefs cooking up mouth watering Cajun food Live music on two main stages Hot Pepper & Crawwsh Chow Down Contests

Cajun Market Busker Street Performers Snake and Jakes Christmas Club Carrie B Paddlewheel

produced by:

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Photo by Steve Deason

Head Brewer Lee Lonnes, Founders Joe and Jason Trottier, and Investor John Barefoot.

Kindred Spirit Brewing Company:

IPA Fans Will Rejoice

BY STEVE DEASON “I want it to be known that if you like to drink an IPA this is where you go first” declares Jason Trottier, Co-Founder of Kindred Spirit Brewing Company. “I want to focus on hoppy beers first, with all the breweries in Richmond and Virginia very few are really focusing on IPAs. There is a lot of room in the marketplace for really good IPAs of all shapes and sizes. We are going to have at any given time three IPAs, some Double IPAs and some hoppy Pale Ales.” Kindred Spirit’s initial beer menu will include Gridlock, a lightly dry hopped American Blond Ale, Headspace, a fresh and citrusy IPA, Paid in Full, a Double IPA that Jason calls “dangerously drinkable”, West Creek Brown with notes of chocolate and toffee, and Orange Dream, a Cream Ale with bright orange taste and hint of vanilla. In addition to more IPAs, there are plans for Imperial Stout, Saison, Pilsner, Triple, Weizenbock, and Belgian Pale styles of beer soon. Kettle sours will be added in the future.

Jason and his brother, Joe Trottier, announced last year that they were looking for a brewery location near the Village of - 34 -

JUNE 2016

Midlothian in Chesterfield County. The brothers grew up in the Salisbury neighborhood nearby. During ten years in the Outer Banks, Jason worked for a wine wholesaler and owned a wine and cigar shop. He returned to Richmond just over ten years ago and worked briefly for Specialty Beverage before joining Total Wine. Joe Trottier owned a successful advertising agency in San Antonio, Texas. The brothers made plans to open a brewery together not long after Joe moved back to Richmond for family reasons. Jason was motivated by a desire to work for himself again and Joe who has worked for himself for twelve years doesn’t want to work for someone else either. Joe explains; I have “been successful to this point, have some wherewithal to invest, and believe in myself as to being able to run a business.

With input from Jason, a lot of research, (we believe) this market is not seeing the crest for a long time. I think if we put a good product out there and good place for people to come visit, I think we can be very successful.”

Kindred Spirt Brewing Company’s location in Goochland

County just off State Route 288 was the first their agent showed them after they broadened their search beyond Chesterfield County. The West Creek Parkway site is part of a business park that includes Car Max, Capital One and the future home of Hardywood West, an expansion of the Hardywood Park Brewery.

Joe notes the brewery is only 15-20 minutes from Southside, West End, or central Richmond and that fifty thousand cars drive southbound on 288 each afternoon. The facility is ten thousand square feet split equally between brewing and taproom space.

Jason and Joe wanted the taproom to have comfortable chairs and lighting and feel like a neighborhood bar. There is a lounge area in one corner. Along with seventeen taps there are a few TVs but it is not a sports bar set up.

Head Brewer at Kindred Spirit Brewing is Lee Lonnes. In preparation for opening, Lonnes has been training on the IDD-HEBS (High Efficiency Brewing Systems) ordered for the brewery. Lonnes, who previously was a brewer at Legend Brewing Company says the system uses a mash filter system with a series of bladders which is much more efficient than traditional lauter tun systems. Jason explains that the California made system saves on grains, hops, water consumption, energy costs, and labor. Although more expensive than other systems the team expects it will “pay for itself” in eighteen months. Lonnes says he was lucky to get two brews done in sixteen hours before whereas Kindred Spirit’s system will be

able to do back to back brews every two hours. The small system can produce an incredible twenty-five thousand barrels a year, but plans are for fifteen hundred the first year. The considerable excess capacity provides immediate opportunities for collaborations and future options for growth and contract brewing. If construction goes as planned (and the owners know it seldom does) the brewery could be open as early as July. Kegs will be distributed by a wholesaler and plans are to do some hand bottling of special beers when time allows.

The taproom will be open Wednesday and Thursday evenings from four to nine, Saturday from noon to ten, and Sunday from noon to six. Hop Heads get ready!

Award Winning Beer, Locally Inspired Fare, and Live Entertainment

FACE PLANT

RHINO CHASERS

DAWN PATROL

INDIA PALE ALE • 6.2% Brewed with locally grown Virginia malt and hops, this American IPA is packed with fresh herbal hop flavor for a taste of Virginia in every drop.

PILSNER • 5.6% Dry-hopped and crisp, we’ve “Americanized” the classic European Pilsner style for a spicy hop presence balanced by delicate malt flavor.

SESSION IPA • 4.2% Our Session India Pale Ale has a crisp, biscuity body that drops into bright resin and citrus zest hop notes from a killer blend of varietals.

Crack it at dawn and chase the day!

LOST RHINO BREWING COMPANY 21730 Red Rum Dr., Ashburn, VA 20147 Tasting Room Hours: Mon Closed | Tue - Thur 11:30am–9pm | Fri-Sat 11:30am–10pm | Sun 12pm–5pm Check out our newest beers @ lostrhino.com |

LOST RHINO RETREAT 22885 Brambleton Plaza, Ashburn, VA 20148 Restaurant Hours: Mon-Wed 4pm–10pm | Thur 11:30am–10pm | Fri-Sat 11:30am–11pm | Sun 11:30am–9pm Check out our locally inspired and sourced food menu @ lostrhinoretreat.com |

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Cozy Lake Anne Brew House Gets a Big Welcome

(L-R) Owner Melissa Romano and taproom staff Andy Sigle and Jenny Magowan behind bar in the Lake Anne Brew House

By Jefferson Evans and Chuck Triplett I know you believe in Google Maps. I know you trust your GPS. Well, in this case don’t. But it’s going to be ok because once you wander around a bit, maybe ask a person for directions (or just have the smarts to check the directions on their website or Facebook page), you are going to find yourself in a lovely little brewpub being served beer by some of the nicest people you have ever met, and that’s saying something considering how great the Virginia craft brewing community is. Where you are is the Lake Anne Brew House in the original village center of Reston, dating back to 1968, and what the place has become is the answer to the question “When the heck is Reston going to get its own brewpub?”

Owner Jason Romano has 20-plus years experience as a homebrewer and is a certified beer judge. As a government contractor for General Dynamics, he, in the words of his wife and brewery co-owner Melissa, “protects the nation’s cybersecurity by day and brews beer for the Reston community by night.” Melissa is an architect by trade, but for the time being has traded in her design tools for the jobs of brewery owner and mother to three young children. Melissa came to the Reston area back in 1979 and Jason, who grew up in Germantown, Maryland, joined her there when they were married. Initially the couple had their eyes on a coffee shop a couple of doors down but that location would have required being a landlord to multiple renters in the space above the coffee shop. When the space they are now in, previously a Thai restaurant, opened up they quickly moved on it, purchasing the space April 18, 2015 and opening for business April 16 of this year. Melissa tells me that

members of the NoVa beer community who were particularly helpful include the crews at Tin Cannon Brewing Company, Fair Winds Brewing Company, and Aslin Beer Company who, as Melissa explains, “were going through the same process around the same time but usually one step ahead of us.” Help with yeast they found via Jasper Akerboom of Lost Rhino Brewing Company and Bright Yeast Labs [the talented Mr. Jasper is profiled elsewhere in this issue].

For the opening weekend the couple obtained a permit to allow people to enjoy beer on the Lake Anne Village Center Plaza, not just at the brew house, and perhaps this contributed to the brewery going through all 12 barrels of beer they had available the first weekend and requiring them to close the following weekend till more beer could come on-line. As to those beers, Jason has been working on working out the flagship beer lineup, the beers in contention so far being the Live-WorkPlay IPA, Reston Red, Brown’s Chapel Brown Ale, Lake Anne Skinny Dip Kolsch, and Simon’s Stout. A pale ale is in the works but it was yet to be determined whether it will take an American or British form as to style. The stout was available on nitro at a private party at the brewery. Some kinks in the system popped up but Melissa tells me they will definitely have the stout on nitro again. As to seasonals, those are still down the road for the most part, with the brewery’s website indicating possible future beers may include Lake Anne Lager, Heron House Hefeweisen, Stand-Up Paddle Porter, Wiehle Wit, Pontoon Pale Ale, and Beer Run Recovery Ale. A shandy was also available the day I stopped by the brew house.

lake anne brew house • a11424 Washington Plaza W, Reston • 571.785.2729 • lakeannebrewhouse.com - 36 -

JUNE 2016

Jason brews on a 2-barrel system with six 2-barrel fermenters in a 1,000 sq. ft. brew house, and it is tight. He doesn’t brew when the brew house is open because he has to roll equipment out in the space where taproom staff needs to be to grab supplies and clean glassware. They have no loading dock access so getting brewing supplies into the brew house and then finding space to store the supplies, especially grain, is a significant issue but they are rolling with it as best they can, evidenced by the fact that within the first month the brew house is into the third round of brewing for all of their beers and is busy enough to employee an assistant brewer and five taproom employees. As to food, they have a full food service permit but have no equipment or plans to provide food themselves for the foreseeable future.

That said, they welcome people bringing their own food into the brew house or onto the patio. Their neighbor, the Kalypso’s Sports Tavern which features Greek, Italian, and American fare worked with Jason and Melissa to create a custom menu for the brewery that customers can order from and which will be delivered by Kalypso staff.

When it came to dealing with the local powers that be, Melissa said she was literally shocked by how quickly our brewery proposal progressed from Lake Anne Condo Association to the Reston Association to the folks at Fairfax Zoning who were very accommodating in helping the brewery qualify for the mixed use zoning area the brewery is in. One thing that eased the process was that they didn’t change the historical building beyond a few cosmetic updates so fewer permits were needed.

er

be ial

6 YEARS The front of the Lake Anne Brew House

On the challenging side, they were one of the first breweries to have to deal with the transition in Fairfax County of breweries being regulated by the Fairfax County Health Department whereas in the past they were regulated by the Virginia Department of Agriculture. The Health Department folks were very nice but were new to dealing with breweries and there was a learning curve. The two sides worked together and figured it out, and I sensed pride on Melissa’s part that she and Jason helped the health department figure out their regulatory processes such that new Fairfax County breweries will have an easier time down the line.

So stop by the Lake Anne Brew House, and if it is a nice day bring the kids because the Village Center Plaza will be alive with fun and community energy, and there will be plenty of other kids. It’s a good scene. Get the latest Lake Anne Brew House news on Facebook and at lakeannebrewhouse.com

2 LOCATIONS 2 PARTIES

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Celebrate

six years of Mad Fox!

July 23, 2016 Mad Fox Brewery 444 W. Broad Street Falls Church, VA 22046 (703) - 942 - 6840

Mad Fox Taproom 2218 Wisconsin Ave. NW Washington D.C. 20011 (202) - 791 - 0389

www.madfoxbrewing.com • @madfoxbrewing VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

- 37 -

Lost Rhino’s

Jasper

Akerboom Northern Virginia’s Professor of the Microbial Arts

By Jefferson Evans and Chuck Triplett

When you are a brewer in northern Virginia and the Greater D.C. Metro Area and you need help obtaining or taming those microscopic beasties that are the little engines that turn sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide while also generating a wide range of flavor imparting compounds, who you gonna call? Often the answer is Jasper, as in Lost Rhino’s resident PhD and Microbiologist Jasper Akerboom. Having helped many breweries in the area with yeast, Jasper is known for his enthusiasm for his job, his work ethic and innovativeness, his generosity, and for being just one hell of a nice guy. Recently Chuck and I caught up with Jasper on the job at Lost Rhino and he kindly gave us an informative and fun tour, showing us where he works and what he does.

What were your early experiences with beer and how did you come to appreciate good beer?

I grew up in The Netherlands, in a small town called Boxtel, in the province of NorthBrabant. In that area of the Netherlands, Belgian beer styles reigned supreme.

Very close was the Trappist brewery Koningshoeven that makes the La Trappe series of Trappist beers. A lot of people grow up drinking mass produced Dutch lager and - 38 -

JUNE 2016

Jasper Akerboom holding Lost Rhino’s aerobic chamber where he cultures anaerobic bacteria such as Pediococcus and Lactobacillus. The refrigeration unit is also where the microbial test of packaged beers and the fermentation tanks are stored.

Belgian pale ales such as Palm Speciale De Koninck, and anything that was a little higher in ABV was determined “speciaalbier” (special beer) and was often drunk on special occasions. One difference between Belgium and The Netherlands is that Dutch people like sweeter beer, while Belgians tend to like the beer to be drier. Adding a little bit of syrup and pouring an Abbey beer on top was common in those days, similar to Berliner Weiss in Germany. As in many places, beer is part of life, and slowly drinking a bottle of Trappist beer not from a fridge, rather “off the wooden plank,” in the proper glass with your friends is something I miss for sure.

What are your education details? How did your higher education cross paths with beer?

I went to Wageningen University for my undergrad and Masters.Wageningen is the highest ranked university in the world when it comes to agriculture, with Cornell and UC Davis as number 2 and 3. It has a strong focus on food science, and lots of food companies have set up shop in the small town of Wageningen to be closer involved in the research. I did two MS thesis projects, one in England at the lab of David Rice where I worked on the structure determination of proteins from extremophiles, and one in the Lab of Microbiology where I worked on an enzyme

involved in carbohydrate metabolism of similar organisms. The lab offered me a position as a PhD student after I was done. I worked under John van der Oost on carbohydrate metabolism, basically a lot of genetics and biochemistry. This was from 2002 to early 2007. In that lab we had Dr.Wout Middelhoven working, who was retired, and is well known in the world of wild yeast. Several professors and students were using yeast to ferment either wine or beer, and I remember brewing my first batch of beer in that lab, after 5PM. It was an all grain batch of pilsner I fermented in a temperature controlled room that was available - nowadays that would be impossible - and it was a lot of fun to drink the beer at the laboratory picnic.We had quite a substantial culture collection which I believe ended up at the CBS in Utrecht (the world largest mycological culture collection). I left Wageningen in 2007 for Ashburn,Virginia, got a job as a postdoc at Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the lab of Loren Looger. That meant switching gears, no more microbiology, the focus was and still is neuroscience at Janelia. A phenomenal research institute. I worked there from 2007 until 2014.”

How did you come to really realize that working in a brewery was an option you were seriously interested in? How did you come aware of the position to run the Lost Rhino yeast program and lab was available?

I immediately picked up home-brewing again after arriving in the USA. The craft beer movement was already in full swing over here, but news and beer did not really trickle over to The Netherlands in those days. That has totally changed now, Amsterdam has a beer bar that focuses almost exclusively on American brewed craft beer, for example. I home brewed quite a bit when I was in the Netherlands, most beers were in the Belgian style. American hops were hard to find, and I did not have proper cooling either.

I did work behind a bar for a while, but that was my only exposure to professional brewing. I was astounded to find out how far the craft beer movement had evolved, and how widely available it was. Either way, I wanted to try some different things when I got to the US, and started to make beers with yeasts I isolated myself, and I really liked the flavor and how these beers turned out. I expanded my home brewery, and became a

more advanced brewer for sure. I was very excited we had a brewery close to where I lived, Old Dominion, but that brewery was shut down very quickly after I arrived in the area. I heard through the grapevine that two former brewers, Matt Hagerman and Favio Garcia, were going to start up another production brewery in Ashburn. At one of the opening parties, I got to meet Favio and told him about the yeast I had isolated. He was very excited about the missing piece in his puzzle of creating a 100% local beer.

We collaborated on a beer and called it Farmwell Wheat, it was a great beer that we brewed with a similar grist bill as an American wheat.We added some orange peel at the end of the boil, and it became a great smooth brew. The yeast played a major role in this beer; it was a nice time to get to know this strain a little better. Lost Rhino was just getting started at that point and there was no time to run a lab and so forth for Favio, so I started to help him on that front once a week or so in the evenings on a voluntary basis.

What was your experience coming to Lost Rhino, finding “one small incubator and some hlp tubes” as you told us, and making the lab and processes what they are today?

The original priorities and goals for me were to help Lost Rhino out on the yeast front and with quality control, get to know the brewing industry a little, and get the lab up and running. I was helping out, not really working for Lost Rhino. I was here on an H1B Visa, and was working on my prolific scientific career. I had to make a choice, to become a university professor, fight for grants, go into industry, or follow what I really started to care about, and that was brewing and the scientific and artisanal part of it. I think the word artisanal is overused, but it does apply well here. For the brewery, it was important to get the quality control in order. Not because there were problems at all - but Favio and Matt both have extensive experience and know how essential such a program is.

How much autonomy have you had when it comes to handling the yeast and other microorganisms, and determining the equipment and processes?

One hundred percent - a lot of the equipment is my own. It helps Lost Rhino with the lab needs and I can use it for side projects, such as Bright Yeast Labs we are starting. My background has been 100%

yeast, but I have worked in the field of microbiology for a long time, and yeast has been a model organism I worked with quite a bit. A trained lab person can easily do the things I do, it’s just knowing when to do it, how much to do it, and how to interpret the results, that is the most important part.

One thing was I had to switch my thinking a little - coming from a laboratory that was involved in fundamental science to now focusing on SOPs [Standard Operating Procedures] and protocols, it is a little bit of a different perspective. The science plays a supportive role, it is not the end goal the end goal is to produce award winning beer.We are still a small brewery, so you will not find a HPLC [High Performance Liquid Chromatography] or GC [Gas Chromatography] in our brewery. But we do have a UV-spectrophotometer that we use to measure IBUs in beer and chlorine levels in the water to make sure the filter does its job.We have a very nice bio-safety cabinet we use for all our sterile work, it was a small miracle how we got it into the brewery.We have two -80C freezers that we use for our yeast stocks. They are also great to freeze rubber bungs so we can drill holes in them ;).We have an ATP meter we use occasionally.We have established a really nice program to propagate yeast, and we do that routinely in house. As to equipment, I was always scouting auction sites. It’s a gold mine for nice lab equipment that you can get for not too much money, such as the $20K cryo-storage unit we got for $200.

How many yeast strains are routinely in use for the “normal” beers? How many yeast strains do you think you have dealt with since starting at Lost Rhino?

We have used around 30 different yeasts at Lost Rhino for our normal beers, several Belgians we liked, several different American ale yeasts, different German strains, English yeasts, several lager yeasts, really quite a few. At one point we had 12 different yeasts fermenting, our record, I think. At Bright Yeast Labs we have stocked 200 yeast strains. These are yeasts that friends have sent me - I am waiting for a polish yeast that is coming in hopefully soon from a friend of mine opening up a Brewery in Lodz, Poland, a yeast I got from a friend in the Netherlands, a whole bunch of isolates from natural sources, a whole lot of bottle isolates, too many sources to really count. There are trading groups, and people are getting better at handling pure

continued

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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up there in the summer months, and there is spent grain around. There is nothing you can do but to be on top of it.We have never had (knock on wood) any issues, but I am sure we will have them in the future, because life will find a way.We test everything every week, and double check everything when we find something.

(L-R) Nick Anderson, Jasper Akerboom and Nassim Sultan bottle the Stublendious sour. The bottles are capped, labeled, and wax dipped by hand.

yeast cultures. There is a lot of misinformation out there, but pro and home-brewers are getting better and better at handling yeasts and generating pure cultures of wild or home cultivated yeasts.

People are now trading them like baseball cards, and there is always something hotter, funkier and trendier on the horizon that people are trying to get their hands on. People are now breeding their own strains by crossing different strains; it is quite interesting to see how mainstream it has become.

What wild yeast strains such as Brett, and microorganisms such as lacto and pedio have you used at Lost Rhino? How do you obtain them then and now?

We have approximately 30 different Brett or Brett-like yeasts at Lost Rhino.We have several yeasts we isolated ourselves, from either outside or from some spontaneous Belgians and other sources.We have not sequenced them all; some we did; that is how we identified those as Brettanomyces. Some of them are very funky, some of them grow very quick, some are very slow growers, some like it hot, some show a remarkable drop in pH, some do not. Of course there is variation in the genus and there are several species. It is fun to play with these organisms, blend them, and see what they do to beers.

Some of these Brett yeasts show very different flavor developments in beers that are hopped differently.

How do you approach controlling the “wilder” microorganisms you deal with at the brewery?

As every brewery should approach it, you clean it immediately, you do not let stuff sit and cake on, and you clean, clean, clean.We have separate hoses for sour beer, and one tank that we use for bacteria, but we are not afraid of Brett. Its abstract, you cannot see it, so you assume it’s there.You do not roll the dice, you clean extra, and sanitize with different chemicals and pasteurize well. It is the bacteria I am more afraid of, especially when the temperature gets

What have been some of the more interesting strains you have worked with, whether the Bonedusters yeast, the strain cultivated for the Birth of Ace, the 100-year-old Ukrainian wine yeast, and so on?

Oh, the Bonedusters strain; the most finicky and difficult yeast you can imagine, but it does produce such an elegant ale that holds up remarkably well over time. The yeast has a very long diauxic shift. It is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, and it does not like wort over 12-13 plato. The temperature needs to be high for it to ferment out, and flocculation is nonexistent. But the beer it produces is absolutely phenomenal and I cannot wait to brew it again. The Birth of Ace yeast, or BYL087 - Brett brux Chateaux it’s officially called - was isolated from a spontaneous Belgian beer.

The yeast grows very quick and the cell shape is very similar to Saccharomyces. It produces a very clean beer, with a little funk, and it blends really well with specific hop varieties. I have shared the yeast with some west coast brewers, and some have been able to train the strain to be able to get through high gravity worts more easily. It’s a really versatile yeast and somewhat of a favorite of mine.

One of the most delicate and elegant wild yeasts we have isolated is the yeast we use for Native Son.When people think about wild yeast, they often think about something that is untamed, unrefined, farmhouse-like, intense, phenolic, acidic, etc. This strain is none of the above. It is very delicate, it produces an old-fashioned hard candy and honey like character, and has a flowery ester profile.

It is truly an underappreciated yeast strain.We sell the strain also through Bright Yeast Labs (BYL031), and it is not really picked up by that many people. It works well in Saisons, people have successfully used it to make cider and even a commercial distillery uses the strain. The only downside of this yeast is that the attenuative power is high; it keeps on trucking; also when it is in kegs. That can result in beer that is too carbonated, and will result in complaints from bars.We have devised special degassers we can use on the kegs before they are put on to circumvent this problem, but it is inherent to putting a saison on tap - the volumes of CO2 are just very high. It works best when bottled, as it should be. I was lucky enough to hear the presentation of Yvan de Baets a few CBCs back [Craft Brewers Conference] on his brewery and saisons. He basically said, and I wholeheartly agree, that one should step away from always getting the same strain (aka most likely Dupont or Thiriez) and use your own yeast, and drive it a little. It’s about the yeast and getting to know it

continued

“It is fun to play with these organisms, blend them, and see what they do to beers.”

– Jasper Akerboom - 40 -

JUNE 2016

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more, and that is how I feel as well. I isolated a yeast from a barrel that was found in DC somewhere in a basement of an old building.

It looks like a small wooden “pin” sized barrel, about 5 gallons. It is on display at the Torpedo Factory Building in Alexandria, at the local Archaelogical Society. It belonged to the Washington Brewing Company.

The yeast that came out has a Belgian-like character, and we brewed a saison with it. It got us the grand champion award of Belgian/ French beer styles at the US beer tasting competition last year, a nice result for sure.

The last one I wanted to touch on is the Lost Rhino house strain.We have kept that yeast going for about two years without going back to the original yeast.We have kept close tabs on the performance, and carefully select the yeast we like from one of the many fermenters containing the strain. If there is something we do not like, we select another fermenter. This only works if you stick to an optimal time frame and if you have many fermenters with the same yeast going, and if you are brewing enough. For us, we were looking for a yeast that would ferment a little cooler and would flocculate well without detrimental effects on the diacetyl reduction capacity, and that is basically what we got. Of course you get what you screen for is the dogma that is being used in directed evolution, and that is (albeit in a basic way) what we have pushed for. It would really be interesting to sequence the initial yeast we started off with and the house strain we use right now and see what has changed between the two. The costs have dropped like a piece of old underwear - right now it’s about 1000-2000 dollars to get a genome sequenced with one of the next generation methods. Assembly and annotation not included of course. Something for the future, it would be a nice project.

What were the first barrel-aged beers and where were the barrels obtained from?

What type of beers do you tend to barrelage these days and where are the barrels coming from?

This is a very good question. The first barrel aged beers done at Lost Rhino were the woody stout barrels.We were able to get

several different kinds of fresh bourbon barrels, from Heaven Hill and from Bowman.

It is more and more difficult to get good and fresh barrels that do not break the bank, the price is of course market dependent and everybody is looking into making barrel aged beers nowadays, but we have been getting by and have gotten barrels every year.We used some of these barrels after we used them for the stout for a barley wine, and the barrel character was slightly faded.

At this time, we had about twenty barrels that we wanted to start with.We filled half of them with a Belgian blonde, and half of them with Icebreaker, a double IPA we do every spring. Every barrel was inoculated with a different Brettanomyces yeast we isolated in house, and we gave them time to see what would develop. This was all done in bourbon barrels, that are charred substantially more than wine barrels, and this is a reason people shy away from them. Since it was all we had we used it like that.We took careful notes of the development and learned a lot in those days. Some of these barrels ended up as our first Exesus Sanctum run, a beer we are very proud of and have done several times now.

Of course we do have wine barrels now as well, but we still do some wild fermentations in the former bourbon barrels. Overall we found not a big difference but sometimes there is still a little vanilla that can come through initially.We have used most of the bourbon barrels plenty of times so it’s nice that the woodiness has subdued for some purposes.Working with the wine barrels is a whole different beast.

What have been some of the particular successes and failures of the barrel-aging program?

I think the fact that we were able to repeat a consistent batch of peach sour was our greatest achievement. To make sour beer is not hard; to make it consistent and repeatable is a very different story.We work with local ingredients, the peaches are grown in Loudoun County, and they vary between harvests. That makes it hard to make it 100% identical every time, but we are getting close. The Alphabrett, a beer that was barrel aged with a single brett yeast

from Amsterdam, was one of the better sour beers we’ve done, and the Woodpucker is one of the best beers we have done. But I feel it’s not really us making these beers, it’s the actual organisms that are in these barrels that are making the beer.We just provide them with a place to live, and a meal.We have done some 100% spontaneous beers as well that came out really nice. It’s all about the timing and being unhurried I think. I have to keep telling the sales team “I’m sorry but the beer is not ready”, and it’s a hard job to disappoint them all the time, but it is what it is. Failures are always there, because we are not in control of what the microorganisms do in the barrel, at least until a certain point.

We have had sours that went too far sour; or ones where the flavor was just not what we wanted to be.We have had barrels that we had to wait for a long time to become what we wanted it to be, not really a failure, but it can take a while.

Who are the breweries you have helped out with yeast since starting at Lost Rhino? What are some favorite beers or ciders that resulted? Have you been involved in a collaboration project on a beer that went beyond simply providing another brewer with yeast?

I have given yeast to numerous breweries, and most of them buy it now through Bright Yeast Labs. I have given a wild culture to Christian Layke of Gordon Biersch Rockville, Travis has used some wild cultures in some beers, and numerous other breweries in the area I have given small pitches to try or helped them isolate their own strain. I supplied the yeast for the Loudoun County collaboration we did some time ago. That was a fun beer. Every brewer brought something to the table. The collaborations we did and are doing beyond just the yeast part being involved are numerous as well - we have done several collaborations with Hellbender, they are good friends of ours.We did a collaboration with Legend in Richmond that was really a lot of fun.

Legend and Lost Rhino are similar that they both have respect for high-quality beers that are more traditional.We have done two collaborations with Travis Tedrow of

“Legend and Lost Rhino are similar in that they both have respect for high-quality beers that are more traditional.”

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Gordon Biersch Navy Yard in DC, one at GB Navy Yard and one at Lost Rhino.We do a collaboration every year with the Westover Beer Garden, the HopStar. They have now started their own brewery “Sehkraft” and we did a collaboration with them as well!

Our first international collaboration will be with Bierbrouwerij Jopen from Haarlem, the Netherlands. They have played a major role in the revival of the GABF-recognized Dutch beer style Kuyt, and we are planning to brew a variation on this beer in the future.We do a collaboration with Aaron Hermes, the winner of the Pilsner Urquell challenge, as we brew the Zlaty Rhino with him.We have done two collaborations with the homebrew club the Wort Hogs. For the second beer (Golden Hog) we used a wild strain that I isolated from Upstate NY.We are doing some collaborations with Lost Lagers and just brewed a Kulmbacher that will be poured at the National Homebrew Conference in Baltimore this year. I am hoping I did not forget one!

What have been some of your best moments, your worst moments, your most fun moments, and your least fun moments – the wacky and the weird?

What do you wish you could do more of and what you wouldn’t do again if given a million dollars?

The good the bad and the ugly. The bad was that the Bonedusters yeast had a 2-plus week lag at 11 plato. It was crazy! It was not moving at all. I’m hypothesizing that the yeast did not like to make the switch from dextrose to maltose, but I am guessing here.

It makes it hard to do it again. Of course I stocked the yeast again after it started back up, hoping to develop a way to overcome this in the future. Another bad thing is that we had a boiler failure some months back, while we were brewing the Native Son.We mashed in, but it did not pass all of the rests, and what happened is that the wort soured before the conversion was complete. At a low pH the enzymes that normally convert the mash are not super active, so we created this turbid sour wort.We decided to just boil it and ferment it with a wild yeast that I isolated when we went hop picking in Madison County. The yeast seems really aggressive, and it has a typical farmhouse character, it reminds me a little of Arthur from Hill Farmstead. Alas the yeast stopped at 6 Plato, and the beer was turbid as half and half, so we loaded it in

Lost Rhino’s Oud Bruin of the Genius Loci Series of beers

barrels and added a local sour culture that we got by spontaneous fermentation.

Not really a super bad story but more like trying to make the best out of a bad situation I guess.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Rip Rap delivery truck?

Drink Rip Rap Rip Rap Brewing, The 757’s Newest Brewery Words by Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones | Photos by Chris Jones Living in the 757, we are all familiar with the Navy’s ubiquitous presence, but we may not be so “in the know” about America’s “fifth military service,” the Coast Guard. Created in 1790 by George Washington, for over 200 years Coast Guard personnel have protected our coasts, rescued seafarers in distress, and lived lives driven by “honor, respect and devotion to duty.”

Coast Guard personnel have three broad roles: maritime safety, maritime security, and maritime stewardship. For two twenty-something Tidewater Coast Guard personnel, ‘Liam Bell and Ben McElroy, you can add a fourth role: maritime brewing.

While assigned to Hampton Roads duty these Coasties found they shared a common love of malted beverage and discovered the joys of home brewing. Unlike many home brewers, they only made one batch using malt extract, then dove headfirst into allgrain brewing. Fast forward almost three years and ‘Liam and Ben opened Norfolk’s newest brewery on April 29, 2016, Rip Rap Brewing. Located in a small building at 116 E 25th St (between Granby Street and Monticello Avenue), this small but mighty brewery is just down the street from their much larger neighbor, O’Connor Brewing, and like their O’Connor counterparts, they are alchemists, turning Norfolk tap water into liquid gold, the elixir known as beer.

Rip Rap Brewing is a small operation in a small space (it has a 50-person maximum capacity), and is living testament to the idea that you can get started in the brewing business on a

small scale. Most of ‘Liam and Ben’s equipment was gathered, procured and cobbled together thanks to their scouring of sites for stuff and their creativity. They are resourceful and have most of the alterations to the building themselves. They’ve commandeered parts from a former courthouse, and their engineering creativity allowed them to MacGyver their way around many an obstacle. Need a glycol chiller? Create one from a beer cooler and a window air conditioner. Need a small walk-in to chill your bright tank and your kegs? Get handy with a hammer. They produce their beers in a small 2.5 barrel (77 gallons) electrically heated system, and that small system will allow them to experiment with a variety of beer styles without being beholden to one particular flavor for a long stretch of time.

They brew beer the old-fashioned way – manually, which involves adding between 120 and 300 pounds of barley and other grains into an open vessel, and when the brewing process is completed, moving that now very wet and heavy grain into containers to give to local area farmers. It’s a good thing these guys are in shape; all that bicep-building barley hauling no doubt has Ben and ‘Liam acing their physical readiness tests.

At the Rip Rap grand opening there were four tasty beers on tap: Breakwater Cream Ale; Fresnel Red IPA; Shakedown Scotch Ale; and Wandering Sloth Saison. All were clean, well carbonated and distinctive representations of their respective

rip rap brewing company • 116 e 25th street, norfolk • riprapbrewing.com - 44 -

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styles. The Breakwater is light, clean, and very easy to drink, the Fresnel was hopaliciously bitter but balanced, the Shakedown made Chris want to tilt his kilt, and the Wandering Sloth nailed the saison style. They brewed a German-style hefeweizen in early May, and upcoming beers will include an American stout, a Belgian-style pale ale and a West Coast IPA. Look for lots of different styles as the Rip Rap boys get their sea legs.

Rip Rap’s nomenclature has a Coastie’s perspective. Rip rap are rocks used to anchor a shoreline, a breakwater is a wave barrier, a Fresnel is a lens that focuses light into a beam (think lighthouse beam) and Shakedown refers not to the Street (sorry Deadheads) but to an initial cruise during which the ship’s crew becomes familiar with how things on the ship work. Wandering Sloth, however, isn’t nautical at all, but is the nickname of a friend that contributed to their successful Kickstarter campaign.

More info can be gleaned on the web and Facebook. Rip Rap is open Thursday and Friday from 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM, and on Saturday from noon until 10:00 PM; operating hours will probably expand a bit in June. For the next six or so months Rip Rap is not distributing their beers to area retailers and restaurants, but instead will only sell direct to customers from the brewery. If you want to be rescued from a sea of mediocre mass-produced lagers that the big mega-brewers foist upon us, these two Coast Guardsmen can throw you a line and an ale.

(L to R) Ben McElroy and ‘Liam Bell

Mariners’ Craft Beer Cask Off Won by Alewerks Speaking of mariners, The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News held its fourth annual Craft Beer Festival on Sunday, May 1, 2016, and if you weren’t there you missed a great suds fest. There were 17 breweries represented (12 from Virginia), serving around 50 beers between them, to 1,600 of your best friends.

In addition to bodacious amounts of beer, there were beer lectures (including one about the soon-to-be-opened Traditions Brewing Company in Newport News) and a “Cask-Off” where you could taste six cask ales and vote for the one that floated your boat (the fans’ fave was Alewerk’s “Café Noir,” a bourbon barrel aged imperial milk stout). Throw in a mess of food trucks and great live music from the Esoteric Ramblers and Hey Hey Hooligan, and you had the ingredients for a perfect afternoon of beer appreciation.

The event is usually the first weekend in May, so put it on your phone calendar for next year and make sure you attend.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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What’s Your Pleasure?

Quart-size crowlers and variety satisfy at Pleasure House Brewing in Virginia Beach

By Jeff Maisey

Co-owner/head brewer Drew Stephenson

When co-owners Tim O’Brien, Kevin Loos, Alex and Drew Stephenson opened Pleasure House Brewing in Virginia Beach 18 months ago, they planned to brew as many different beers as possible. Of course that was before some of their recipes became popular with locals who demanded to have their favorite more readily available.

Today head brewer Drew Stephenson has reached a happy compromise. In addition to the award-winning Glo and 1608, Pleasure House satisfies enthusiasts with Pekko Saison, Hop Sesh Azacca American IPA and Worthy Sir Double IPA. They’re also packaging beer so consumers can take some home, only not by the six-pack. Pleasure House makes a statement with its 32-ounce cans. After all, who can drink just one pint.

I recently popped over to chat with Drew about the brewery’s progress. Here’s what he had to say.

You have a unique philosophy on packaging in that your flagships are available exclusively in 32-ounce crowlers.Was this done to set Pleasure House apart from other breweries?

The original idea was Tim’s. He had gone up to Burley Oak (brewing) on the Eastern Shore (Maryland) and saw the crowlers there.

You said “set yourself apart.” That was one of the things that was really attractive.

The other issue was to deal with the freshness of the beer. Growlers are really pretty temporary.We found that if we purge a crowler with CO2 before we fill it after 10 weeks it’s just as fresh as when we fill

it. At that point we thought we had a solid package that promotes quality for people who come to buy beer.

Then it became clear that keg sales were doing okay, but are not particularly profitable.

The crowlers fill a niche in package stores.

What can you share about the can design? It looks like you wrap it with a label.

They are adhesive labels.We do that by hand.We use a plywood frame so that we can roll them on more effectively and quickly.

We have labels for Glo Belgian Blonde, Thoroughgood Belgian Double, and we’re working on one for 1608 Imperial Crème Ale. That’ll be the next package available for distribution.

Aside from the brewery tasting room, where are Pleasure House crowlers available?

They are in a mix of on-premise and off-premise accounts. There are Your Pie in Hilltop, Grape & Gourmet, 1608 Craft House, Mix It Up, Bon Vivant in Smithfield, and Kroger’s. Right now it’s just the Glo, but we’ll follow it with 1608.

Crowlers are king at Pleasure House Brewing in Virginia Beach

What has been the reaction from customers? Crowlers are 32-ounces; something a little unusual on the shelf, right?

Yes. The only other one that I know of is from Mission Brewery outside of San Diego did an IPA in those cans.We were originally just going to sell them at retail stores because Rob at Lynnhaven Pub had those Mission cans and they didn’t sell very well. But we put it out for anybody who wanted it and found that the bars have sold quite a few of them.

As far as customer reaction, people seem to enjoy them. I was a little nervous because not only are they 32 ounces but The Glo is 7.5%. That’s two pints of fairly stiff drink. I think people really like to take them to the beach and on their boats. It’s also a good size for splitting with somebody if you’re at a bar.

It has worked out better than we thought.

Starting out, did you think The Glo would be your top flagship beer?

No.We had no idea it would be a flagship.

We thought that our session pale ale and maybe one of our IPAs would be the flagship – like Worthy Sir. What we stumbled on was that we had a lot of people telling us, and especially our reps, is that “I’ve got 3,000 IPAs.What else do

pleasure house brewing • 3025 shore drive, virginioa beach • pleasurehousebrewing.com - 46 -

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you have that stands out?”

I think The Glo does that.

The Glo has a nice back story. It’s named for my mother-in-law, Gloria, who passed from lymphoma last year. She was a very bright, bubbly person and happened to be blonde. So it seemed like a natural fit to name a beer like that after her. It has been gratifying on a personal level for my wife and I to see it do real well. I think it is also a nice transition beer. It doesn’t have a punch of hops to knock you out.We changed the yeast a little bit so that the finish is really dry now, which I think makes it a lot more accessible for people. It’s pale, lightly fruity; it’s crisp; it’s dry. It packs a punch for someone who’s looking for one. We’re real happy it’s our flagship. It kind of sets us apart.

A big focus of what you do at Pleasure House is brewing experimental, small-batch beers.Why is that important?

It’s definitely part of our business model. Coming into this we had the naïve idea that we would never remake a single beer. Then we made a Lynnhaven Coffee Cream Stout and people were clamoring for more.We figured if people want to give us money for beer let’s be smart enough to give it to them.

Now we have Glo and Rudee Inlet Citra Double IPA on tap all the time. Our other mainstays are Worthy Sir and 1608 as mainstays.

Beyond that I think we’re just south of 120 beers in 18 months of brewing.We slowed down a little bit because we moved to 7-barrel batches from 3-1/2.We also now have 11 taps in-house instead of five. Each one moves more slowly.

It took awhile for people to get used to the idea of not coming and getting their favorites, but I see on social media that’s one of the things people like most about us.We generally have something new every couple of times you come in.

On the technical side as a brewer, we have to run four, five or six different yeasts, which is really tough to keep track of, and also to keep them (yeasts) healthy and viable to get the best fermentation.

The other downside as a brewer is that it doesn’t give us a chance to take one recipe and hone it until we think it’s perfect. I think Glo is a much better beer than it used to be because we’ve had that chance to tweak and hone.

We won’t serve a beer unless we feel good about it.

What has been your most outrageous beer recipe produced?

I think we have a couple. In terms of sheer alcohol, we made a spiced Belgian quad for Christmas called Snatch You Bald-Headed, which was 12.5%. It didn’t taste like it. Some people found themselves a little in trouble, especially when they took growlers home.

We made a beer called Spring is Coming. It’s got cardamom, lime leaves and green peppercorns. It’s a saison.

We made a bourbon barrel version of our OB’s Wattles Seed Stout.

The first version of that was in Woodford Reserve barrels. It was very bourbon forward. People who really like bourbon like that beer.

We try to keep it fresh and interesting. Some approachable, some crazy.

Speaking of approachable, you also appreciate the traditional styles of European beers. Can you speak to those traditional British, German, Belgian and Czech styles?

I think I make those British ales mostly for me because I love ‘em. We have a dark mild on tap pretty often. They’re not our best sellers, but the people who love them really love ‘em.

I try not to mess with those (recipes) too much. For European styles I do stay pretty close to tradition.

To me a Belgian beer is all about the yeast. There should be as little residual sugar as possible. I try to make sure it’s dry so as soon as it leaves your palette you’re ready for another sip. That’s definitely a Belgian hallmark when it’s done right.

During the spring and summer we start moving into some of the German wheat beers.We’re getting ready to do a Roggen (rye) beer again, which was a big hit.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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A Taste of

Blue Bee’s warm tasting room offers attentive service

Virginia

Apples

Three Richmond-Area Cideries

By Annie Tobey

While craft breweries dabble in the concept of terroir, that “taste of place” traditionally embraced by wineries, today’s craft cider makers also use local products to ferment their beverages. In a major U.S. apple-producing state, ranking sixth in the country in apple production,Virginia orchards provide cideries with plenty of local product.

“Virginia’s reputation as a leader in quality apple production is extending to our cider industry, which is growing at an explosive rate,” says Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore.“From 2014 to 2015, sales of Virginia cider increased over 200 percent, and national cider sales rose by more than 40 percent during that period.We are happy to see the continued rise in cider within the Virginia-produced beverage family, which also includes our outstanding wines, craft beers and distilled spirits.”

“One of the unique things about apples grown in Virginia is that they are super sweet, so our ABVs are a little bit generous compared to other cidermaking regions in the country,” explains Courtney Mailey of Richmond’s Blue Bee Cider.

Blue Bee was the first Richmond-area cidery, joined this year by Buskey Cider and Courthouse Creek Cider. In the craft beverage scene, which values diversity, quality and supporting local businesses, these cider makers have demonstrated that their hard beverage fits the bill.

Craft beer drinkers, accustomed to a multitude of options for their drinking pleasure, may assume that a simple apple-based fermented beverage will be one-dimensional.

Fortunately, that assumption would be wrong.

Contemporary craft ciders range from dry to sweet, made using a range of apple varieties, which vary in taste much like malts and hops. As in beer, the choice of yeast can affect the final taste. Adjunct ingredients and barrel aging expand palate-pleasing options further. Premium craft cider doesn’t use added sugar (called chaptalizing) or add water to achieve a specific ABV – you get what the apples and yeast provide naturally.

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Blue Bee Cider

The commonwealth’s first urban cidery, Blue Bee Cider established production facilities and a tasting room in Richmond’s Old Manchester district in 2012, growing apples elsewhere in Virginia. Founder Courtney Mailey aims to “surprise people with the variety and complexity of flavors that Virginia cider apples can produce [and to] educate people about the rich history of cider in Virginia.”

Blue Bee’s most popular year-round ciders are Aragon 1904, a blend of modern and heirloom apples that create a light, crisp, off-dry cider; and Harvest Ration, a dessert cider made from bittersweet apples. Several creative ciders – all Virginia firsts – highlight the drink’s variety: ciders that are hopped, infused with wild mulberries, and smoked, plus a gingerinfused apple wine.

Single-varietal ciders include those made with rare apples, including Hewe’s Crab and Harrison – the first recorded commercial production of Harrison since the early 1800s.

“Of all the ciders we’ve put out there, the smoked cider is probably the most unexpected,” Mailey says,“but the Harrison and Hewe’s are the greatest achievements horticulturally and from a culinary and cultural [standpoint].”

The release of Hewe’s Crab cider reflects Mailey’s fondness for history, since this apple cider was enjoyed by Virginiabased founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Though the apples became nearly extinct, an orchard near Williamsburg rediscovered it. At a recent Virginia Historical Society event, guests enjoyed Blue Bee’s Hewe’s Crab cider paired with an episode of AMC’s hit series TURN: Washington’s Spies, the Revolutionary War-era drama filmed in Virginia.

By late summer or early fall, Blue Bee will move to a historic stable complex in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood, expanding production from 3,000 cases per year up to 12,000.

Besides the tasting room and Richmond-area restaurants and retailers, Blue Bee ciders are available in Northern Virginia and D.C., Hampton Roads, Charlottesville and the Shenandoah Valley.

Blue Bee Cider • 212 W. 6th St., Richmond • bluebeecider.com

Will Correll and Alec Steinmetz at Buskey Cider’s tasting room

Rural Courthouse Creek Cider

Courthouse Creek Cider

Buskey Cider

Open since April 2016, Buskey Cider also values Virginia roots.

“Eighty-seven percent of our apples come from Turkey Knob, where we lease 50 acres of orchard space The rest are from elsewhere in-state,” says owner Will Correll.“It’s not hard to stay local in one of the best states for apples.”

From the orchard, Buskey apples go to the Andros fruitprocessing plant in Mt. Jackson,Virginia, where they are crushed and blended to just the right pH and sweetness. From there, the juice is shipped to Buskey’s cidery, to be made into a quaffable fermented beverage. The goal is to offer a variety of ciders in the tasting room and to have approachable ciders for distribution, approachable in flavor and price point.

Buskey’s cider maker, Alec Steinmetz, will focus on providing variety in the line-up by using different yeast strains (including some Belgian yeast strains that thrive in lower pH), added flavor ingredients and process distinctions to complement the apple flavor.

The cidery opened with the semi-sweet RVA Cider; the drier 45 and Trying cider; an unfiltered cider; a Citra dry-hopped cider; a tart cherry cider; and an unfermented nonalcoholic apple juice. In the works are ciders fermented with staves from Williamsburg Winery red and white wine barrels.

The Scott’s Addition tasting room will also feature rotating randalls, like the Cinco de Mayo infusions of jalapeño lime and tart cherry lime.

Distribution initially is on draft only around Richmond, but Correll hopes to have canned Buskey cider available in time for Fourth of July celebrations.

Buskey Cider • 2910 W. Leigh St., Richmond • buskeycider.com

In contrast to Blue Bee and Buskey, Courthouse Creek Cider rests on 10 acres in the countryside.

Owners Eric and Liza Cioffi seem as passionate about the fruit trees on their Goochland property as they are about their cider, from the Asian pear tree that was already there to the 730 trees they’ve planted. Their orchards now boast more than twenty varieties of apples and pears (for making perry, the pear equivalent of cider).

“We’re taking a holistic approach to growing. Though we won’t pursue organic certification, our practices are low impact and sustainable,” Eric says. Low-impact techniques include a chicken and duck pest patrol.

Liza explains that some stress is good for the fruit, that the best cider apples may be “ugly apples,” not the pretty-butless-flavorful eating apples often found in stores.

In appreciation of the final product, Eric emphasizes cider’s power at pairing.“Cider is an extension of the dinner table (and sometimes the lunch table … and perhaps brunch table).”

The Cioffis started their fermentation program using apples from other Virginia orchards. In May, their first cider went to market – literally – at the Saturday South of the James Market in Forest Hill Park, packaged in 750- and 500-mL formats.

The first cider they introduced to the market (as cider maker Eric nervously awaited each sampler’s reaction) was Honest Farmer, a bottle-conditioned blend of seven apples aged in rum and red wine barrels. Next up is Bella Vita, infused with raspberries and ginger. Other ciders in the works include one with sloe berries (think sloe gin), one aged in red wine barrels, a lime-touched summer cider, and possibly a cider with yeast cultivated in their orchards by RVA Yeast Labs.

Besides the Saturday market, Courthouse Creek plans local distribution and tasting room visits.

Eric and Liza Cioffi articulate a mission that can apply to the region’s other craft cider makers, too:“Our goal is to produce ‘heartfully crafted Virginia cider.’” After all,Virginia is for lovers!

Courthouse Creek Cider • Maidens Road, Goochland facebook.com/CourthouseCreek

Virginia Association of Cider Makers, a new nonprofit membership organization for licensed cider producers in Virginia.

Website is expected to be ready by June or July.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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brew Hop Grove

South Street Brewing Company Charlottesville

If you like fruity IPAs, South Street Brewery’s Hop Grove is a great choice for sipping by the pool this summer. Hop Grove is South Street’s seasonal mango and pineapple double IPA. It is made with organic mango and pineapple juice from Charlottesville’s Lumi Juice and Simco, Sitra, and Amarillo hops. At 7.47% ABV, sip slowly or you might find yourself in the deep end!

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JUNE 2016

American Expedition Heritage Brewing Co. Manassas

Heritage Brewing Co.’s American Expedition is a Honey Ginger Wheat Ale. It is light bodied and easy drinking for summer at 4.3% ABV. Its name is a tribute to the Corps of Discovery, the explorers led by Lewis and Clark who blazed the trail of America’s western expansion, facing many perils but never giving up. Here’s to persevering!

Sublime Citrus Wheat Starr Hill Brewery Crozet

Not only is Sublime a hit with us, this delicious, refreshing citrus wit will certainly remain in heavy rotation this summer. Sublime lives up to the hype with the use of real lemon and lime. A Belgian-style white is the base stylistically, but the perfect citrus enhancement used here makes it exceptional. 4.7% ABV. Enjoy the whole six-pack on the patio.

Sommer Fling Hefeweizen

Smartmouth Brewing Company Norfolk The folks at Smartmouth know their Coastal VA community well and decided this year to can the Sommer Fling. Keeping with their non-traditional colored packaging, this one sports a noticeable sky blue, perfect for the beach. Sommer Fling is crisp, clean and has a slight bitterness.

This distinguishes it from traditional German hefes. The bubblegum and coriander aromas dominate more than traditional clove/banana. 5.8% ABV makes it ideal during hot weather.

O.T.I.S. Cucumber Melon Sour Strangeways Brewing Richmond

O.T.I.S., or Oh This Is Sour, is in reality semi-sour, thus making it a great introduction to the style for newcomers without scaring them to death with a scrunched-up nose and puckered lips.

The official description says you’ll taste “fresh cucumbers, ripe honeydew melons, wild juniper berries, and hand-zested tangerines.”While none of these are easy to isolate, the overall combination is most delightful. Poured into a tulip shaped glass, the carbonation cascades in a funnel for an extended time so as to maintain a silky head.

Purchased in a 500 ml bottle. 5 % ABV.

Factory Girl

Parkway Brewing Company Salem

Drinking and reading a good book go hand in hand, right? And, summer is the perfect time for both. Parkway Brewing Company has brewed up a session IPA perfect for drinking all day at the beach while you immerse yourself in your book. Factory Girl is brewed in celebration of Beth Macy’s first book, “Factory Man,” and a nod to American workers everywhere. It has a tropical sweetness and hoppy finish. At 4.5% ABV, you’ll be able to drink a few and finish your book!

reviews VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM V IRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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BLUE RIDGE HIGHLANDS

Chef Series – Fortunato

Team Trivia – Devils Backbone Basecamp

Live Music at Wild Wolf

Sat., July 16, 11am-4pm

Wednesdays, June 1, 15, 29, 7pm

Chef Series – Local Roots

Roanoke’s Fortunato pairs traditional Italian food with Foggy Ridge cider. $12 Foggy Ridge Cider 1328 Pineview Road Dugspur 276.398.2337 foggyridgecider.com

Test out your knowledge for a chance to win a DB Gift Card!

200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Every Friday & Saturday, 7-10pm No cover.

Sat., June 4, 11am-4pm Chefs from Roanoke’s Local Roots pair tapas with Foggy Ridge cider. $12 Foggy Ridge Cider 1328 Pineview Road Dugspur 276.398.2337 foggyridgecider.com

Hiker Happy Hour at Right Turn Clyde Thurs., June 9, July 14, Aug. 11, & Sept. 8 Hikers receive $1 off pints and growler fills.

Right Turn Clyde Brewery 300 Main Street Narrows 540.921.7283

Hops & Howlers Craft Brew Fest Sat., June 18, 4-9pm Regional micro-breweries, homebrew competition, live music, and food trucks.

Tickets: $35 in advance; $40 at door; $55 VIP Remsburg Drive Downtown Abingdon 276-676-2282 hopsandhowlers.com

Summer Solstice Fest

CENTRAL VIRGINIA Cards Against Humanity SIN Night at Strangeways Every Monday, 4-9pm Good beer, insane laughter, & extreme inappropriateness! Bring a team of 4-7 people and the game. Plus, if you are in the service industry, receive 20% off specials.

Strangeways Brewing 2277A Dabney Rd. Richmond strangewaysbrewing.com

Game Night at Garden Grove Brewing Every Monday 3445 West Cary Street Richmond 804.918.6158 gardengrovebrewing.com

Sat., June 18, 1:00-11:00pm

Rib Night at Wild Wolf

A community celebration featuring beer garden, live music, dancing, & fun activities for all ages.

118 S. Main Street Blacksburg downtownblacksburg.com

Every Monday, 5-10pm Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford wildwolfbeer.com

Bushels and Barrels Local Food, Wine & Beer Festival

Every Tuesday until 9pm

Sat., June 18, 11am-5pm Beer, wine, food, local artisans, and music featuring Rinaldi Flying Circus, Yarn, and Slick Jr. and the Reactors. $15 in advance, $20 at the gate, $40 VIP Reynolds Homestead 463 Homestead Lane Critz 276-694-7181 reynoldshomestead.vt.edu

Beer Festival at Virginia Tech Sat., June 25, noon-5pm Over 40 different beers, live entertainment, & local food.

Holtzman Alumni Center 901 Prices Fork Road Blacksburg 540-231-6285 alumni.vt.edu/beerfestival

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JUNE 2016

$2 Tuesdays at South Street Brewery $2 draft beers (under 8% ABV) 106 South Street Charlottesville 434.293.6550 southstreetbrewery.com Brewer Tap Spotlight at

Pint Specials at Wild Wolf Every Tuesday, 5-9pm Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford wildwolfbeer.com

World of Beer Every Wednesday, 6pm Featuring a handful of carefully selected beers, showcasing the true talents of the featured brewery being represented.

Come early and grab yourself a glass with purchase of a featured brew!

World of Beer 852 W. Main Street Charlottesville 434.760.0771 worldofbeer.com/locations/charlottesville

Steal the Pint at Starr Hill Every Wednesday A different pint glass each week and specials on growler fills on any core brand.

Starr Hill Tap Room 5391 Three Notched Road Crozet starrhill.com

Steal the Pint at Wild Wolf Every Wednesday With any $4 pint purchase, receive a pint glass to take home.

Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford 434.361.0088 wildwolfbeer.com

Trivia Night at Garden Grove Brewing Every Wednesday 3445 West Cary Street Richmond 804.918.6158 gardengrovebrewing.com

Happy Hour at Blue Bee Cider Every Thursday Featuring new ciders on draft as part of the small batch cider draft program.

212 W. 6th Street Richmond 804.231.0280 bluebeecider.com

Trivia Night at Wild Wolf Every Thursday Tacos & Trivia Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford wildwolfbeer.com

Friday Cheers at Blue Mountain Barrel House Every Friday, 5-9pm Enjoy live music from 6-8pm and food trucks 5-9pm 495 Cooperative Way Arrington 434.263.4002 bluemountainbrewery.com

Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford wildwolfbeer.com

Brunch at Blue Mountain Brewery Every Sunday, 11am-2pm Enjoy live music 2:30-5pm 9519 Critzer Shop Rd. Afton 540.456.8020 bluemountainbrewery.com

Brunch at Wild Wolf Every Sunday Live Music from 2-5pm; No Cover Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford wildwolfbeer.com

Local Bucket Sunday at World of Beer Every Sunday Get specials on local beers for the local beer bucket offering on Sundays.

852 W. Main Street Charlottesville

4th Annual Birthday Bash at Bold Rock Cider Sat., June 4, 11am-8pm Featuring live music and food.

Bold Rock 1020 Rockfish Valley Highway Nellysford 434.361.1030 boldrock.com

Paint Nite – Devils Backbone Basecamp Tues., June 7 & 21, 7pm Paint Nite on the patio. Sign up at dbbrewingcompany.com/dbadventures/ 200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival Sat., June 11, VIP Session 12-6pm; Regular 12-6pm 60 Beers 40 Bourbons, lots of BBQ, and live music.

Richmond Raceway Complex Richmond beerandbourbon.com/virginia/showinfo

The Capital Ale House National Beer Expo will take place in Richmond July 13-16. The four day event will be filled with tastings, beer dinners, lunches, brunches, seminars, and more!

Tough Mudder Virginia

Richmond Bacon Festival

Sat., June 11

Sun., June 12

Featuring rolling fields, meandering trails, deep mud pits and the most epic, world-class obstacles ever seen on a mud run course. Finish and you get a beer!

Meadow Event Park 1311 Dawn Blvd.

Doswell toughmudder.com/events/2016-virginia

Over 40 restaurants and food trucks with bacon-centric dishes, beer, and music.

Proceeds benefit Enrichmond Foundation.

17th Street Farmers Market 100 North 17th Street Richmond 23219 enrichmond.org

Southside SPCA Fundraiser & Adoption Drive Sun., June 12, 2-6pm Garden Grove Brewing 3445 West Cary Street Richmond gardengrovebrewing.com

Family Beer Dinner – Devils Backbone Basecamp Thurs., June 16, 7pm A beer paired with our DB Family Beers to be released in Adventure Packs the following week.

200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Devils Backbone Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows will host Daypack Games on Saturday, June 25.

Face off in beer-inspired competitions and dress like your favorite beer style, all for a shot at winning incredible prizes. Plus, there will be opening and closing Olympic style ceremonies, live music, great eats and beer!

4th Annual Made in the Shade Craft Beer Festival Sat., June 18, 12-6pm Beer tastings from VA craft breweries, live music, craft & merchandise vendors, and food concessions.

Avoca Museum 1514 Main Street Altavista 24517 434.369.1076 avocamuseum.org

Trashy Ribs & Brews Festival Sat., June 18, 5-10pm Juicy ribs and cold beer plus funky blues music.

Short Street Orange 540.672.2540

Cheers for Charity with The Haven at Star Hill Sun, June 19, 11am “Beers for Breakfast” brunch served by South Fork Food Truck and bluegrass from The Haven. $1 from every pint sold during the month of June will support The Haven.

Starr Hill Brewery 5391 Three Notch’d Road Crozet starrhill.com

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JUNE 2016

Dad’s Day Pig Out at COTU

Father’s Day Keg ‘n’ Oyster Fest

Day Pack Games at Devils Backbone

Sun., June 19, 12pm

Sun., June 19

Sat., June 25, 10am-5pm

Live music, fresh beer, and big pigs!

Unlimited Dad Tickets: $20 includes a limited edition mug, 1 mug fill, and 1 pig out food plate from Firehouse BBQ. Center of the Universe 11293 Air Park Road Ashland

Pair your favorite Hardywood beer with Rappahannock oysters. Live music and other Richmond gourmet vendors.

Proceeds benefit the James River Association.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery 2408-2410 Ownby Lane Richmond hardywood.com

Face off in beer-inspired competitions and dress like your favorite beer style for a shot at winning incredible prizes!

There will be opening and closing Olympic style ceremonies, live music, great eats and our Daypack sessionable can beers. Register your team at dbbrewingcompany.com/events/event/ daypack-games/ 200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Father’s Day Brunch at Blue Mountain Sun., June 19, 11am-10pm Brunch specials for Dad and live music 2:30-5pm Blue Mountain Brewery 9519 Critzer Shop Rd. Afton 540.456.8020 bluemountainbrewery.com

Father’s Day – Devils Backbone Basecamp Sun., June 19, 11am-3pm Prime Rib Brunch and enjoy the release of the 16 Point IPA! 200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Father’s Day Shrimp Boil Sun., June 19, 11am Enjoy all-you-can-eat shrimp boil from food from Yellow Umbrella Provisions and live music.

Tickets: $25 adults; $10 kids 12 and under Strangeways Brewing 2277 Dabney Road Richmond

Free Screening of Beach Blanket Bingo Fri., June 24, 8:30pm Enjoy the movie, food trucks and cider from Bold Rock Cidery.

IX Art Park 522 2nd Street SE Charlottesville

IPA Jambeeree at Star Hill Sat., June 25, 12-7pm Featuring 12+ VA breweries pouring 40+ local IPAs, brewer sessions, hop exhibits, live music, food trucks, games & prizes.

The Hangar Park Starr Hill Brewery 5391 Three Notch’d Road Crozet starrhill.com

Join us

Sa 12: tu 0

ne 18, u J , pm y a rd 7:00 0-

for the launch event for the new Norfolk Live App available at iTunes

Hops for Hope at

• Live Music, Food Trucks, & Vendors • Special Coffee IPA will be brewed for the event • Tickets: $10 and includes one ticket for the featured beer

Purchase Tickets at www.hope-house.org or at Bold Mariner or the Hope House Office

Bold Mariner Brewing Company 2409 Bowdens Ferry Road, Norfolk

Proceeds benefit Hope House Foundation

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Independence Day Weekend at Blue Mountain Sat., July 2 – Mon., July 4, 11am-10pm Celebrate Independence Day with live music, menu specials, and holiday festivities.

Blue Mountain Brewery 9519 Critzer Shop Rd. Afton 540.456.8020 bluemountainbrewery.com

4 of July – Devils Backbone Basecamp th

Mon., July 4, 11:30am-last call Celebrate the 4th at Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows!

200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Isley Art Showcase #5 Sun.,, July 10, 1-4pm Meet and greet local artist, Aaron Dishner of RVA Photography.

Isley Brewing Company 1715 Summit Ave. Richmond

Capital Ale House National Beer Expo July 13-16 Craft beer from the U.S. and the world, tastings, dinners, lunches, brunches, seminars, and more.

Richmond Convention Center and nearby venues nationalbeerexpo.com

COASTAL VIRGINIA

Weekly Tasting at bottleBOX

Trivia Night at Wasserhund

Join your favorite brewery’s representative as they walk you through a free sampling of new and exciting beers.

325b W. 21st Street Norfolk 757.918.9932 bottlebox.beer/events

Every Monday, 7-9pm

Trivia Night – Devils Backbone Basecamp

Wasserhund Brewing Company 1805 Laskin Road Virginia Beach 757.351.1326 wasserhundbrewing.com

Wed., July 13 & 27, 7pm

Trivia Night at Home Republic

Test out your mixed trivia knowledge for a chance to win a DB Gift Card!

200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

National Mac n’ Cheese Day at Isley Thurs., July 14, 4-9pm As part of the National Beer Expo parties, celebrate National Mac n’ Cheese day with The Return of the Mac and enjoy ½ off Ruby Red Slippers Grapefruit Session Pale Ale, and movies on the big screen.

Isley Brewing Company 1715 Summit Ave. Richmond

Every Tuesday, 7pm Featuring Smartmouth Live Trivia Live Music on the patio and Devils Backbone on tap (buy a pint of Devils Backbone beer and keep the glass, limit one per customer)!

Home Republic 328 Laskin Rd. Virginia Beach 757.226.9593 homerepublicvabeach.com

Trivia Night at Alewerks Every Wednesday, 7pm Alewerks Taproom 189-B Ewell Rd. Williamsburg alewerks.com

The Battle of the Beers

Every Wednesday 5-7pm

Pint Night & Tap Take Over at Home Republic Every Thursday Home Republic 328 Laskin Rd. Virginia Beach 757.226.9593 homerepublicvabeach.com

Virginia Craft Beer Thursday Every Thursday Enjoy local Virginia brewed beers for $3 a pint.

Tapped Gastropub 1550 Laskin Road Virginia Beach 757.965.5585 tappedgastropub.com

presented by Beach Ambassadors will take place Saturday, August 6 in Virginia Beach. All 757 breweries will compete on behalf of their chosen charity in three categories: Best IPA, Brewer’s Choice, & People’s Choice.

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JUNE 2016

Firkin Friday at Cogans North

Beer Garden at the Boardwalk Art Show

Every Friday

Fri.-Sun, June 17-19

A new firkin is tapped each week.

4311 Colley Avenue Norfolk 757.627.6428 coganspizza.com

Enjoy beer from Back Bay Brewing Co. and live music.

24th Street Park Virginia Beach boardwalkartshow.com

Trivia Night at Big Ugly

Hops for Hope

Thurs., June 2 & July 7

Sat., June 18, 1-7pm

Bring your smartest friends to compete for prizes including Big Ugly gift cards.

Big Ugly Brewing Company 1296 Battlefield Blvd.

Chesapeake

Launch event for Norfolk Live App with live music, food trucks, and vendors.

Plus, a special coffee IPA. Tickets: $10 Proceeds benefit Hope House Foundation Bold Mariner Brewing Company 2409 Bowdens Ferry Road Norfolk boldmariner.com

O’Connoroo Sat., June 4, 12-9pm All day festival with music on indoor and outdoor stages, food trucks, brewery tours, games, and more!

O’Connor Brewing Company 211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337

40th Annual Norfolk Harborfest Fri.-Sun., June 9-12 The historic waterfront festival features the Parade of Sail, artisan foods and beverages, work boat races, unique performances, one of the largest fireworks shows on the East Coast, family games and activities, national and regional entertainment, and much more.

Town Point Park Waterside Drive Norfolk 757-441-2345 festevents.org

Beers in the ‘burg Sat., June 11, 4-7pm Enjoy a true 18 century alehouse! Hang out with Legend Brewing Company and sample 10 different brews.

Chownings Tavern Garden 109 East Duke of Gloucester Street Williamsburg 888.965.7254 th

Revolutionary Beer Festival Sat., June 11, 12-5pm Featuring local craft beer from VA paired with food trucks.

Chesapeake City Park 900 City Park Dr. Chesapeake

VBSPCA & Wasserhund Adoption Event Sat., June 11, 1:30-4:30pm Come out and meet some of the amazing dogs available for adoption from the VBSPCA. Wasserhund Brewing Company 1805 Laskin Road Virginia Beach wasserhundbrewing.com

OBC Beer Dinner with Karnage Asada Sun., June 12, 7-9pm

New Town Summer Fest Sat., June 18, 12:30-5pm 14 breweries with 28 craft brews, live music, and food vendors.

Tickets: $40; VIP: $65 Proceeds benefit Meals on Wheels 4301 New Town Ave. Williamsburg

Beach Ambassadors Birthday Bash Sat., June 18, 3-11pm Enjoy a variety of local craft brews and live music.

24th Street Park Virginia Beach boardwalkartshow.com

Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival Fri., June 24, noon-10pm, Sat., June 25, noon-10pm; Sun., June 26, noon-6pm Experience the heart and soul of Louisiana with Cajun food, beer, live music, and Arts Market of New Orleans.

Town Point Park Waterside Drive Norfolk 757-441-2345 festevents.org

Rhythm, Brews, & BBQ Sat., June 25, 3-8pm 3 bands, great BBQ, and lots of craft brews!

Waverly Ave. Kilmarnock 804.435.6092

Wasserhund ‘Murica Party Sat., July 2, 7-11pm Kick off July 4th weekend by getting as ‘Murican as you can! Trucker hats, overalls, mullets, freedom! Music by 623 Jazz Combo. Prizes awarded for most patriotic outfit, most Wal-Mart –Tastic outfit, and Judges Choice!

Wasserhund Brewing Company 1805 Laskin Road Virginia Beach wasserhundbrewing.com

A delicious 4-course meal from Hampton Roads’ number one food truck, accompanied by special beer pairings. $40 including tax and gratuity. Seats are limited.

O’Connor Brewing Company 211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337

Bold Mariner Block Party

Adult Prom at Wasserhund

Sample a wide variety of summer beers from a selection of local, regional, national, and international breweries.

Town Point Park 1 Waterside Drive Norfolk 23510 757.441.2345 festevents.org

Fri., June 17, 7-10pm Re-live your prom! Music by DJ Silver.

Prizes will be awarded for Prom King & Queen and most awful attire.

Wasserhund Brewing Company 1805 Laskin Road Virginia Beach wasserhundbrewing.com

Sat., July 3 Featuring Major and the Monbacks Bold Mariner Brewing Company 2409 Bowdens Ferry Road Norfolk boldmariner.com

6th Annual Summer BrewFest Fri., July 8, 5-9pm

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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New Beer Release at O’Connor

Battle of the Beers

Justin’s Flavor Infusion Night

Americana Beer Fest

Sat., July 16

Sat., Aug. 6, 1-6pm

Every Friday, 3:30-10pm

Sat., June 11, 2-7pm

New Beer Release: Virginia Vintage Series: Godspeed Abbey Ale & Ironclad Godspeed. Using grains from Copper Fox Distillery and other local ingredients, our Virginia Vintage series exudes the essence of fine, artisanal Virginia products.

O’Connor Brewing Company 211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337

All 757 breweries compete on behalf of their chosen charity in three categories: Best IPA, Brewer’s Choice, & People’s Choice. Live music by Major and the Monbacks and Sam Burchfield Band, food trucks, games, and more!

Advance Tickets: $35 Hunt Club Farm 2388 London Bridge Road Virginia Beach beachambassadors.com

We combine off the wall ingredients with one of our beers to create a one-of-akind beer.

Adventure Brewing Company 33 Perchwood Dr., Unit 101 Stafford 22405 540.242.8876 facebook.com/adventurebrewing/

Featuring over 60 breweries, a comedy tent, game zone for grown folks, food truck rally, craft soda garden, live music and our well-known BrewU craft beer education stage.

Tickets: $45; VIP: $100 Morven Park 17195 Southern Planter Lane Leesburg americanabeerfest.org

New Beer Release at O’Connor

Whistle Belly Festival

Fri., July 29

Sun., Aug. 7, noon-5pm

New Beer Release: Endless Saison Series: Tamarindo Red Coffee Saison.

Fusing the clean, lively characteristics of Costa Rican coffee and the malt components of a red ale, this complex and satisfying brew pours a bright autumnal red color and is as enticing as the magical surf spot of Tamarindo, Costa Rica that inspired it.

O’Connor Brewing Company 211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337

Virginia Beer & food tastings, live music, and raffle prizes.

Merchants Square Williamsburg 757.293.6478 dogstreetpub.com

NORTHERN VIRGINIA Team Trivia at Ornery Every Monday, 7:30pm Happy Hour extended to 9pm. Weekly prizes!

Ornery Beer Company 14389 Potomac Mills Road Woodbridge

OBC & VGH’s Harry Potter Birthday & Book Release Party Sun., July 31 O’Connor & Video Game Heaven are hosting a birthday party for Harry Potter and a celebration for the book release, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Cosplay contest, HP trivia, HP video games, wizarding beer games, and a birthday beer through the OBC randall!

211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337

We’re Firkin Nuts Every Thursday, 3:30-10pm Featuring one of our firkin cask ales made with fresh ingredients unique to Adventure Brewing.

Adventure Brewing Company 33 Perchwood Dr., Unit 101 Stafford 22405 540.242.8876 facebook.com/adventurebrewing/

A Meal and The Brew, A Craft Beer Dinner Sat., June 4, 7-9pm 4 course dinner by Grandale paired with brews from Adroit Theory. $70 per person 14001 Harpers Ferry Rd. Purcellville 540.660.6000

Rock the River FXBG Sat., June 4, 7am-8pm Combining the adventurous side of multi-sport river and foot races as well as the enjoyment of great beer, tasty food, kid-friendly activities, local art, and live music.

2410 Caroline Street Fredericksburg 540.455.5605 rocktheriverfxbg.com

Grimm Tap Takeover at Beltway Fri. & Sat., June 10 & 11 All 6 lines will be dedicated to Grimm.

Beltway Brewing Co 22620 Davis Drive #110 Sterling beltwaybrewco.com

Americana Beer Fest Official After Party Sat., June 11, 8pm Live music by People’s Live. $10 at door; $5 with wristband Lost Rhino Retreat 22885 Brambleton Plaza Ashburn americanabeerfest.org

Northern VA Summer Brew Fest Sat., June 18, 12-7pm & Sun., June 19, 11am-7pm Presented by Mad Fox Brewing Company, featuring seasonal beers, meads, and ciders from 45+ regional breweries & cideries, educational programs, food, music, crafters and more.

The Special Event Center at Bull Run Regional Park 7700 Bull Run Dr. Centreville 703.923.0800 novabrewfest.com

NORTHERN VIRGINIA SUMMER BREWFEST Where Great Heads Come Together

JUNE 18TH + 19TH

SAT: 12 PM - 7 PM | SUN: 11 AM - 7 PM Special Events Center at Bull Run Regional Park 45+ MICROBREWS b FOOD b MUSIC b VIP TENT FAMILY FUN b CORNHOLE b CRAFTS + VENDORS Presented by

Buy Your Tickets Online and Save!

NOVABREWFEST.COM - 58 -

JUNE 2016

be bold

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Celebrate the 4th of July in Downtown Harrisonburg with

Beers N’ Cheers at Valley Fourth!

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Live Friday at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room

Think & Drink Trivia @ The Lab

Friday, June 10, 6:30pm

Blue Lab Brewery 123 S. Randolph Street Lexington bluelabrewing.com

Acoustic Jiggalos (acoustic covers) 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Live @ The Lab

Virginia Herb Festival

Every Thursday, 6pm

Every Friday, 6-9pm

Sat. & Sun., June 11 & 12, Noon-6pm

Enjoy live music every Friday.

Blue Lab Brewery 123 S. Randolph Street Lexington bluelabrewing.com

4 acres of vendors, food, beer, and presentations.

150 Ridgemont Road Middletown virginiaherbfestival.com

Red, White, & Brew

Kickoff for Winchester Craft Beer Week

Sat., June 4, 4:30-9pm Food, beer, wine, crafts, and live music.

Tickets: $10 Turner Ave. Broadway 540.896.4992

Growler Girls at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Thurs., June 9, 6:30pm Water Color Relaxation 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

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JUNE 2016

Sun., June 12, 12pm Join Starr Hill, Winchester Brew Works and Murphy Beverage Co. to kick-off Winchester Craft Beer Week. Live music, corn hole and guest taps from Starr Hill, Escutcheon, and O’Connor.

Winchester Brew Works 320 N. Cameron Street Winchester

Mug Club at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Thurs., June 16 Raffle Peak Series Glass 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Growler Team Relay Sun., June 18, 8am-7pm 72.4 mile running adventure from Brothers Craft Brewery to Starr Hill and back. Teams of 5 or 10 people. Huge party at the finish line.

Brothers Craft Brewery 800 N. Main Street Harrisonburg threebrosbrew.com

Hop Blossom Craft Beer Festival Sat., June 18, Noon-6pm Featuring 40+ breweries, live entertainment, homebrew competition and more. $25/adv., $30/gate VIP $75 Designated Driver VIP $40 Proceeds benefit Gooddogz.org for pet rescue.

Old Town Winchester West Boscawen Street Winchester hopblossom.com

Trivia Night at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Thurs., June 23, 6:30pm Beach Theme 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Live Friday at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Fri., June 24, 6:30pm Triple Shot (Cross’n County Lines Acoustic) 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Shenandoah Seasonings Craft Beer Dinner Fri., June 24, 6pm Multi-course dinner featuring entrees such as Bison Filet, Rack of Venison, Smoked Sea Trout, and Veal Roulade paired with exceptional craft beer.

Skyland Mile 41.7 & 42.5 on Skyline Drive Luray 877-847-1919

Beers N’ Cheers at Valley Fourth Mon., July 4, 4:00-9:30pm A celebration of craft brews, local wines, and great music in the parking lot next to the Turner Pavilion.

212 South Main Street Harrisonburg 540-432-8922 downtownharrisonburg.org/valleyfourth

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Growler Girls at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Thurs., July 14, 6:30pm Beer Sensory Basics with Guest Speaker Coey Jenkins. Learn the basics of beer sensory while enjoying a beer with the ladies!

50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Live Friday at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Fri., July 15, 6:30pm Chris & Blake (bluegrass) 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Mug Club at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Thurs., July 21, 6:30pm 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA Ballpark Beer Fest Sat., July 9, 7-11pm Over 50 beers to sample and live music.

Hooke Field 450 Commonwealth Blvd Martinsville 276.403.5250

VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS Big Lick Beertopia Sat., June 11 A celebration of craft beer with over 45 breweries presented by Roanoke Jaycees. Proceeds benefit Camp VA Jaycee.

Lewis Gale Field 1008 Texas St. Salem 540.580.2481 biglickbeertopia.org

Trivia Night at Big Lick Thurs., June 16, 7-8:30pm

Trivia Night at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room

Singles or teams up to 4 people. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Place Big Lick Brewing Company 135 Salem Ave. SW Roanoke

Thurs., July 28, 6:30pm

Father’s Day at Chaos Mountain

“American Beer” theme 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Live Friday at Devils Backbone Outpost Brewery & Tap Room Fri., July 29, 6:30pm Zac Price (country acoustic) 50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Sun., June 19, 12-6pm Celebrate Dad with cold beer and Rick’s Wrap It Up. Plus, Dad receives a free Chaos Mountain logo pint glass with the purchase of any beer flight.

Chaos Mountain Brewing Company 3135 Dillons Mill Road Callaway

Barrels, Bottles, & Casks Fri., July 29 & Sat., July 30, 6 & 7pm Explore the beverages of choice on a guided tour that begins in Thomas Jefferson’s kitchen and progresses through the house with stops along the way to sample different beverages and share insights into the types of foods enjoyed on the plantation.

Poplar Forest 1542 Bateman Bridge Road Forest 434.534.8120

The Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest, presented by Mad Fox Brewing Company, takes place June 18 & 19.

Enjoy brews, food, music, games, crafts, vendors, and more!

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JUNE 2016

Gabe Strauss, lead bartender in the Starr Hill Tap Room, serves up tasty brews!

APPALACHIA Busted Still Brewing Company 185 Homeplace Drive Gate City 24251 276.210.6038

Bull & Bones Brewhaus 1470 S Main St., #120 Blacksburg 540.953.2855 bullandbones.com

Creek Bottom Brews

BLUE RIDGE HIGHLANDS

307 Meadow Street Galax 276.236.BEER (2337) cbbrew.com

Bristol Brewery Downtown

The Damascus Brewery

41 Piedmont Avenue Bristol 276.608.1220 bristolbrew.com

32173 Government Road Damascus 540.314.2782 thedamascusbrewery.com

Old Glade Brewery

Rising Silo Brewing Company

Right Mind Brewing Company

River Company Brewery

217 Town Square St. Glade Spring, VA 24340 Oldgladebrewery.com 1410 S. Main Street Blacksburg 540.552.7000 facebook.com/leftysgrille

Right Turn, Clyde Brewing Company 300 A Main Street Narrows 540.921.7283 rtcbrewing.com

2351 Glade Rd Blacksburg 410.596.1200

6633 Viscoe Rd. Radford (Fairlawn) 540.633.3940 therivercompanybrewery.com

Studio Brew

221 Moore Street Bristol studiobrew.net

Wolf Hills Brewing Company 350 Park St. Abingdon 303.5508762 wolfhillsbrewing.com

CENTRAL VIRGINIA 7 Hills Brewing Company 115 S. 15th St. Richmond 804.716.8307

Apocalypse Ale Works 1257 Burnbridge Rd Forest 434.258.8761 endofbadbeer.com

Ardent Craft Ales

3200 W. Leigh Street Richmond 804.359.1605 ardentcraftales.com

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Blue Mountain Brewery

Garden Grove Brewing

Black Walnut Brewing Company

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

9519 Critzer Shop Rd. Afton 540.456.8020 bluemountainbrewery.com 210 S King Street Leesburg facebook.com/ blackwalnutbrewery

Blue Mountain Barrel House 495 Cooperative Way Arrington 434.263.4002 bluemountainbarrel.com

C’ville-ian Brewing Company 705 W. Main Street Charlottesville 434.328.2252 cvillebrewco.com

Center of the Universe Brewing Company 11293 Air Park Rd. Ashland 804.368.0299 cotubrewing.com

Champion Brewing Company

324 6th St SE Charlottesville 434.295.2739 championbrewingcompany.com

Devils Backbone Brewing Company - Basecamp 200 Mosbys Run Roseland 434.361.1001 dbbrewingcompany.com

Extra Billy’s

1110 Alverser Dr. Midlothian 804.379.8727 extrabillys.com/ ExtraBillysBarBQ2.htm

Final Gravity Brewing Company 6118 Lakeside Ave. Richmond 804.264.4808

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JUNE 2016

3445 West Cary Street Richmond 804-918-6158 gardengrovebrewing.com 2408 Ownby Ln. Richmond 804.420.2420 hardywood.com

Isley Brewing Company

1715 Summit Avenue Richmond 804.499.0721 isleybrewingcompany.com

James River Brewery 561 Valley St. Scottsville 434.286.7837 jrbrewery.com

Jefferson Street Brewery

1309 Jefferson St Lynchburg 434.455.1514 jeffersonstreetbrewery.com

Legend Brewing Company 321 W. Seventh St. Richmond 804.232.3446 legendbrewing.com

Lickinghole Creek Farm Brewery

Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery

6135 Rockfish Gap Tpke.

Crozet 434.823.4878 prnbrewery.com Rock Bottom

Restaurant & Brewery

11800 W. Broad Street Richmond 23233 804-237-1684 rockbottom.com

South Street Brewery

106 South Street Charlottesville 434.293.6550 southstreetbrewery.com

Starr Hill Brewery

5391 Three Notch’d Rd. Crozet 434.823.5671 starrhill.com

Strangeways Brewing

2277 Dabney Rd. Richmond 804.303.4336 strangewaysbrewing.com

The Answer Brewpub

6008 West Broad St. Richmond facebook.com theanswerbrewpub.com

The Veil Brewing Company

4100 Knolls Point Dr. Goochland 804.314.4380 lickingholecreek.com

1301 Roseneath RoadRichmond 804.355.58515 theveilbrewing.com

Loose Shoe Brewing Company

946 Grady Ave Charlottesville 434.293.0610 threenotchdbrewing.com

198 Ambriar Plaza Amherst 434-941-7345 looseshoebrewing.com

Midnight Brewery

2410 Granite Ridge Rd. Rockville 804.356.9379 midnight-brewery.com

Three Notch’d Brewing Company

Triple Crossing Brewing Company 113 S. Foushee St. Richmond triplecrossingbeer.com

White Rock Brewing Company

Coelacanth Brewing

Wild Wolf Brewing Company

Commonwealth Brewing Company

2117 Bruno Drive Goodview 24905 540.890.3359 whiterockwines.com.

2461 Rockfish Valley Highway Nellysford 434.361.0088 wildwolfbeer.com

Willow Sprung Brewery in The Light Well Restaurant 110 E Main Street Orange 540.661.0004 thelightwell.com

COASTAL VIRGINIA Alewerks

189-B Ewell Rd. Williamsburg 757.220.3670 williamsburgalewerks.com

Back Bay Brewing Company 614 Norfolk Ave. Virginia Beach 757.531.7750 backbaybrewco.com

Big Ugly Brewing Company

1296 Battlefield Blvd. South Chesapeake 757-609-2739 biguglybrewing.com

760 W. 22nd Street Norfolk 757.59.UGLY.1 coelacanth.com

2444 Pleasure House Rd. Virginia Beach 757.305.9652

Gordon Biersch

4561 Virginia Beach Blvd.

Virginia Beach 757.490.2739

Home Republic Brew Pub 328 Laskin Road Virginia Beach 757.226.9593

O’Connor Brewing Company 211 W. 24th Street Norfolk 757.623.2337 oconnorbrewing.com

Pleasure House Brewing

3025 Shore Dr. Virginia Beach, VA 23451 757.647.8597 pleasurehousebrewing.com

Reaver Beach Brewing Company 1505 Taylor Farm Road Virginia Beach 757.563.2337 beachbrewingcompany.com

Rip Rap Brewing Company

Bold Mariner

116 E 25th Street Norfolk riprapbrewing.com

Brass Cannon Brewing Company

1309 Raleigh Ave., #300 Norfolk 757.624.3939 smartmouthbrewing.com

2409 Bowdens Ferry Road Norfolk boldmariner.com 8105 Richmond Rd., #105 Toano 757.566.0001 brasscannonbrewing.com

Smartmouth Brewing Company

St. George Brewing Company 204 Challenger Way Hampton 757.865.7781 stgeorgebrewingco.com

Steam Bell Beer Works

Belly Love Brewing Company

Lost Rhino Brewing Company

The Virginia Beer Company

Beltway Brewing Company

Lake Anne Brew House

Tradition Brewing Company

Blue & Gray Brewing Company

Lost Rhino Retreat

1717 E Oak Blvd.

Midlothian 804.728.1875 facebook.com/steambellbeer 401 Second Street Williamsburg 757.378.2903 virginiabeerco.com

700 Thimble Shoals Blvd.

Newport News 757.303.3415 traditionbrewing.com

Wasserhund Brewing Company 805 Laskin Rd. #102 Virginia Beach 757.618.6051

Wharf Hill Brewing Co.

25 Main Street Smithfield 757-357-7100 Wharfhillbrewing.com

725 E Main Street Purcellville, VA 20132 540.441.3159 bellylovebrewing.com 22620 Davis Dr. #110 Sterling 571.989.2739 beltwaybrewco.com

3300 Dill Smith Dr. Fredericksburg 540.371.7799 blueandgraybrewingco.com

Caboose Brewing Company 520 Mill Street NE Vienna 703-865-8580 caboosebrewing.com

21730 Red Rum Dr., Ste. 142 Ashburn 571.291.2083 lostrhino.com 11424 Washington Plaza West Reston 571.758.2739 lakeannebrewhouse.com 22885 Brambleton Plaza Brambleton 703.327.0311

Loudoun Brewing Company 310 E Market St. Leesburg 703.350.8553 loudounbrewing.com

Maltese Brewing Company 11047 B Pierson Drive Fredericksburg maltesebrewing.com

Mustang Sally Brewing Company

Ornery Beer Company

14389 Potomac Mills Drive Woodbridge, 22192 703.490.6400 ornerybeer.com

14140 Parke Long Court Chantilly 703.888.6447 msbrewing.com

Pen Druid Brewing

New District Brewing Company

Port City Brewing Company

2709 S Oakland Street Arlington 22206 703.888.5820

Ocelot Brewing Company

23600 Overland Drive, Ste. 180 Sterling 703-665-2146 ocelotbrewing.com

Capitol City Brewing Company

7 River Lane Sperryville, 22740 540.987.8800 pendruid.com

3950 Wheeler Ave. Alexandria 703.797.2739 portcitybrewing.com

Quattro Goombas Brewing Company

22860 James Monroe Highway Aldie 703-327-6052 goombabrewery.com

Rusty Beaver Brewery

4001 Campbell Ave. Arlington 703.578.3888 capcitybrew.com

2505 Horse Pasture Road, Ste. 104 Virginia Beach 757.689.4021 yvbc.com

Corcoran Brewing Company

18043 Jefferson Davis Hwy Ruther Glen (Ladysmith Exit off I-95) 855.478.7892 rustybeaverbrewery.com

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Crooked Run Brewing

925 N Garfield Street Arlington 22201 703.786.5174 sehkraftbrewing.com

Young Veterans Brewing Company

1781 Brewing Company 11109 Plank Rd. Spotsylvania 804.823.2598

Adroit Theory Brewing Company 404 Browing Ct., Unit C Purcellville 703.722.3144 adroit-theory.com

Adventure Brewing Co.

33 Perchwood Dr. Fredericksburg 540.242.8876 adventurebrewing.com

Aslin Beer Company

257 Sunset Park Drive Herndon, VA 20170 703.787.5766 aslinbeer.com

BadWolf (Big) Brewing Company

8420 Kao Circle Manassas, 20110 badwolfbrewingcompany.com

BadWolf (Little) Brewing Company 9776 Center St. Manassas 571.208.1064 badwolfbrewingcompany.com

Barnhouse Brewery

43271 Spinks Ferry Road Leesburg 703.675.8408 barnhousebrewery.com

Battlefield Brewing Company 4187 Plank Rd Fredericksburg 540.785.2164 chancellorpub@msn.com

Beer Hound Brewery

201 Waters Place Culpeper 22701 540-317-5327 beerhoundbrewery.com

205 E. Hirst Road, Suite 105 Purcellville 540.441.3102 corcoranbrewing.com

Sehkraft Brewing Company

205 Harrison St. Leesburg 571.978.4446 crookedrunbrewing.com

Spencer Devon Brewing Company

Dirt Farm Brewing Co.

106 George Street Fredericksburg 540-999-6253 spencerdevonbrewing.com

Fair Winds Brewing Company

14250 Sweetwater Ln. Centreville 703.449.1100 greatamericanrestaurants.com

18701 Foggy Bottom Rd. Bluemont 540.554.2337 dirtfarmbrewing.com

Sweetwater Tavern

7000 Newington Road, Suites K&L Lorton 703-372-2001 fairwindsbrewing.com

Sweetwater Tavern

3066 Gate House Plaza Falls Church 703.645.8100 greatamericanrestaurants.com

Far Gohn Brewing Co.

Sweetwater Tavern

301 S Main Street Culpeper

45980 Waterview Plaza Sterling 571.434.6500 greatamericanrestaurants.com

Forge Brew Works

8532 Terminal Rd., Ste. L Lorton 703.372.2979 forgebrewworks.com

Gordon Biersch

Tyson’s Corner Mall McLean 703.388.5454 gordonbiersch.com

Growling Bear Brewing Company 14051 Crown Court Woodbridge, 22193 571.535.1965 growlingbearbrewing.com

Heritage Brewing Co.

9436 Center Point Lane Manassas 800.432.1792 heritagebrewing.com

Hopkins Ordinary Ale Works

47 Main St. Sperryville 540.987.3383 hopkinsordinary.com/ale-works

Tin Cannon Brewing Co

Deliciously crafted beer at Ornery Beer Company & Public House in Woodbridge

MacDowell Brew Kitchen

202 Harrison St. SE Leesburg 703.777.2739 macdowellbrewkitchen.com

Mad Fox Brewing Company 444 West Broad St., Ste. I Falls Church 703.942.6840 madfoxbrewing.com

Mad Horse Brew Pub

34 E Broad Way Lovettsville 540.436.0669 madhorsebrewpub.com

Old Bust Head Brewing Company 7134 Lineweaver Rd. Warrenton 540.347.4777 oldbusthead.com

Old 690 Brewing Company

15670 Ashbury Church Road Purcellville old690.com

Old Ox Brewery

44652 Guilford Dr Unit 114 Ashburn 703.729.8375 oldoxbrewery.com

7679 Limestone Dr. #130 Gainesville 571-248-0489 tincannonbrewing.com

Vanish Brewing

44624 Leelyn Farm Lane Leesburg 20176 vanishbeer.com

Wild Run Brewing Company

3071 Jefferson Davis Hwy Stafford 540.659.3447 wildrunbrewing.com

SHENANDOAH VALLEY Alesatian Brewing Company 23 N. Loudoun Street Winchester 540.667.2743 alesatianbrewing.com

Backroom Brewery

150 Ridgemont Rd. Middletown 540.869.8482 facebook.com/BackroomBrewery VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Blue Lab Brewing Company 123 S. Randolph St. Lexington 540.458.0146 bluelabbrewing.com

Brothers Craft Brewing 800 N Main Street Harrisonburg 540.432.8940 threebrosbrew.com

Devils Backbone Brewing Company - Outpost

BLUE RIDGE HIGHLANDS Foggy Ridge Cider

1328 Pineview Rd. Dugspur 276.398.2337 foggyridgecider.com

Buskey Cider

2910 W. Leigh Street Richmond buskeycider.com

Castle Hill Cider

CENTRAL VIRGINIA

6065 Turkey Sag Rd. Keswick 434.296.0047 castlehillcider.com

Albemarle CiderWorks

Courthouse Creek Cider

2545 Rural Ridge Ln. North Garden 434.297.2326 albemarleciderworks.com

Maidens Road Goochland facebook.com/ courthousecreek

Blue Bee Cider

Potter’s Craft Cider

212 W. 6th St. Richmond 804.231.0280 bluebeecider.com

Blue Toad Hard Cider Pub

9278 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Afton 434.996.6992 bluetoadhardcider.com

Bold Rock Hard Cider

1020 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford 434.361.1030 boldrock.com

Charlottesville potterscraftcider.com

NORTHERN VIRGINIA Corcoran Vineyards Hard Cider 14635 Corky’s Farm Lane Waterford 540.882.9073 corcoranvineyards.com

Mount Defiance Cidery & Distillery

207 W. Washington St., Middleburg 540.687.8100 mtdefiance.com

Wild Hare Hard Cider

33735 Snickersville Turnpike Bluemont 703.216.8630 wildharecider.com

SHENANDOAH VALLEY Cobbler Mountain Cellars 5909 Long Fall Lane Delaplane 540.364.2802 cobblercellars.com

Old Hill Cider

17768 Honeyville Rd. Timberville 540.896.7582 oldhillcider.com

Winchester Ciderworks

2502 N. Frederick Pike Winchester 540.550.3800 WinchesterCiderworks.com

VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS Big Fish Cider Co.

59 Spruce Street Monterey 540.468.2322 bigfishcider.com

50 Northwind Lane Lexington 540.462.6200 dbbrewingcompany.com

Escutcheon Brewing Company 150 W. Commercial Street Winchester 540.391.8713 escutcheonbrewing.com

Pale Fire Brewing Company 217 S. Liberty Street Harrisonburg 540-217-5452 palefirebrewing.com

Queen City Brewing

209 Trade St. Danville 434-549-BREW (2739)

Big Lick Brewing Company

135 Salem Ave. Roanoke, VA 24011 540-562-8383 biglickbrewingco.com

Callaway Brewing Company 21 Woodwinds Road Callaway 540.267.6733 callawaybrewingco.com

Chaos Mountain Brewing Company 3135 Dillons Mill Rd. Callaway 540.334.1600 chaosmountainbrewing.com

Flying Mouse Brewery

221 Precast Way Troutville 540.992.1288 flyingmousebrewery.com

Parkway Brewing

Redbeard Brewing

Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers

120 South Lewis St. Staunton 804.641.9340 redbeardbrews.com

Seven Arrows Brewing Company 2508 Jefferson Hwy. Ste 1 Waynesboro 540-221-6968 sevenarrowsbrewing.com

Shenandoah Valley Brewing Company

17 Middlebrook Ave. Staunton 540.887.2337 shenvalbrew.com/

375 Madrid Road Waynesboro 540.490.2609 stablecraftbrewing.com

Swover Creek Farm Brewery 4176 Swover Creek Rd. Edinburg 540.984.8973 swovercreekfarms.com

Three Notch’d Brewing Co. Harrisonburg Taproom 241 E. Market Street Harrisonburg 540.217.5939

Winchester Brew Works

320 N Cameroon Street Winchester 540.692.9242 winchesterbrewworks.com

Wolfe Street Brewing Company 120 W. Wolfe St. Harrisonburg

Woodstock Brewhouse

123 E Court Street Woodstock 22664 woodstockbrewhouse.com 540-459-2739

JUNE 2016

2 Witches Winery & Brewing Company

834 Springhill Road Staunton 540.213.8014 qcbrewing.com

Stable Craft Brewing at Hermitage Hill

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VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS

739 Kessler Mill Rd. Salem parkwaybrewing.com 523 Shenandoah Avenue Roanoke 540.529.2140 soaringridge.com

Sunken City Brewery

40 Brewery Dr. Hardy 540.420.0476 sunkencitybeer.com

Have we missed something?

Email Jennifer at Jennifer.McDonald @hotmail.com with updates.

VIRGINIACRAFTBEER.COM

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Not YourTypical

BrewPub

wildwolfbeer.com 2461 Rockfish Valley Hwy. Nellysford, VA 22958 434- 361- 0088

Not Just a Brewery...

It’s an Experience.

Keep IT FRESH Eat & Drink Local Monday Ribs Night Tuesday $1 off Pints* Wednesday Steal the Pint Night

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JUNE 2016

Thursday Live Trivia Taco Specials

Live Music Every Friday 7-10pm Saturday 7-10pm Sunday 2-5pm No Cover Charge

*See website for more details

Event Center Biergarten Gift Shop Restaurant Brewery Sports Bar Dog Friendly Family Friendly Cornhole