Monthly Archives: September 2015

ADROIT THEORY BREWING COMPANY

Adroit Theory Brewing Company 

PURCELLVILLE, VIRGINIA

One of the most interesting and bold nanobrewery gone wild!

Specializing in experimental barrel-aged elixirs and a few solid hybridized regulars, ‘esoteric’ Purcellville-based ADROIT THEORY BREWING COMPANY crafts some of Virginia’s finest Big Beers in small batches at its rustic light industrial warehouse. Wood-barreled tables and a large L-shaped bar furnish the cavernous interior and heavy metal music plays loudly during tasting hours. Head brewer Greg Skotzko’s rangy ales usually top out above 9% ABV, though a few equally fine fruitier choices were deviously sessionable.

Serving at least twenty different brews at any given time, I sit at the wood-and-metal stooled bar on a Friday evening, September ’15, to enjoy ten varied selections going from moderate India Pale Ale to rum-soaked porter during a most intriguing two-hour session. The crowd heightens by 7PM, as young and old alike buy growlers, 4-ounce servings or pints. Some visitors grab a seat on the deck to enjoy sundown beneath blue umbrellas at green plastic tables.

Open since January 2014, Adroit Theory has already crafted over 150 different small batch beers in less than twenty months. Liberated old rockers screaming along to Metallica and Judas Priest settle next to younger folks more concerned with the headier-than-usual liquid fare this clean and friendly hotspot offers in spades. A destination for any serious beer connoisseur traveling thru the Old Dominion State, Adroit Theory’s ever-changing recipes just keep-a coming.

For starters, I reached for sumptuous perfume-brandied mainstay, Angels Trumpet IPA, a sharply spice-hopped medium body with tantalizing lemony grapefruit-mango-pineapple tropicalia and brisk orange peel bittering receiving astringent ethanol boozing. Interestingly, its mezcal-barreled version added light agave hints to cotton-candied malt sweetness and juicy mango-grapefruit-orange-tangerine tang for a soft-toned delight.

A few more fruity concoctions really caught my attention as well. Easygoing Mango Fook Yourself (7% ABV) placed syrupy mango above its lemony IPA-styled pineapple-tangerine-peach tang and sugared wheat backbone. Cult 010 Blue’s Berry, a nifty Belgian dubbel, brought blueberry ripeness to raisin-dried cranberry, blackberry, boysenberry and gooseberry souring. Lightly creamed Belgian-spiced dessert treat, Lemon Tripel, brought candied lemondrop tartness to peachy vanilla sweetness.

Ambitious Cult 013 Nova Initia Quad benefited from whiskey-nipped dried fruiting and brown chocolate sweetness as black cherry, fig and raisin tones carried the load. 

Truly rewarding Death March Imperial IPA loaded floral fruitiness and piney hop resin atop richly caramelized chocolate malting. Its candied red cherry sweetness and zesty grapefruit-orange tang really zing the senses.

On the dark side were four alcohol-fueled faves. Cult 008 Evil Grace Imperial Stout  proved worthy gathering stylish coffee-roasted black chocolate richness for ancillary milk-creamed espresso, cacao nibs and toffee illusions as well as dried raisin nuances and a hint of whiskey. Its more complex companion, B/A/Y/S V20 Imperial Stout, lined its smoked mocha mass with hop-charred dried fruiting and a bourbon wisp, gaining coffee-roasted chocolate prominence and subtle cocoa remnant along the way.

Before heading out, dazzlingly hybridized Black Celebration Imperial Porter offered black lava-salted brine to rum-soaked chocolate roast and molasses-sapped sugaring, picking up light oak tannins at the chewy caramelized mocha finish.                 

www.adroit-theory.com

PALE FIRE BREWING COMPANY

HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA

After cookie-cutter chain restaurants and malls replaced once-thriving ’70s department stores, Shenandoah Valley county seat Harrisonburg decided to revamp local businesses and revitalize apartments by the ’90s while James Madison University continued to thrive. In the light industrial section a few blocks away from midtown at the Ice House mall, PALE FIRE BREWING COMPANY continues to gain popularity with its sterling operation. Shiny glass-encased silver brew tanks hold a nice array of brews served at the U-shaped central bar.

Mild Golden Hour American Wheat Ale, a well-rounded Amarillo-hopped moderation counters dry lemon-pined bitterness with caramelized wheat sweetness, leaving lemon-pitted sourness and lemongrass herbage at the back end. Hybridized Foxy Roxy Rocktown Wheat (a collaboration with Brothers Brewery) brings IPA-styled dark fruited spicing to dewy carafa malts and barley-roasted red wheat.

Fruity American hops and dewy English malts formulate Deadly Rhythm Pale Ale, a dry medium body meshing raw-honeyed peat earthiness, fig-sugared spicing and dark floral accents.

Highly expressive farmhouse ale, Saving Grace Table Beer, brings herbal-citric saison yeast to pilsner-malted Saaz hops, allowing white-peppered lemon tartness and salty lemongrass brininess to pick up a bubbly mandarin orange spritz. In comparison, Salad Days American Saison loads barley-roasted rye malting onto Amarillo/Simcoe/Cascade hops, leaving yellow grapefruit, white peach and pineapple fruiting as well as lemon-rotted herbal snips in its lightly creamed caramel-malted wake.

Residual-sugared Munich malt sweetness fronts Red Molly Irish Red, a mildly hopped moderation with dewy earthen tones, chocolate-roasted wheat malts, nutty notions, sugared spices and red cherry licks.

Tropical Galaxy hops inform Major Tom IPA, delicately placing bright lemon-peeled grapefruit bittering atop crystal-sugared Maris Otter malting. Stylishly approachable Village Green Double IPA gains a sharp citrus spicing while staying easygoing. Floral-perfumed lemon zest, grapefruit, pineapple, peach and passionfruit illusions illuminate.

Silkily smooth Lucille Oatmeal Stout worked oats-flaked chocolate malting into milk-steamed coffee bean sedation, cocoa bean bittering and dark cherry wisps.

www.palefirebrewing.com

WILD WOLF BREWING COMPANY

Image result for WILD WOLF BREWINGImage result for WILD WOLF BREWING
NELLYSFORD, VIRGINIA
Just up the road from Devil’s Backbone Brewery on the Blue Ridge Trail in its own 10-acre shopping village, Nellyford’s WILD WOLF BREWING COMPANY opened November 2011. An impressive all-purpose brewpub serving the local rural community extremely well, it’s also a full-fledged restaurant and worthy sportsbar spread across several disparate rooms. A former schoolhouse, Wild Wolf is packed on this Saturday evening following the fabulous Virginia Craft Beer Festival.
Adding to the bucolic splendor, an authentic biergarten, spacious pavilion, several decks, working water wheel, gazebo and koi pond surround the centralized rustic wood cabin while a bouncyhouse provides child-oriented activity. Inside the main space, ten taps service the 26-seat bar and surrounding dining areas. Though my wife and I cannot get a seat anytime soon, we picked up a few brews for outside consumption (listed in Beer Index).

DEVILS BACKBONE BREWERY

Image result for devils backbone BREWERY

ROSELAND, VIRGINIA

Exquisite Blue Ridge Mountain retreat, DEVILS BACKBONE BREWERY, occupies a copious rural valley homestead in Roseland and includes a beautiful earthen wood-stoned gastropub, separate brew house, massive backyard party area and gorgeous mountain views of the beautiful pastoral landscape. Besides this distinguished Basecamp site, Devils Backbone also runs an Outpost brewery and tasting room down the road in Lexington. In town to enjoy August 2014′s 4th annual Virginia Craft Beer Festival, my wife and I hit Basecamp Friday evening prior to the event for a few suds.

Creating a total sportsman’s atmosphere, Basecamp’s pristine stone-towered columns, corrugated tin roof, cathedral ceiling, stuffed animals and rustic wood furnishings increased the intimate lodge feel. The spacious multi-roomed gastropub featured wooden floors and tables, several dining booths, glass-encased brewtanks, centralized bar (with two TV’s and black-boarded beer list) and outdoor deck (with red umbrellas). A varied pub menu included “field, forest, stream and pasture” items. Tortilla-chipped nachos (with jalapeno-cheesed roasted peppers and black beans), drunken mussels and the campfire burger made fine dinnertime fodder.

Previously, I’d only quaffed bottled versions of Devils Backbone’s two straightforward flagship offerings, Vienna Lager and Eight Point IPA. But these fair choices were bettered by several tapped draughts imbibed during my August ’14 sojourn. Each elegantly executed elixir elevated my peaceful easy feeling and complemented the panoramic splendor of the hilly Blue Ridge terrain. For starters, six German styled brews served as aperitifs, creating a delicate tone matching the next few tantalizing selections.

Impressively designed Trail Angel Weiss brought to mind world-class Bavarian hefeweizens by Franziskaner and Weihenstephan with its mild lemony banana-clove expectancy and honey-spiced crystal malt sugaring picking up a soft vanilla creaming. Equally soothing, Hasselhoff Lager layered wispy lemon-pitted hop astringency atop perfumed crystal malt sweetness. Approachable Smokehaus Lager balanced the dewy peat-smoked malting, mild cedar char and bacon fattening of a surefire German rauchbier against the sugar-spiced caramel malting and wispy dried fruiting of an amber lager. Dry Dortmunder lager, Tommy 2Fists brought docile grain pungency to lemony hop astringency.

Bettering most of its nebulous German styling, easygoing Alt Bier evenly blended subtly spiced grapefruit, tangerine, cherry and fig tones with Scotch-licked toffee snips. Gentle pinkish-cleared cranberry-soured cocktail, Crangose, offered a brisk lemon zing to pureed cranberry tartness and briny sea watering.

Following the parade of German beers were well-rounded Blue Ridge Hop Revival, a sharply citric Cascade hop-embittered medium body underscored by nut-breaded barley malts, delicate spicing and herbal peppering. Hybridized Hot Shots IPA placed mellow smoked jalapeno peppers atop the sunny citric splurge. Sessionable Spider Bite Black IPA toned down the black-peppered citric bite and piney bittering for black patent malts and wandering coffee-chocolate illusions.

Soft-toned moderation, Ale Of Fergus, and English Dark Mild, plied toffee, caramel and chocolate subtleties to peaty malts and leafy hops.

For dessert, hotshot Baltic Porter, Danzig, caressed bittersweet nut-toasted black chocolate with dark molasses, plum-dried black cherry and licorice.

dbbrewingcompany.com

VIRGINIA CRAFT BREWERS FESTIVAL – 2015

  Image result for virginia craft brewers fest ROSELAND

ROSELAND, VIRGINIA

Hosted at the valley fairgrounds of Devil’s Backbone Brewing’s Basecamp site in the Roseland’s Wintergreen Mountains, August 2015′s sold-out 4th Annual Virginia Craft Brewers Fest gathered serious-minded beer geeks, young families and local denizens for a memorable and spirited celebration. 60-plus brewers offered 300-plus beers as live music played and several food trucks served fine fare for a few thousand campers, RV enthusiasts and hotel-bound patrons congregating along the stunningly bucolic Blue Ridge Trail this sunny Saturday afternoon.

During the 5-hour escapade, I hit 20-plus Virginia brewers’ beer tents and consumed nearly 50 previously untried offerings (listed directly below in Beer Index). Over the last ten years, the Old Dominion State’s brewing capacity has grown exponentially thanks to less antiquated regulations being enforced. Nowadays, instead of having barely ten craft breweries statewide as it did a decade hence, there are close to 100 licensed Virginia breweries with many more debuting this year.

My favorite brewery at the fest had to be Richmond’s Strangeways Brewing, whose diverse range of elixirs included Gourd Of Thunder Pumpkin Porter, Boom Choc-O-Lotta Chocolate Lager, Legalize It Kulture IPA, Lucky Charms Berliner Weiss and Wake Me Up Before You Gose Ghost Pepper. Ashburn’s Old Ox Black Ox Rye Porter and Alpha Ox Session IPA fared extremely well, as did Charlottesville’s Champion Killer Gose and Missile IPA. Culpeper’s Beer Hound Olde Yella Pale Wheat Ale was also superb.

Best of Show went to Richmond-based The Answer Brewpub for titillatingly fruited Grand Larceny India Pale Ale, whose Headina Weisse also fared well competing against Midlothian-based Extra Billy’s My Only Weiss.

See entries listed below for individual reviews.

THE ANSWER GRAND LARCENY

Best In Show at 2015 Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, lauded Imperial India Pale Ale procures sharp citra-hopped glisten for evergreen-fresh pine needling, spicy tropical fruiting, sweet floral accents and dank herbal nuances. Juicy orange-peeled yellow grapefruit, pineapple and lemon tang brightens the front end while tertiary mango, peach, nectarine, papaya and tangerine illusions seep thru mid-palate above mineral-grained barley malting. Exquisite, well-balanced, crisply clean and highly recommended.

Image result for the answer headina

THREE NOTCH’D 40 MILE IPA

Remarkably resilient West Coast-styled medium-full body bursts forth with tropical fruited juiciness while evergreen-fresh pine hop bittering and herbal restraint contrast honey-roasted biscuit malting. Sweet-spiced floral bouquet decorates spectral grapefruit, orange, mango, nectarine, honeydew, pineapple, peach, tangerine and papaya tang. Perfect in the can and even fresher, fruitier and friskier on tap at Virginia Craft Brewers Fest.

Three Notch'd 40 Mile IPA Beer

O’CONNOR/ THREE NOTCH’D 40 MILE TO THE BORDER AGAVE IPA

Interestingly hybridized Virginia-based collaboration combines herbal-spiced O’Connor El Guapo Agave IPA with juicy-fruited Three Notch’d 40 Mile IPA. Mild agave nectar sweetness suits zesty citric-hopped profile and honeyed caramel malting. Sweetly soured orange-rotted lemon bruise overruns wispy El Dorado-hopped mango-papaya-guava balm. But unusual peculiarities abound as gluey plasticine grouting leads to cloying aspertame gumming at citric-spiced finish.

Image result for 40 mile to the border