WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA
Note: Picadilly’s stopped brewing on site circa 2013.
Civil War-ravaged Winchester switched hands between the Confederacy and the Union several times in the 1860’s. In the rolling hills of this rustic Shenandoah Valley town lies the clay-hued brick warehouse grocery that now houses PICADILLY’S PUBLIC HOUSE, visited July ’09.
Brewing since 2007, this family friendly joint had a prominent central bar (with two TV’s and multiple silver pewter mugs), ample side dining, a back patio, and modest brew tanks. I had delicious salmon BLT with five mediocre house brews.
A sweet honey theme ran through creamy floral-spiced lemon-orange-grapefruit-glazed Hometown Hefeweizen, rich barley-roasted orange-fruited cherry-daubed Patsy’s Pilsner, and hop-charred hazelnut-roasted 1752 Stout.
Indistinct pilsner-stout blend, Apple Valley Red Ale needed deeper sugared fig and stewed prune penetration. Fredericktown Brown suffered from lackluster red fruiting, barren nuttiness, and oxidized vegetal waft.
