RVANews

Life at the Center of the Universe

Bryan Kelley — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:04 +0000

I stopped by Center of the Universe Brewing Company (COTU) on a rainy Tuesday night to find only two open seats at the bar in a tasting room full of people buzzing about an impending snow storm. I was there to meet Phil Ray, one third of the brewing triumvirate that comprises Richmond’s latest craft brewery. Officially opened for business on November 16th of 2012, COTU has steadily built a following of Ashland locals attracted by their delicious, frothy brews. COTU is located in the old Herald Progress Newspaper building in Ashland, about 15 miles North of downtown Richmond, and was started by brothers Chris Ray and Phil Ray, with Mike Killelea(formerly of Legend Brewing).

In 2009, the brothers Ray had very different lives than they do today: Chris was a professional baseball pitcher (who was on the San Francisco Giants' roster when they won the World Series in 2010), and Phil was an Engineer working for Honeywell. But that would all change when Chris received a seemingly innocuous invitation from his friend to come over to try brewing beer for the first time. Chris was living on the West coast and called Phil late that night raving about how much fun he had brewing with his friend. He asked Phil a fateful question: “if I sent you a homebrew kit, would you use it?”

Phil put this homebrew kit to good use, with the brothers sending each other their creations across the country to sample. Flash forward a few years and they've opened their own production brewery on target to produce 1500 bbl of beer this year. In a serendipitous turn of events, they secured their brewhouse on July 1, 2012--the same day Virginia SB604 went into effect after making its way through the legislative process shepherded by none other than Mike Killelea, COTU’s future Brewer.

Phil said that the startup process has held several interesting challenges for them, but having an experienced veteran of the brewing industry like Mike on staff has allowed them to resolve any issues quickly or avert them altogether. In fact, much of the success they've had to date is due largely to Mike’s guidance. Schedules and plans are thrown out the window based on what the day brings, but the ability to adapt quickly has helped them survive the unpredictable first few months of production.The three brewers all have very high expectations and aspirations for their brewery, but they work hard to restrain themselves and keep growing at a sustainable pace rather than over-extend themselves. Balancing long term goals against short term goals helps to make sure their investment is a sound one that will endure.

I asked Phil about the effect of SB604 on their particular operation, and he said it has been instrumental in establishing a home market and solid fan base for their product. By selling their beer directly to their customers, the public is able to get to know the people that make their beer thereby fostering lasting personal connections between consumer and producer. In turn, the brewers get to see people’s reactions to what they are served, a great way to judge which recipes need more work. In addition to building the community of supporters needed for steady growth, the added revenue from the tap room is helpful to alleviate the high startup costs associate with starting a brewery of this scale. Prior to SB604, breweries were allowed only four ABCs licenses annually for hosting events; but now the brewhouse is no longer limited to being a single-use manufacturing building. Instead, breweries are attractions and venues for live music, charity events, and even cornhole tournaments.¹

Their recipes currently on tap around town are a mix of homebrewing recipes from the Ray brothers and ones that Mike created in his years working in the industry. Each beer is proposed, piloted, and the three brewers sit down to taste it and decide if it meets their standards. The interaction between each of the brewers and honest feedback ensures that they are doing their best work and the highest quality product hits the market. This model of collaboration is something special and unique to COTU and should result in more interesting recipes and higher quality products across the board.

I had the pleasure of trying all of their beers on my visit and encourage you to try as many as you can when you visit.² I asked Phil about his brewing philosophy, and he emphasized his desire to make well-balanced beers with high quality ingredients and stressed that the beer will always be the focus of their business. This was evident in the beers I tried, as they were all between 4-7% ABV and were a pleasant mix of hoppiness and maltiness.

Main St. Virginia Ale, RayRay’s Pale Ale, and Pocahoptas are all available year-round in bars and restaurants around town. Main St. Ale was their first collaborative brew--a German alt style beer with a strong malt backbone. RayRay’s Pale Ale is a recipe derived from the Ray brothers’ homebrewing days and is a balanced mix of malt and hops. Pocahoptas is their West Coast style IPA, the distinction being West Coast IPAs generally have more fruity and citrusy hop aroma produced by using a greater quantity of more expensive hops than a traditional IPA. The results are great, and Pocahoptus, in particular, left me with a strong sense that COTU will be well-received in Richmond. They also have several limited-release beers, like Plowed (their spiced winter seasonal) and Monkey’s Uncle (a Belgian Trippel brewed with lemongrass that was very refreshing).

Center of the Universe Brewing is built on a strong foundation of comradery, family, and ambition that will serve them well as they compete in the Richmond market. A short trip to make, but well worth the visit.

— ∮∮∮ —

Footnotes

Can you even play cornhole without beer? ↩
While making it home safely. ↩

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Apples and fermentation: a tasty tutorial inside Blue Bee Cider

Bryan Kelley — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:06:53 +0000

I stopped by Blue Bee Cider one evening last week to find Courtney Mailey, the owner and head cider maker, using a forklift to wrestle a new stainless steel bright tank into her beautiful space next to the James River. Courtney has been working at a fevered pace since the beginning of 2012 to make Blue Bee operational, and pending inspections, she’s very close. I spoke with Courtney to get the details of the new business, and learn how to make apple cider.

The name Blue Bee is an homage to a species of pollinating bee found here in Virginia with a dark blue body. The unique coloring allows these bees to absorb more of the sun's heat so they can be active much earlier in the season. These industrious little bees help pollinate Virginia’s apple trees each year. As Courtney explained to me, Virginia apples are unique because they are significantly sweeter than apples grown in other parts of the country. Virginia apples, when made into cider, result in much higher alcohol by volume (ABV) cider than you might find elsewhere. I consider this extra booze a bonus for living in good ol’ Virginny.

The process of creating cider begins with selecting and maturing apples. The apples traditionally used for cider are not the sweet varieties that you would buy to eat raw; rather they are bitter apples full of tannins. The tannins give structure and body to the cider, much the same as when selecting the right grapes to make a wine. Cider apples that Courtney uses will usually “sweat” or mature in cold storage before being used, which ensures that the hard cider apples become soft and ready to be ground. The bushels of apples are fed into the grinder, a messy process that yields apple pulp that is then collected in the apple press.

The press was not like the traditional wooden press I had pictured; rather it was a perforated steel cylinder with a balloon inside that compresses the apple pulp from the inside and forces the juice out. This juice is then collected in a basin at the bottom and pumped into one of two containers. If the juice is going to be fermented, it is collected into an oxygen-permeable plastic bag (like a giant box of Franzia). If the juice is not going to be fermented, it is collected into an 1000L airtight plastic jug. From there, it might be filtered. If the intent is to make hard cider, it will then be transferred into a stainless steel bright tank for clarifying or carbonating. Finally it is put into bottles and heat pasteurized in a high temperature water bath.

The ciders made by Blue Bee will be wine-like artisanal ciders that are not as sweet as large commercial ciders like Woodchuck or Angry Orchard. Instead, Blue Bee ciders will have earthy and complex flavors. Courtney currently has three hard ciders planned for the future: a very dry variety, an off-dry variety, and a dessert variety. The dessert cider will be a complex process that starts with making apple juice and then sending it to a distiller who will make it into apple brandy. This apple brandy is then aged in oak barrels on site at Blue Bee. After aging, it will then be combined with unfermented apple juice to make an apple port. I cannot wait to try this! I was also happy to hear that she plans to sell juice ready for homebrewers to take home and ferment to make their own hard cider. In addition to all this, Courtney has even more planned for Blue Bee Cider.

She hopes to create an urban orchard outside the cidery’s doors on a piece of land that runs along the old Reynolds Metals plot and the rail lines, which might even end up producing the fruit for a batch of cider. She also mentioned holding an event for the community to donate apples from their backyards to be included in a batch of cider, similar to the Hardywood Park Community Hopped IPA project. Even seemingly inedible apples in your backyard might be just right for a batch of cider. She hopes that somewhere in Richmond’s backyards, long-lost heirloom apple varieties like Royal Pearmain (once common in Virginia, but now thought extinct) might still be rooted waiting to be found and cultivated.

photo by ohmeaghan

Catching up with Goochland’s Midnight Brewery

Bryan Kelley — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:11:04 +0000

Midnight Brewery, located west of Short Pump in Rockville, is the dream of Trae Cairns come to fruition. Born and raised in Henrico, Trae is a native Richmonder who takes pride in his hometown; so much so that on the back of Midnight’s T-shirts he has emblazoned “Virginia Born and Brewed”. After working for several years in IT at Estes (a Richmond-headquartered and family-owned trucking company), Trae turned his dream into a career in late July when he started working full-time at Midnight. An avid homebrewer, he’s now working hard to find his place in Richmond’s growing craft beer scene.

The name Midnight Brewery comes from the late nights he put into learning how to make great beer. It is a family operation--in fact when I went to visit the brewery his mother was working the tap handles in the tasting room. Trae also has an invaluable group of helpful volunteers, eager to see a new brewery in their neighborhood, who staff the tasting room so he can focus on the other aspects of running his business.

Trae began looking for commercial space for his brewery over a year ago. He told me that finding space to operate has been one of his biggest challenges to date. Strict zoning requirements in both Henrico and Goochland make it a challenge to find the right sized space at the right price for a small startup brewery. The names of his beers, like New Beginning Kolsch and their newly released Head First Pale Ale, reflect the challenges he’s faced in getting Midnight up and running.

In addition to the Kolsch and Pale Ale, Midnight also makes a Rockville Red. I tried both the Kolsch and the Red, and they were solid beers that Midnight can build its brand on. Trae takes them to new levels by pouring them through a randall filled with watermelon, lime, raspberries, coconut, or cocoa nibs. Back in March, Midnight got a jumpstart by brewing a collaboration beer with Hardywood Park called Banana Pancake: a maple weizenbock beer that I wish I had been able to try! Maybe if we keep asking, Midnight and Hardywood would be willing to brew a second round.

Trae has aspirations to keep Midnight growing, and on July 1st of this year Virginia Senate Bill 604 went into effect making Midnight’s survival and growth more likely. This bill made it possible for breweries to “sell at retail the brands of beer that the brewery owns at premises described in the brewery license for on-premises consumption and in closed containers for off-premises consumption.”

Essentially, this means that licensed breweries in Virginia can, for the first time ever, sell directly to their customers inside their facilities without having to operate a restaurant. SB604 has had a profound effect on several Virginia breweries already, and I believe Midnight Brewery is an example of just how instrumental this bill will be for Virginia’s craft brewing industry. Midnight is now able to sell full pints in their tasting room rather than relying on distributors and retailers to sell their beer for them. For startup breweries like Midnight, the ability to keep every dollar of revenue in-house rather than paying distributors and retailers to sell their product makes the difficult startup period slightly easier. More dollars directly to the brewers means more breweries are likely to startup and grow.

If you can’t make it out to Rockville, you can find Midnight’s beers at all three area Capital Ale House locations. Trae loves sharing his beers with people, so if you see Midnight Brewery at one of Richmond’s many festivals stop by to say hello, and buy a beer, you won’t regret it.

Meet Ardent Craft Ales

Bryan Kelley — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:09:28 +0000

Near a busy roundabout in Church Hill, a group of craftsmen are hard at work at their trade. A garage you might walk by without batting an eye serves as the communal brewhouse for a group of friends trying to stake their claim in Richmond’s burgeoning brew scene.

Paul Karns, Kevin O’Leary, and Tom Sullivan met two years ago and began working to hone the skills required to bring a new brewery to market. Once a month they put their blood, sweat, and tears into brewing their beer (I can vouch for the sweatiness, it was 93 degrees in the garage when I stopped by) and hope to start operating a licensed craft brewery next year. Though they haven’t yet found the perfect location, the team is actively searching Scott’s Addition for a home--which would be a great way to build on the momentum nearby Hardywood Park has created. Perhaps we could see the birth of a Richmond Brew District (oh what a delicious district it could be!).

The guys chose the name Ardent Craft Ales to reflect their shared passion and commitment, while also drawing on the history of beer in America. “Ardent Spirits” was another name for alcoholic beverages during the pre-prohibition days in the United States, and the gents at Ardent have historical influences for many of their beers, reinventing and revitalizing styles that might be lost to time. They use the history of beer to guide their recipes and give them a target without letting strict style rules hold them back.

The brew space is a small garage, perhaps 300 square feet all together, and half of it’s shared with a baker named Evron who’s opening Sub Rosa Bread around the corner. They currently do all of their brewing on a half-barrel brewing system that produces approximately 12 gallons of beer per batch. A small corner of the garage has been transformed using insulation panels and an air conditioner into a keg chilling room. This smaller scale of brewing allows them to tinker and change their recipes while minimizing risk and allowing them to scale their operation up to a full-time craft brewery in the future.

I was able to taste a number of their beers and none of them disappointed. Some of my favorites were the Honey Ginger (brewed with locally sourced honey) and the Roggenbier (a dark wheat beer made with ⅓ wheat, ⅓ rye, and ⅓ barley). I also tried a steam beer (technically it was a California Common, as Anchor Brewing has trademarked “steam beer”) that they created in homage to the James River Steam Brewery, a brewery located in Rocketts Landing and operated by a member of the Yuengling family from 1869 to 1878. There was a fantastic saison beer, a French style whose name means “season” and is a great summer beer because it’s light, fruity, and effervescent. Ardent had another saison brewed with sichuan peppercorns, which was both surprising and delightful.

Kevin also mentioned brewing a sweet potato and sage beer for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin ale is, of course, the more traditional Thanksgiving beer, but I can understand why he forgoes making pumpkin ales: while working for the Cambridge Brewing Company, Kevin tore several tendons in his arm chopping pumpkins. I doubt we will be seeing a pumpkin ale from Ardent anytime soon.

The guys have come a long way toward getting their dreams off the ground, but undoubtedly they have a long way to go. While they scout locations and cut through the red tape required to open a commercial craft brewery, Ardent will be working to secure financing. They’ll also need to determine their launch beers--they have narrowed it down to four contenders but are still working to finalize their choice(s), factoring in season, style, demand, and cost.

With some work and a bit of luck, Ardent Craft Ales will be joining the diverse and growing selection of local beers available in Richmond soon.

Tap into the first Virginia Cask Fest

Bryan Kelley — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:02:32 +0000

A very special thing happened this Saturday in Richmond: the Commonwealth's first ever Cask Fest took place...and beer nerds rejoiced.

Cask ale is beer made the old school way. The kind of beer Clint Eastwood drinks during halftime. Sometimes referred to as real ales, they are brewed normally but finish their fermentation inside the container from which they are served. In this case that container is known as a cask, and it has a small hole in the top, that allows the brewer to pour in the beer, which then gets sealed. Once it is ready to be served, the hole is opened to allow oxygen in and add the pressure that lets the beer flow from the tap. This is an important difference between most keg beers. Since no artificial carbonation is added (think of the many lines of CO2 that run behind the bar at your favorite pub), the beer is fizzy and delicious all on its own.

Most beers today are pasteurized and filtered prior to being bottled/kegged, and in order to prevent excessive foaming during that process, all the carbonation is removed. Afterwards, carbonation gets added back in using a carbonating stone which gives the brewer much greater control over the process and the final product. Cask ale fermentation is much more unpredictable. They seal it in the cask and let it set a few weeks until opening, not really knowing how it will turn out. Since these real ales are not filtered, all the yeast, hops, and other delicious additives remain in the beer. Therefore it is important that the casks not be moved prior to serving so the sediment can collect on the bottom and the beer stays clear.

When cask ales are served, they are not chilled to the extent that most beers are served today, instead they are served a bit below room temperature, approximately 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the optimal temperature for the aroma and flavors to present themselves in a beer. When a beer is chilled down closer to freezing it suppresses more of these qualities--think of this when your "mountains turn blue."

So why are there not more cask ales around? Besides the unpredictability of making cask ale, there is also the issue of spoilage. Once a cask ale is opened it has to be finished quickly, usually within three days, or it will go bad. The same oxygen that allows the beer to pour also breaks the beer down and causes it to taste like cardboard. This means cask ales have become pretty rare in America.¹

— ∮∮∮ —

The Cask Fest

Eleven different Virginia breweries contributed casks of ale to the inaugural Virginia Cask Fest. It was well attended and drew every beer nerd in the Richmond area to Capital Ale House Downtown's Biergarden--one of my favorite places to have a pint. This wasn't the Chili Cook-off or Shamrock the Block, the people that went to this festival were there to try rare and unusual beers you cannot find at most bars. One of the things that struck me when talking to the different brewers was their passion for their work, as well as the collegial nature of the brewing industry in Virginia today.

The Cask Fest benefited the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild. The Chairman and founder Mike Killelea, brewer at Legend, spoke to me at length about the Guild. Since 2010 it has been working to improve brewing in Virginia by lobbying for legislative changes, organizing events for member breweries, and advocating for Virginia craft breweries. Mike has modeled the organization after the Virginia Wineries Association, and funds raised at the event will be put towards redesigning the Guild's website and recovering costs associated with recent legislative work in getting SB 604 passed (which allows breweries to sell pints to customers without requiring them to serve food).

The Cask Fest organizers hope the fest will continue to grow in years to come and feature more mid-Atlantic breweries.

— ∮∮∮ —

The Beers

The Fest featured thirteen different cask ales, seven of which were India Pale Ales (IPA); I love IPAs, so I was happy to see it. However by the end of the day I had my fill of hops (don't worry friends, I am ready for more today). This helped the non-IPA beers like Scotch ales, coffee infused beers, and wheat beers to stand out from the crowd.

Legend Brewing Company - Golden IPA

This cask ale was a variation of their Golden IPA that is sold throughout Richmond, but when it was put into the cask extra hops were added (known as dry-hopping) along with French Oak chips. I didn't know this, but Legend actually taps a cask of real ale every Friday night in their bar! I recommend checking it out, because Mike clearly has a passion for brewing real ale, and you will not be disappointed.

Hardywood Park - Bourbon Cru

With 11% alcohol by volume, this was the booziest ale of all those present. It was brewed using Belgian yeast that gave it a smooth taste (considering the high ABV) and was aged in bourbon barrels from A. Smith Bowman's Distillery in Fredericksburg. The Belgian yeast used in this beer is a slow acting strain that changes the flavors of the beer over time so they recommend buying a bottle to age in your collection for a while. Of course that means you will also need to buy one to drink today, but who doesn't want double beer? Check out Hardywood next weekend for a release party featuring a similar Bourbon Barrel aged beer as part of their Reserve Series which will soon be available around town.

Devil's Backbone - Wit Bier

Devil's Backbone brought two wheat beers with them to the Fest: Wit Bier and White Stag. Their Wit Bier was brewed with orange peels, coriander, and another super-secret ingredient. This one won my vote for Favorite Beer at the Fest. By being served cask ale style, this beer ended up with a sparkling effervescence like champagne and a spicy finish. Keep an eye out for a collaboration beer from Devil's Backbone, Wild Wolf, and Blue Mountain Brewery in the next few weeks: a honey pear wit bier that might make its way to a Richmond Capital Alehouse.

Williamsburg AleWerks - Choca-Latte

The Choca-Latte seemed to be the crowd favorite from the informal polling I conducted on the floor. This beer drank like a boozed-up cup of black coffee: incredibly smooth and easy going down. Unlike most coffee beers that taste like alcohol with hints of coffee, this was like coffee with hints of alcohol and was infused with vanilla bean and Dutch chocolate.

O'Connor Brewing Company - Great Dismal Black IPA

The Great Dismal Black IPA was probably the most extreme beer at the festival. You could immediately pick up the scent of a shot of espresso, and the taste had a heavy coffee flavor but at the same time the bitterness of an IPA. It was also a very murky beer, reminding me of the actual Great Dismal Swamp (in a good way).

Lost Rhino Brewing Company - Face Plant IPA

Lost Rhino was new to me. The brewery opened recently in Ashburn and was started by brewers from Old Dominion Brewing Company. This variation of Face Plant IPA was dry-hopped with HBC 432, an experimental hop variety from the Hop Breeding Company. I assume this is a weaponized version of standard hops designed to cause beer lovers to swoon after a single whiff. Word is that Lost Rhino is working on getting into the Richmond beer market, so keep an eye out for their beers.

Drink fresh, Richmond!

— ∮∮∮ —

Footnotes

This is not the case in the UK thanks to the efforts of a group called the Campaign for Real Ale CAMRA. CAMRA was formed in March 1971 by British gents disappointed by the low quality of beer available in the UK beer market which, at the time, was dominated by only a handful of companies. They fought back to keep cask ales around as the beer market changed, and now the UK enjoys a wide variety of different real ales. ↩

Richmond’s State of the Beer

Bryan Kelley — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Greetings readers of RVANews! I have been asked to give you a rundown of Richmond's craft beer scene in preparation for the most beer-drinkingest, Leprechaun-lovingest, and all-around awesomest holiday my Irish ancestors ever created.

But to get an idea of where Richmond fits in, let's first take a look at the bigger picture.

The East Coast

Boston Beer Company, the top-selling craft brewery in the US, are the makers of the ever-present and sometimes delicious Sam Adams. However, the East Coast is about to get a lot more competitive for craft brewers as rumors have surfaced about the second- and third-largest craft breweries building new facilities in the region. Sierra Nevada (number two, from Chico, CA) and New Belgium Brewing Company (number three, from Fort Collins, CO) have both conducted searches on the East Coast. Sierra Nevada finalized their decision a few weeks ago, selecting a site near Asheville, North Carolina over sites in Tennessee and one near Christiansburg, Virginia. New Belgium has not said officially where they will be opening their new brewery, but the lastest from the rumor mill had Asheville, NC and Philadelphia at the top of their list. If Asheville gets them both, you better believe I will be buying a North Carolina travel guide and gassing up my brewery-tour mobile post-haste!

Central Virginia

While North Carolina might end up with two big craft breweries, that doesn't mean exciting things aren't happening here in Virginia. In Central VA, a number of new (and good!) breweries and cideries have opened up recently or will be opening soon. Joining the veterans at Starr Hill are newcomers Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Wild Wolf Brewing Company, and Blue Mountain Brewery.

By 2011, the craft beer scene in RVA had grown into something truly impressive, and we had started really looking at other beer towns around the country.

We realized that there is a lot of hometown pride in Richmond, but no one in the beer scene was rallying around local. We saw this as an opportunity to try and promote Richmond as the heart of VA craft beers.

We started traveling and picking up beer from all sorts of small VA breweries and bringing them back to Richmond. Around the same time a few new VA breweries were in the midst of serious planning. Devils Backbone and Hardywood Craft Brewery ended up signing with us, I believe, in part because we all have a similar passion: we all believe that Virginia’s craft beer scene is just getting started.

We have contracts pending with Bold Rock Cidery in Nelson County and James River Brewing in Scottsville. Both should be available in Richmond in the next 6 months.

--Jacob Brunow, Specialty Craft/Import Manager, Brown Distributing Co.

There's also Albemarle Cider Works and the as yet unopened Bold Rock Cidery. If you are looking for a good day trip, these are perfect. Not only can you take in the beautiful sights of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but you get delicious beers! These are some skilled brewers too; Devils Backbone has a number of awards from big beer competitions, including the World Beer Cup.

If you can't make it out to try these delicious beers/ciders in person, fear not! Richmond's own Brown Distributing announced last year that they were creating a division to bring craft beers from other parts of Virginia to Richmond in an attempt to generate interest in the good beer Virginia has to offer. Look for Devils Backbone, Roanoke Railhouse, Abington's Wolf Hills Brewery, and some of the many Virginia breweries around town at places like Station 2, Mekong, and Capital Ale House.

Richmond

There are lots of exciting things happening in the region around us, but surely there can't be anything that awesome happening right here in Richmond, can there?

BRACE YOURSELF.

Legend Brewing opened in Richmond way back in 1994. Their most popular beer is their Brown Ale, but they also make an excellent lager. It must be catching on too, because over the past two years they have expanded their operation and started distributing outside of Richmond. The expansion required them to raise the roof of their brew house to fit their new supersized tanks. I can think of no better reason to renovate a building than to accommodate more beer.

On the other side of the river, a new brewery opened up near the Diamond called Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in October of last year. I have stopped by a few times, and not only are they super-friendly, but they also have some interesting beers on tap: a Gingerbread Stout and a Mocha Belgique (a collaboration with Richmond's own Black Hand Coffee Company). Their flagship beer is called Singel, and they describe it as a Belgian Abbey-style Blonde Ale; I describe it as the perfect beer for drinking on a hot back porch. Hardywood currently doesn't have a pub, which means they cannot sell pints directly to customers; however that will soon change as the General Assembly recently passed SB 604 which allows for breweries to sell directly to the public. After this is finalized by the Governor, I am looking forward to the return of the Squirrels this summer so I can enjoy some Hardywood beers and then walk over to the park--only about a half mile away.

That about covers Richmond's craft beer scene today, but let's talk about THE FUTURE. Approximately a year ago, word started to spread about a new brewpub opening in Shockoe. It hasn't opened yet, but keep an eye and ear out for Haxall Brewing Company. Also, if you find yourself in Church Hill, you should look up the fine folks that make up the beer-brewing collective known as Ardent Craft Ales. They currently brew out of a garage (but aspire to open a larger location), and back in November they had an open house of sorts to celebrate Richmond Beer Week. Good news for them, the General Assembly also passed House Bill 359 which will allow licensed breweries to lease equipment to startups that also have licenses. This legislation should really help them and other startups get into the market sooner.

So there you have it, friends! Make sure you make this St Patrick's Day in Richmond well-crafted.

Photo by: Ian Sane

RVANews

Life at the Center of the Universe

Footnotes

Apples and fermentation: a tasty tutorial inside Blue Bee Cider

Catching up with Goochland’s Midnight Brewery

Related

Meet Ardent Craft Ales

Tap into the first Virginia Cask Fest

The Cask Fest

The Beers

Legend Brewing Company - Golden IPA

Hardywood Park - Bourbon Cru

Devil's Backbone - Wit Bier

Williamsburg AleWerks - Choca-Latte

O'Connor Brewing Company - Great Dismal Black IPA

Lost Rhino Brewing Company - Face Plant IPA

Related

Footnotes

Richmond’s State of the Beer

The East Coast

Central Virginia

Richmond