Beer News: Ask Don, big brews, taste tests, and other fermented news

You got your big breweries, you got your small breweries, and you’ve got An over here daring you to do a blind taste test.

August 7, 2015; 1:59 PM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: QuinnDombrowski

That’s a big brewery

Reddit user abstractella took this great aerial photo of Stone’s soon-to-be massive brewery on the James River. This is a no-joke, giant facility! I had no idea. I mean I had some sort of idea, but still.

An vs. Richmond vs. Virginia vs. THE WORLD

Yesterday was National IPA Day (dangit! I missed it!) and the Answer celebrated with blind-taste-test flights of local, Virginia, and national IPAs with each including one Answer beer. Tasters were asked to rank the beers, and the results will be released today. Whose IPA will reign supreme!?

Charles Beerdley

This past week, the Squirrels announced a new festival called the “RVA Field of Dreams Fest,” which will feature music, food, and, of course, local beer. Charles Bradley will headline, which is totally rad. Tickets are $30 and get you three beer tastings from any of the usual brewery suspects. Proceeds go to renovating a city baseball field into a tournament-level facility, which I think is a neat cause.

Ask Don! Go on, ask him anything.

I love this idea: the second Monday of every month, Center of the Universe makes Don, a member of their brewstaff, available for your questions. He’s a real, live, professional brewer, and you could ask him anything (although it may be best to ask him beer-related questions). Maybe he can help me figure out how to chill my wort quicker? Thoughts, Don?

— ∮∮∮ —

Elsewhere…

A G&T in a can sounds…dangerous.

Also, what in the world?

Other releases, takeovers, and things

  • It’s ZZQ day at Ardent!
  • Crossroads will host a Green Flash Brewing Co. and Alpine Beer Company tap takeover next Thursday, August 13th. Green Flash is kind of local now, so go forth and partake!
  • Celebrate the launch of LocalBeerReview.com, which is a thing I just learned existed, at The Answer tonight at 7:00 PM.
  • Garden Grove and one of my favorite Richmond bartenders, T Leggett, are working on a collaborative…vermouth? Can I make Manhattans with this or what?
  • Hardywood releases their Watermelon Gose on Saturday. Salt + watermelon is already a thing! Why is this the first I’ve heard of a watermelon Gose? (P.S. If you head over to Hardywood tonight, you’ll get to see Weedeater and incredible weed metal band. Grab some really dank hops and enjoy!)
  • Isley has a new watermelon beer release, too! What’s with all these melon beers…wait a second, Watermelon Festival! Duh! Anyway, Isley’s release is called Seed Spitter, a Belgian Wit with an entire pound of watermelon per each gallon of beer.
  • Welp, this week’s best-named beer award goes to Midnight Brewery for their Rye-stone Cowboy.
  • Triple Crossing releases a crazy sounding beer on Saturday, the Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee Liberty or Death Porter. The description: “For this robust porter, we aged green coffee beans in bourbon barrels for several months then gave them back to our friends at Black Hand to have them roasted and cracked. The beans were then added to Liberty or Death during fermentation.” Whoa.

‘Gram: @bluebeecider

A Portrait of the Cellar Team. #vacider

A photo posted by @bluebeecider on

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Ross Catrow

Founder and publisher of RVANews.

August 7, 2015 1:59 PM · in , , and more 0

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