Beer News: Itty-bitty baby hops, pop-ups, lemon, weird yeasts, and crabby beer

Become the proud parent of a rhizome, get yourself to Legend’s coming-of-age party, and choose your baseball team based on how much they charge you to drink. Also, shouldn’t beer pop-ups be called “hop-ups?” FREE IDEA!

April 10, 2015; 12:00 PM • by Ross Catrow

Raising rhizomes

Each year Hardywood gives out hop rhizomes for folks in the community to grow, harvest, and then return to the brewery for inclusion in that year’s RVA IPA. They’ve been doing this so-called “community brewing” thing since 2011, and I guess we, the community, have gotten pretty good at tending to baby hop rhizomes over the past five years! You can sign up by filling out this form, but you better do it quick! Rhizomes wait for no man.

Legend’s legal!

Legend Brewing Company celebrates turning 21 this Saturday–they’re finally legal! JK, well-armed ABC agents, Legend has always been legal and always follows the proper laws and guidelines. ANYWAY, $20 gets you a ticket to the anniversary party which includes a mug and two beer tickets. Drop an extra $12 for the all-you-can-eat wristband–like, the wristband gets you access to the food. Do not eat the wristband.

Musical hash brown hangout

Center of the Universe will kick off their Wednesday Night Biergarten Concert Series next Wednesday April 15th with a band named after Waffle House hash browns. I think that this is awesome.

Shhhh…a secret pop-up approaches

Mike Braune–formerly of Secco, currently of The Roosevelt–will delight your tastebuds with a pop-up at The Cask Cafe next Wednesday, April 15th. The Cask will also tap Black Spring, their collaboration beer with Champion Brewing out of Charlottesville. I want to eat and drink both of these mysterious items.

Dine at Swine & Brine and you’ll feel fine

Don’t forget Ardent Craft Ales will host Swine & Brine tonight! You can still get tickets and still eat/drink both swines and brines.

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National news…

Flying Dog Brewery has an Old Bay beer, like the crab seasoning. My first instinct is to retch violently, but then I remembered that “The Crab Chip” is quite possibly the best chip around. I also remembered that I put Old Bay on basically everything I eat, so it follows that this seasoning would maybe also magically enhance beer. Dead Rise OLD BAY® Summer Ale, first brewed last year, was a “smash success” and returns this spring (first dibs go to Camden Yards today!). Proceeds benefit the True Blue Program, which advocates for watermen working the Bay.

Stone Brewing Co. has 60 job openings! None of them are in Richmond. BUT! They do have a page for jobs in Richmond that you should keep an eye on if you’re looking.

USA Today, which has a section called FTW, lists 25 beers to try before you die. You never know when you might die, so you better get started instantly.

Have you ever wondered what a small beer costs at a Major League baseball game? Wonder no more, fans of the beautiful game (just kidding soccer fans, we all know your sport is definitely the most beautiful)! Let’s all become Dodger fans because their beer is third cheapest by the ounce, and also they consider a 20-ounce beer “small.”

Takeovers and releases

• Triple Crossing will reveal their First Anniversary Ale, dubbed Saison Brett. There’s a limited number of these hand-bottled beauties, and each contains a bit of Brettanomyces–a type of yeast that I had to look up on Wikipedia. So if you want to pick one up, head over on Saturday with your fingers crossed.
• Strangeways rolls out their lemon Radler this weekend, which has impeccable labeling. The Radler’s a Shandy of sorts that was originally invented in Germany by Franz Kugler (not this Franz Kugler who’s best known for his studies of cuneiform tablets and Babylonian astronomy]) when his town was also crushed by a Big Bike Race™.
• Lickinghole Creek will release their The Supreme Leader this Saturday, which is a…deep breath…Spiced Imperial Stout aged on cinnamon, cocoa nibs, vanilla, cayenne, poblano, and Ancho chiles in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels. Whew, that was a mouthful–and at 13.5%, I’m sure this beer is too!

‘Gramming with @BlueBeeCider

Photo by: Kompania Piwowarska

April 10, 2015 12:00 PM 0