Virginia Craft Scene

There's going to be no place in Virginia that has the density of Denver's beer world (lucky enough to visit this past June) but there are a number of different areas that are starting to build up a nice scene. Living in Charlottesville, I'm pretty happy with what has developed over the last few years. Right in town you have Champion, Three Notch'd and the soon to be re-opened South Street along with great beer stores like Beer Run and Wine Winehouse. Just west of town you have the improving Starr Hill and the awesome Blue Mountain, Devil's Backbone, Wild Wolf triumvirate.

Richmond BAs are rightly proud of their breweries as are those in the southeast part of the state. Northern VA is probably centered around Mad Fox and DC's up and coming breweries like Right Proper. Short of south central VA, you can find at least some semblence of a decent scene most anywhere in the state and it's getting better all the time.

 

Richmond. Mekong alone makes it the best "scene" in the state, plus their new brewpub they just built right beside it. As far as breweries, Hardywood and Strangeways are where it's at.

 

Mekong is great, but Hardywood and Strangeways are pretty mediocre.

I'm going to vote for NoVA/DC.

I too visited CO, and found it was more quantity than quality.

 

What brewery in VA is better than either of those?

 

This is like picking out the smartest in a group of ******s. Look, I love some of the beers that come out of VA breweries. Each of them produce a few beers I'm proud of and would be happy to drink or give someone as a representation of what we can do...but as a whole, we are severely lacking in my opinion.

 

Ha while I wouldn't quite phrase it so harshly as that, I agree. But that was kind of my point. The poster who said Hardywood and Strangeways are mediocre didn't offer any examples of better ones, because IMO there are none. Plenty that are about equal though, for sure.

Mekong is the only place you won't get any argument about it being awesome, which is why Richmond takes the VA beer cake.

 

This, exactly. There are a lot of things i love about living in VA, but the (at best) decent to good breweries are not one of them. Bring on Green Flash, and hopefully Stone.

 

Williamsburg Alewerks (Bitter Valentine and Bourbon Barrel Porter are the two best beers made in VA, imo), and Devil's Backbone, to name two. Not that I'm totally enamored with either of them, either.

 

Fair enough. But neither of those are in Nova.

 

Fair enough. But if you're talking about NoVA, you have to include DC breweries. I'll take DC Brau, Right Proper, Three Stars, and Bluejacket over Hardywood, Strangeways, Legend, and who else?

 

Meh, DC is a completely different animal to me than northern VA. But I won't disagree with ya that those DC breweries are way better than the Richmond ones.

 

two words........Three Brothers

how has that not been mentioned?

 

Three Brothers is indeed awesome. But I doubt OP is looking at moving to Harrisonburg as an option unless he's planning on enrolling at JMU.

 

My mistake then.......I just thought he was asking for destination breweries. I didn't realize they were potentially looking for a place to live..............but as a JMU Alum the area is BEAUTIFUL, but not a lot around there other than the University/town.............and there used to be a LOT of chickens there

 

you're not going to find 1 singular brewery anywhere in VA that knocks it out of the park with even half of their beer, but it's all subjective... I'm not up to speed on the newer breweries opened in the last year or so outside of Richmond so someone else can fill in those gaps.

extreme SW VA - Wolf Hills is doing some damn good stuff. very tiny so very little gets distributed.

greater C'ville area - Champion is good and South Street can only get better since the Blue Mtn buyout. havent had Three Notch. outside the city you have the Brew Ridge Trail which includes Starr Hill, Blue Mtn, Wild Wolf and Devils Backbone. Starr Hill and Wild Wolf aren't adventurous and most of Devils Backbones stuff is pub only. even 2 years out since Blue Mtn opened their separate Barrel House, reviews are still VERY mixed. the core brewpub is still very good though.
further outside C'ville you have the like of 3 Brothers in Harrisonburg who is doing some very good stuff and the nano-sized Redbeard in Staunton (killer black Rye IPA). Apocolypse in Lynchburg has been decent from the limited offerings I've had so far. note- there is a massive SHITTON of wineries in the mountains around C'ville along with some cideries. notable bars: Beer Run

greater RVA area - the largest concentration of breweries in the state with at least another 4-5 to open by this time next year (maybe even more that I havent heard about). within the core metro: Legend is the oldest operational micro-brewery in the state and has the occasional good brew. Extra Billys just changed their brewer due to Brandon moving to the new Answer Brewpub so I can't comment on their recent beers but if the new guy keeps with what Brandon was doing they will specialize in some really good IPAs. Hardywood has their couple of standouts. Strangeways is likely the most experimental brewery in VA; when they're good they're VERY good (their fruited sours can be amazing) but sometimes pushing the envelope creates the odd dud. can't wait for the collab they just made with Cigar City last week to come out. newer Richmond breweries such as Triple Crossing, Isley and Ardent each have some unique brews (Isleys collab with local homebrew store Original Gravity - who is also openeing a brewery within the year - produced THE BEST DIPA maybe ever made in VA a couple of months ago in Venus FlyTrap). while the Answer opens up in about 2 weeks they likely won't actually be making beer on site till early 2015 at earliest but that hasn't stopped An/Brandon from collab'ing with all the local breweries (and even Cigar City, the Good Morning Mekong coffee stout is ridic!). out in the sticks of Goochland to the west of town you have Midnight and Lickinghole with Lickinghole getting the love recently. Center of the Universe makes some good brews in the northern suburbs.
RVA also just got our own yeast lab specializing in isolating local yeasts and we have a couple of cideries and meaderies.
notable bars: Mekong, Cask, Brew, Cap Ale

Williamsburg has Alewerks and another brewery or 2. Alewerks core 12oz lineup is nothing great but do make a good porter, pumpkin and coffee stout. their bombers are where their best beers are though a couple of the bombers are pretty meh too (cough:triple, saison, scottish ipa:cough)

Tidewater - O'Connor (really good black ipa), St George (really good cask English IPA), Smartmouth, Young Vets, Beach, etc... haven't had a whole lot of beers from them. what I've had have been a mixed bag. Green Flash opens their East Coast brewery very soon so we'll have ultra fresh goodness from them shortly.
notable bars: Birch

NoVA - the only breweries I'm really familiar with is Mad Fox (brewpub), Adroit Theory and Lost Rhino. Mad Fox makes some really good beers and a huge variety of styles. their IPAs are very good. Adroit Theory is pretty experimental and somewhat polarizing - I think they only have plans to make 1 beer under like 8-9%.

 

Not your bad at all, in fact I think I might have been the one that misread his initial post. I thought he meant he wanted to live close to some good breweries, but I think he just means he wants to have access to a lot of good beer. Doesn't matter really though, I'm sure he appreciates any discussion of good VA beer!

I've got a Resolute and an Atramentous in the cellar now that I'm DYING to drink...not really sure why I haven't done so yet.

 

I am trying to get those 2 as well, but they don't pop up FT very often.

 

Atramentous shouldn't be hard to find - saw some still on shelves just yesterday. Resolute could be difficult though

 

Unfortunately..........no distribution to PA, but thank you on the bottle availability comment!