So my friend is headed to to DC for Thanksgiving weekend but will stop in Richmond to get some beers to bring home. He may go to a brewery or two or maybe a bottle shop. He offered to bring back some beer for me, anything I should have him look into bringing back. Doesn't have to special release or extremely rare. Just looking for some unique/good beers that I may not be able to get in Raleigh.
Hell yea! One time my friend drove to North Carolina and stopped at a bottle shop and brought me back an Omega Point.
HW is in GBS season so he should easily be able to find regular GBS as it's hitting shelves this week. The large retailers in RVA (Wegmans, Trader Joes, Wal-Mart, etc) will likely get pallet loads but it's pretty plentiful around town these days in Richmond when released. Bourbon GBS releases Saturday (19th) but I'm not sure when it will go distro. If Hardywood is open then he can at least grab it from the brewery. Minute Man from Three Notch'd is AWESOME. They are also releasing a new batch of Biggie S'mores at their RVA Collab House next Wednesday (23rd). Their Charlottesville and Harrisonburg locations are releasing this weekend so it could be in RVA retail next week but my guess is they would plan for it not to be in RVA shops until after the Collab House release. Veil does their can releases every Tuesday so if he can I would highly recommend he swing by there to grab whatever they are releasing. They open at 4pm Tues-Fri and Noon on the weekend. Since it's a holiday on Thursday who knows how long cans will last but they have been lasting a few days lately. Oskar Blues - BA Ten Fidy started arriving on RVA shelves this week. DFH - World Wide Stout has also arrived over the past week so that may still be available. Cigar City - White Oak Jai Alai showed up last week too. I think the canning date on them is 10/29 or thereabout. Definitely swing by The Answer for Crowlers. Their IPAs are world class. Also Triple Crossing does Crowlers and they are in the top 3 with IPAs in RVA (along with Veil and The Answer) if he is looking for a good bottle shop in RVA I would recommend De Fles Wink. They always have a great selection.
Add both of the below bottles to the list including those others I mentioned above. Both started landing in shops this morning - Founders : Lizard of Koz - Perennial - Abraxas Hardywood - Bourbon GBS also started popping up in shops yesterday so you may be able to bypass the brewery if he is coming through before they open up. Your friend picked a great week to be coming through the area.
Does BBGBS usually stick around for a few days, and any leads on shops that have it? I'll be passing through on Friday but unfortunately won't be sicking around late enough to hit up HW.
There should be enough around. I live about an hour away from Richmond but it has already shown up here at shops and large stores. You may have luck trying Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Whole Foods in RVA (Short Pump area). That's where we have it where I am. For shops try The Wink or even Aw Shucks which is a upscale gas station. Is that the area you may be near? And if you may be on the BCBS chase Whole Foods is doing 2pp on regular and 1pp on Barleywine and Coffee starting at 7am.
Thanks for the tip! Going to be a short stop in Richmond, pretty much going to hit up the Answer and then whatever decent bottle shop is nearby.
Super random but if any RVA'ers are still looking for BCBS, Strawberry street Market in the fan still had regular & BW late last night.
Was your friend able to have luck during the stop in RVA? What did he come away with and think of the area breweries?
I don't know what my friend was able to get yet as I gave him some places/beers to stop and a list of things I'd have interest in. He was doing Christmas shopping and not sure what I'm getting for Christmas yet or what he got for himself. I know he had planned to stop at Lickinghole and Hardywood for some releases, but not sure if he made it on time or not.
Rather than make my own thread I'll bump this one. My gf is headed to Richmond on the 23rd for a week or so to visit her parents, and she already plans on hitting the veil to hopefully get some cans. Anything else I should tell her to look for that's around now? Is Cigar City stuff relatively easy to come by?
Definitely grab some cans from Triple Crossing. They just started canning (16oz 4pks) a couple weeks ago and their 2nd location ( on Hatcher St) just opened last week. if they have more Battle Creek DIPA canned when she is in town definitely grab it. For me it is the best IPA/DIPA in the state. Even better than a lot of Veil offerings. Crowlers from the Answer are a must as well. You can't go wrong with any of their IPAs either.
Awesome! I remember visiting Triple Crossing when we were there last year, really cool spot and great brews. Nice to hear they are canning! Thanks for the info about the answer too, heard great things from them!
Hardywood announced yesterday that they found a pallet of the Rum GBS in their warehouse so it may still be available. They're also only a couple of miles from The Veil.
To pile on, I'll say everything I've had from the Black Paper series at Ardent has been great, especially for the price. They're within blocks of Veil but you can also find some on the shelves around town. I'll second the Battle Creek rec as well as the Answer, especially depending on their Andalls (but they almost never sell crowlers of those).
