Charlottesville Trip

As far as breweries go, I've been to South Street, Champion, and Three Notch'd.

-South Street is a restaurant too. Parking is TIGHT.
-Champion is < mile away from South St. Parking much improved!
-Three Notch'd used to be an old paintball facility I worked at while I attended UVA

I'd probably give the edge quality-wise to Champion or Three Notch'd, but they're all great choices.

Also brewery wise in in C'ville is C'Villian and Random Row. Can't comment as I've never been.

There's a wine and beer store out on Route 29 called Wine Warehouse that is great/excellent. Other good options like Beer Run I've never been to.

 

haven't been there in years but does that huge parking lot directly across the street no longer exist?

 

Around downtown, Three Notch'd, Random Row, Champion, Hardywood and South Street are all within a mile of one another and easily walkable if you want. Beers at all are solid. C-Villian closed down a while back. Their former space is now inhabited by Snowing in Space Nitro Cold Brewed Coffee. There's a couple open lots across the street from South Street. One is metered and runs 25 cent per half hour I believe. Also limited free street parking down South Street (the street itself). I think they also validate 2 hours free in the Water Street Parking garage next to those open lots. Since it's American Craft Beer Week a lot of breweries have events going on. Three Notch's is doing a Hog 'N Brew tomorrow which is free to attend. If you are into spirits at all there's a distillery called Vitae Spirits in town as well.

Beer Run is what I would consider the best bottle shop around downtown. They also have several taps and serve food. Wegmans also has a nice selection.

For beer bars in the area check out Draft Taproom on the downtown mall. Great place. They have 60 taps, 30 of which are VA beers, and it's a self serve pour by the ounce spot. You go in and they give you a card which activates the taps and keeps track how much you spend. Mellow Mushroom has what I think is the best prices in down for a bar and they have a nice selection as well. if you may be on the Rt 29 side of town then there's Sedona Taphouse which has 50 or so taps. Kardinal Hall is a cool spot if you are into German beers

If you happen to venture outside of downtown then head west to Pro Re Nata, Starr Hill, Blue Mountain, Wild Wolf, even Devils Backbone. 15-20 mins to most of those with about 30-40 mins to Wild Wolf and Devils Backbone. Sorry I'm listing every brewery in town but I personally think they all are doing good things.

Finally, if you are not aware it's graduation weekend for UVA so watch that side of town. Going to get pretty busy today through the weekend.

EDIT: If you have Untappd check there for taplists. I think there are 8 or 9 Verified Venues in Charlottesville to help you know what's on. I do know Draft Taproom updates theirs constantly.

 

No its there, the spaces were just miniscule for my truck, and I despise paying for parking in general

 

Any beers I should be on the lookout for in Charlottesville this upcoming week?

 

Can't recall, but Biggie Smores might be coming out... I'd check Three Notchd social media

 

Releasing Saturday if @beerboy9960 will in town that long. Commonwealth Brewing just hit the area. Grab Big Papi if you are into IPAs. FW - Stickee Monkee hit last week so that may still be around. I will list of recent releases later this evening when I have more time but just bee line to Beer Run. They will have everything you need.

 

Meant to get this posted last night but here's a few beers you may want to look for while in town. Big list but wanted to provide much of what has arrived recently and that I have enjoyed. All of these available in cans or bottles. Some shelfies and others may take some searching. Most are IPAs so hopefully you are into that. All should be able to be found pretty fresh or have hit shelves within the last 1-2 weeks. Beer Run and Wegman's are good spots to check. Beer Run gets their big deliveries on Tuesday's and Thursday's.

LOCAL / VA
- Three Notch'd - Biggie S'mores (releasing at the brewery 6/17 @ Noon)
- Three Notch'd - Minute Man
- Basic City Beer Co. - The Sixth Lord
- Reaver Beach - Bridge of Bones
- Alewerks - Secret Admirer
- Commonwealth Brewing - Big Papi DIPA
- Commonwealth Brewing - Fernweh (belgian sour table beer)
- Commonwealth Brewing - Trouvaille (saison aged in white wine barrels)
- Kindred Spirit - Headspace
- Hardywood / New Belgium - Savor X Baltic Porter (released 6/10 @ the C'Ville Pilot Brewery Tap Room).
- Hardywood - Barley in the Rye (releasing 6/16 @ the Pilot Tap Room). Barleywine aged in Kentucky Rye Whisky Barrels for 2 1/2 years
- Hardywood - Cuvée Peach

OTHERS
- Founders - Doom
- Sierra Nevada - Beer Camp Across the World
- Firestone Walker - Stickee Monkee

Cheers!

 

Forgot to mention, Random Row Brewing has a Charity Night tomorrow (June 13th) where you can get a beer (anything on their taplist) and an 8" pizza for only $10. I really like their Mosaic Pale Ale.
http://randomrow.com/live-menu/

And I think they still do 1/2 price growler fills on Mondays. Normal prices are $8-$20/fill so it's a great deal today.

 

Any good GastroPubs in town with local food and taps?

 

I'm always thrown off by that term as people tend to have different meanings and I'm not even sure I know what a true gastropub is. My assumed definition would be a casual spot with high quality food, mostly locally sourced ingredients, along with wide variety of drinks (beers, wine, etc)???

Burger Bach considers themselves a gastropub. It's been several months since I was there but their taps were fairly good. I would think The Shebeen may also consider themselves one but not sure about their beers served.

 

Gastropub is just the most disgusting way to say "restaurant" there is. Its impossible for me to see or hear the word and not immediately think of guts/intestines and farts.

 

Gastopub is like a descriptive (possibly actual) example of onomatopoeia, or at least something that happens after eating and drinking, and at night, often late, or early, depending.

 

@reilljt0 Did you have any success finding what you were looking for in C'Ville?

 

Bringing this thread back to life!

I'm going to be in town with my wife visiting her relatives from Friday through Monday morning. Looking to hit the best breweries/beer bars with a wide variety on draft, and ideally big screen Tv's to watch the NFL playoffs. Probably looking at one spot each night. My short list thus far is Hardywood, Random Row, and Champion.

Have also seen the Draft Taproom and Mellow Mushroom as good tap lists and food.

Any suggestions and/or comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

If you like Sours then check out Three Notch'd Sour House. It's at their original locations on Grady Avenue. Their new location, Three Notch'd Craft Kitchen & Brewery is a huge space full service restaurant and brewery. Several TVs for watching games. The food is excellent as is the beer. Hardywood will probably have several of their GBS variants still on as well. They have 2 big screens.

Draft Taproom has the best variety of beers in the area and they go out and bring stuff in from breweries that don't distribute in the area. Definitely great if you want to try small size pours of a bunch of stuff. The only thing that gets me about Draft is they don't have sound coming from their TVs. I think they have 23 or 24 TVs but you have to download that app that supposedly syncs to each TV and you listen through the speakers on your phone. So if actually hearing the game then it may not be the best spot to watch. I do love their setup of pay by the ounce pour yourself taps.

Being in Mass, you may be a Pats fan. The owner of Champion is a big Patriots / Red Sox fan.

Reason Beer would be great if you want very well executed beers. On the opposite side of town but really only about 10 mins from downtown. The owner used to be Director of Brewing for Maine Beer. No TVs but great people to enjoy conversation.

And if you may be looking for bottles / cans to enjoy while down or to take back then highly recommend Beer Run. Best selection by far. They have Draft as well and will be tapping Founders - CBS, Perennial - Abraxis, Prairie Bomb and Brothers Craft Brewing - Resolute this Friday. They usually post about tapping sought after beers at 4pm but almost always have them flowing earlier than that.

There are quite a few verified venues on Untappd in C'Ville so if you are on that then browse them once you get to town or as you plan the trip.

 

@Piels25 Disregard my comment about no sound on the TVs at Draft Taproom. I did receive confirmation that they in fact will be turning the sound on for each game this weekend and be showing them on several of their screens.

 

Thanks for the guidance, @TomCat11. Much appreciated!

 

@Piels25 If you happen to be in town early today, Beer Run

Anytime! Be sure to let us know what you though of your stops!

P.S. If you happen to be in town earlier in the day, Beer Run has already tapped CBS, Abraxis, Resolute and BOMB. Should not been too busy this afternoon until around 4 or 5.