Three Notch'd (10-12 beers on tap at all times) and Champion (9 beers on tap) are the best breweries actually located in downtown Charlottesville. Beer Run is the best bottle shop and they also serve food. All 3 are within a couple miles of one another. You could even check out South Street Brewery just a few hundred yards from Champion. They have 12 beers, most of which are solid, but nothing spectacular. Food is really good. About 15 minutes west of Charlottesville is the Rt 151 breweries. I would definitely recommend Blue Mountain, Devils Backbone and Wild Wolf. All three also have a full service restaurant.
Here is a great map of the breweries and beer spots (w/ hours) located downtown Less than 3 miles separate them all.
What @TomCat11 said. I live in Tampa (and have for a LONG time) but am from C-ville, which is still "home" to me. Understand -- as far as expectations go -- that we are VERY spoiled here in Tampa. That said, the places @TomCat11 mentioned are really good. Blue Mountain -- on a beautiful, non-weekend day (weekends are generally a shitshow crowd-wise) -- remains one of my very favorite breweries anywhere: rock-solid beer and amazing view. What I'd recommend specifically has to do with how long you'll be in town.
Thanks for the advice. We are staying close to downtown, so we will def grab beers in town. We arrive Saturday and leave Tuesday. On Saturday and Sunday we are doing hikes. Looks like I got some great places to hit up.
If you're doing hikes along the AT (up near the Parkway), then you'll likely pass the breweries along 151 (i.e., Blue Mountain, Devil's Backbone) on your way into and out of town. If you go that way (64 west to 250 west to 151 south), there's a terrfic market called Greenwood Gourmet Grocery that has a small, but really well-curated, selection of Virginia beers and other things we don't get here in Tampa. Their coffee and sandwiches are darn good, too! Hit me up if you want more info.
TomCat, you crushed it. Spot on. Two additional beer bar options that have pretty good food and nice taplists are Citizen Burger Bar and Sedona Taphouse.
Will be in Charlottesville for a wedding this weekend. Anything new/different from the above? If one wanted to watch a college game on Saturday, where could one find both good beer and a TV? Staying at the Omni which looks to be right next to South Street Brewery. Thanks in advance!
Also definitely worth checking out is The Kardinal Hall, a new craft beer bar recently opened by the owners of Beer Run.
if you are planning on checking out any of the breweries (wineries, cideries, or distillery) along 151 (see TomCat's post above) a new farm brewery just opened, Pro Re Nata. I was there last week and it was pretty good, and easy to get to. They had 6 on tap and all were solid. No food, but there was a food truck. http://www.prnbrewery.com/
If you are staying at the Omni then you are literally right in the center of the breweries in downtown C'Ville. You could walk to any of them in 5-10 minutes. First off, if you want the game and do not want a drive then head to either Citizen Burger Bar located on the downtown pedestrian mall just a couple minute walk from the Omni. They have a good size taplist and a bunch of TVs. Any of the breweries will have a few TVs so that's a good deal too and most have food trucks on the weekend. Mellow Mushroom, Wild Wing Cafe and World of Beer is less than a 1/2 mile drive/walk right down west main. Wild Wing Cafe is busy for NFL games (Not sure about Saturdays). While they have a good number of taps I would say it's nothing special. WOB and Mellow both have 40+ taps with really good beer usually on. Both of these are on the fringe of the UVa so expect to see a good number of grads/undergrads. Modified the earlier map I posted. The red dot is the location of The Omni. Citizen Burger is not on the map but it's only a couple hundred feet from Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint.
There is great new beer in Charlottesville. But when downtown go up the hill to campus and walk along The Lawn and check out the real pure history towards The Rotunda. You can see Edgar Allen Poe's room. It is a very cool place.
Check out https://www.facebook.com/cvillehopontours/ for tours of all the best craft breweries in the City of Cville.
Bask from Basic City is the best canned IPA i've had so far from the area, really hope they keep it up. Also awesome that Beer Run is getting kegs from Aslin now, anyone know the story behind that?
Agreed on Bask. I think Aslin showing up probably has to do with the new distributor (Hop House) out of Richmond working to build their presence in the market. They also distribute Modern Times, Almanac and Mad Fox which has started to show up over the past couple months. CVille has also recently received drops of Jackie O's as well also distributed by them. Most likely as Hop House builds their portfolio the area will see more and more stuff from them show up in the area.
