Greetings from VA!

Welcome! This forum (South-Atlantic) will give info on releases and such as well. Glad to have another central VA member getting involved, as I'd love to see an eventual tasting group from our area posting as often as the SE VA tasting group!

 

Richmonder here, would LOVE it if there was a tasting group in the area.

 

Not to hi-jack the thread (I'll call it "a bonding experience" for y'all ), but I'm headed to Richmond tomorrow and know very little about the beer scene, apart from Hardywood. Mind sharing your favorite places to buy and drink?

 

Hardywood is fantastic. I dig Strangeways a LOT! Oh, and The Answer!

 

@tywhite - Depends on how much time you are spending here and where you'll be sleeping the beer off, but so far I SO concur with HW, Strangeways and The Answer / Mekong. I'll add this as well; if you are near Midlothian, head to Extra Billy's specifically for the Citra Ass Down. IMO the best IPA in central VA. If you are north of town near Ashland than head to Center for the Universe which is literally right off 95. If you are spending most time down town than other than HW and Strangeways, hit Ardent, Isley like what @TomCat11 said and I'd throw in Legend because they are really the RVA brewing stalwart veteran and darn it, they deserve more love than what they usually get (none) when discussing RVA breweries.

As a failsafe, if time becomes an issue, just head to Growlers to Go to pick up something else local that you may have not been able to get to. Good luck and I hope we as Richmonders can show you how great the scene is here!

 

On the topic of RVA, if I'm headed on a day trip from Northern VA to Richmond for a combined beer/family activities day, is it worth spending the extra time to hit Lickinghole Creek on a nice day? We typically hit Mekong (great) and Hardywood (meh) on a daytrip, but looking to maybe branch out.

 

Strangeways does a lot of one-offs and always has 12-15 or more taps flowing. Just bring a lot of $ if you want to try them all as a 4 or 6 beer flight can run $20-25. Hardywood can be skipped (IMO) because their tap list is usually kind of weak when there's no beer release taking place.

I'd say hit Mekong and The Answer to get the best overall Virginia beer experience as well as a solid national/international selection. They also are pretty liberal with the samples before making you buy a pint.

 

if its a really nice day and you want to spend it outside on a farm, maybe. Its really far out there (maybe 45 mins from downtown) and they don't typically have anything unusual on tap. They will probably have some bottles for sale that could be difficult to track down in Richmond. I love Lickinghole Creek, but I probably wouldn't go out there for anything other than a release or to buy a specific bottle I couldn't find in the store but knew they had.

 

Wow, this is all super helpful! Thanks everyone!! I'm splitting time between the east and west sides of downtown, so should have a chance to check a few places out.

Also, very intrigued by LCCB for a fun weekend drive (mostly because of the bear on the label, to be honest). I see there are ~2000 bottles. Are these the types of bottle releases people line up for in advance? Or can you go there pretty much anytime that day and get a bottle or two? And what was Despot / Despot Day like -- fun or madhouse? Worth trying to trade for?

 

Despot is awesome, Despot Day was kind of a madhouse but not really. A really long line and a lot of people didn't get any. I think that's the only release that's like that though. Up to this point, all of their other releases have been very low-key, show up at any time during the day and get bottles, no line. The Illuminatos is the same base beer as Despot, but aged in rum barrels instead of bourbon barrels. I would think the release would be low-key and easy, but you never know these days. It for sure won't be like Despot Day but it might sell out at some point.

 

This is my thought. I think I'd rather go to Lickinghole precisely because it IS a farm, and perhaps a nice drive in the country (?). I'm fine with them not having anything unusual on draft, because I don't think their stuff makes it up my way that much on draft anyway, so in that sense it's all unusual. I'd rather NOT go on a bottle release day, because it's bound to be a packed shitshow based on what i read about Despot Day and just getting a pint of something and peacefully hanging out might be a pain in the ass...

 

Its not a shitshow on any day but Despot Day. If it sounds fun to you then go, it is a nice drive out in the country and all the beer they make is great. Don't let another release scare you off.

 

And if you want to try Enlightened Despot, it's on tap at The Pig & Pearl right now. $9 and keep the glass. Not very busy, plenty tasty

 

Will this one be a shitshow?

Saturday, April 4, 2015: Supreme Leader (Bourbon Barrel Heir Apparent) Release

 

I don't know, but I don't think so. Despot is one of those beers that has buzz in VA, like gingerbread stout and Resolute. Everyone comes out for it. The Supreme Leader sounds awesome, I'll go out for it unless I can't, but I just don't see it attracting nearly the same size crowd as Despot. I obviously can't make any predictions or promises, but I personally don't think it will be a shitshow. I went for the release of the regular Hier Apparent and there were like 15 people there.

 

Just FYI, they just posted on facebook that this release will be Saturday April 11th. From what I heard the Illuminatos release this weekend went very well, no lines and there are still some bottles left, so I am not expecting a shitshow for this.