North Carolina and Virginia

In Centerville you have
Sweetwater Tavern (brewpub)
Beer is average foods good

Ashburn is just north of Centerville
Old Ox Brewery
Lost Rhino Brewing

There is a Total Wine in Fairfax with a decent amount of local beer

Mad Fox is in Falls Churh and is a great brewpub with good beer & food that East of Centerville

Are you staying near the Airport?

Lots of local breweries up towards Leesburg

 

Ocelot is a great brewery near Centreville if you like IPAs.

 

Centreville bottle shops- There are two Total Wines with Fairfax addresses. The one that is closest to Centreville is the address below.

Total Wine
Greenbriar Town Center
13055-C Lee Jackson Highway
Fairfax, VA 22033

The other option is Whole Foods in Fair Lakes. It has a good bottle selection and some good draft options that you can fill growlers or drink pints on premises

DC bottles- Whole Foods on P Street. Church Key is very close by which is a plus.

 

Dc Brau and Alewerks (Williamsburg) were the two semi easy to find breweries that stood out to me. Mad Fox for food and beer is amazingly good too though, but you'll have to go to the source and they don't really bottle.

 

Exactly what I was going to say. Cool little place and you can have a pint while shopping.

 

Just an FYI, the local breweries don't can/bottle too many beers so if you have access to a growler, you may want to bring it with you to the breweries.

- Ocelot is draft only
- Old Ox cans a couple beers (session IPA and belgian IPA), they have a couple beers they put in bombers
- Lost Rhino cans a couple (IPA and a hoppy Pils), they also put a few beers in bombers but its a rotating selection
- Sweetwater Tavern does growlers but only their growlers as far as I know, I wouldn't bother anyway but the food is pretty good and inexpensive..this is not the Sweetwater from Georgia, this is a local restaurant chain (Great American Restaurants)

If you head to Ashburn, you can hit Ocelot, Old Ox and Lost Rhino pretty easily as they are relatively close to each other. There is also a Wegmans in Sterling with a decent beer selection and a new Whole Foods in Ashburn where they have a pretty good bottle selection and they have some draft beers as well (they do growlers).

There is also a Dogfish Head Alehouse not too far from Centreville, if you like their beers or haven't had them it might be worth checking out.

 

I would definitely take the time to hit Old 690 though it's a bit further afield than those previously mentioned, and if you do that it really isn't hard to also get to Adroit Theory. (I second Lost Rhino though)

Old 690: 15670 Ashbury Church Rd, Purcellville VA 20132 (googlemaps sez 51 minutes from I-66 & VA-28, the main Centreville exit)
Adroit Theory: 404 Browning Ct., Unit C, Purcellville VA 20132 (quicker from Centreville, only 45 minutes per google maps from I-66 & VA-28)

Old 690 to Adroit Theory: 7 minutes per googlemaps

I would second the Whole Foods at Fair Lakes if you don't want to deal with Vienna traffic to get to Norm's. Fair Lakes WF is a surprisingly easy in-and-out for even a hick like me, from Warrenton VA. Norm's has a charm factor WF can't duplicate though. But you can actually have a beer at WF.

 

also near Centerville is Tin Cannon and/or you could go to manassas and check out bad wolf and heritage plus a little further is old bust head.

 

id skip sweetwater, place gets crowded and the beer isn't very good.

 

If you make it to the East Coast of VA, Alewerks in Williamsburg, Reaver Beach in Va. Beach. Great bottle shop in Williamsburg called Hair Of The Dog...Cheers !!

 

I haven't had an above average beer from Tin Cannon, Bad Wolf or Heritage. Maybe they have improved since I have been.

 

only been to tin cannon once, it was just after they opened. i agree that nothing was spectacular. a friend of mine was there recently and said it was good. I plan to give it another shot.

been to Bad Wolf and Heritage several times, and never been overly impressed either. people really seem to like them both though. bad wolf just opened there new bigger facility so that may help them once they learn the new system. I will continue to give them a shot when I am in the area.

but should add if I was going for beer only (as they only have beer and no food (well sometimes food trucks) I would pick either of these three over sweetwater any time.

 

There was a time when Sweetwater was one of the only places to get good draft beer in Centreville. But I think they have fallen behind the times. They need to add some new recipes and change up the some of the beers they have brewed since opening. I think their IPAs have changed a little bit but are still far behind the better IPAs in the area. My guess is the brewers are somewhat limited. Sweetwater has always been a restaurant first and a brewery second.

With all of that said I still enjoy a handful of their beers like their Oktoberfest and have not had a bad meal there. If someone is spending a few days in Centreville I think it is worth the stop for lunch or dinner. But if I only had limited time and just wanted to check out the local breweries I would suggest Ocelot and the other Loudoun breweries over the ones in Manassas/Gainesville with out a doubt.