Did a brief search for Richmond recommendations and didn't notice anything recent. I'll be heading down for the weekend July 15-17th . It looks like dinner at Stella's and a stop at Mekong are on the list. Stone, Hardywood, and The Veil are all close by but I doubt i'll have time for all of them. Should I weight one of those locations heavier than the others? I'm open to suggestions.
If you like IPAs and especially NE style IPAs, I recommend hitting The Veil, its really close to Mekong/The Answer as well. Hardywood is skippable imo, I haven't been to the Stone facility yet. For me, The Answer and The Veil are the 2 places I go every time I'm in town.
Thanks! I haven't heard of The Answer but the location is really convenient. I'll throw that on the list.
The guy who owns and runs Mekong is An Bui, about a year and a half ago he opened a brewpub in the space right next to Mekong and called it The Answer. When they Answer opened they started brewing their own beers. They serve their beers at both locations and they have a completely different guest tap list at each (the guest taps are the vast majority of taps) so both are worth going to, but Mekong is more of a restaurant where The Answer is more of a beer-centric experience.
If your time is limited definitely go the Answer (Mekong) and the Veil, you won't regret either. Hardywood is like a mile or so from the veil so you can easily do both, however if you hit up a bottle shop in town you can probably get plenty of their recent releases. Stone's facility is pretty nice and they recently started brewing, but when I visited they just had the standard beers on tap that you can probably get locally.
If you are into IPAs then definitely toss Triple Crossing on your list. They produce some awesome stuff that can easily compete with what The Answer is doing are are only about 2 miles from Stone. Of course you cannot miss Veil for their NE IPAs. Echo the thoughts on The Answer / Mekong. And those "Andalls" wow! Both places have 50 or so taps and they are different by design so in a matter of a few feet you will have access to nearly 100 different beers. And they often have some killer taps. Agree with @montman on Stone. Nothing special to them (yet) as the beers they are pouring are much of the same stuff you can pickup on retail shelves and taps across the country. The first batch of Stone IPA should be ready in a couple weeks so by the time you get into town they will definitely have beers pouring that are being brewed right here in RVA.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The Answer / Mekong and The Veil will be on the list. Is it likely that The Answer / Mekong will have Veil, Triple Crossing or Hardywood beers on tap?
Ditto on The Answer - haven't seen it mentioned but you can get crowlers of the Answer's beers to go which is nice (not andalls, and guest taps are available for growler fills only, if at all). Word is Stone RVA is brewing IPA right now with AB, Delicious, and Ruination in the offing. First Stone RVA beer should be tapped very end of this month. They aren't brewing Enjoy By there yet or anything so all that is coming from CA at this point. Still, I'm looking forward to going back to see the place again later this month.
Most definitely something from Hardywood, possibly something from Triple Crossing, but definitely nothing from Veil. Their Taplist is online
No chance of finding Veil away from the brewery yet. They have not started distro of anything. That is still likely a few months away and even that should be extremely limited. Keep an eye on Veil's facebook page on the 15th though. It's been a few weeks since they did Crowlers (releases Saturdays when they have done it) and with hiring another brewer I'm thinking that offering may return in the near future now that they can ramp up to brewing more.
Be sure to notice the "Answer Beers" and "Guest Taps" option in the upper left when you click on their taplist link. Have to click on both buttons to see the full list. Took me a few minutes to figure that out at first so I could see all their taps.
limited distro is possibly a lot closer than that. the guy who will be running the Distro side just finished his prior full time job last week. I wouldn't be too surprised to see random kegs in VaBeach and NoVA within a month or so (pure speculation/guesswork here...)
Being from out of town and visiting the area myself, The Answer is a must. I'd trust the other posters for all other choices Though The Veil sounds interesting, I have no experience. Hardywood was a fun place, but is as much a nice experience as it is a "gotta-have-their-beer" place. That is in no way meant to disparage their beers - especially their barrel program. Side note: I personally have always enjoyed a stop by Strangeways, but then again, I am a bit strange.
This is correct. Think of the big/most popular beer bar in VA Beach and the one in DC, and chances are they will be getting distro of kegs from the Veil. Also, a few select places in RVA will be getting Veil kegs. But again, these will be super limited as they still can't keep up with their own demand at the brewery.
