Richmond, VA for the evening

I was just there on Saturday to see a band at The Broadberry. This is what we did:

Ate at ZZQ to get food on us. Left the car there and walked to The Veil & Vasen. Then went to Little Nickle (I'm a tiki enthusiast so it was a must). Then to Triple Crossing before taking the car back to the ZZQ lot and walking to The Broadberry.

 

The Broadberry is a good intimate venue. Decent beers on draft to keep your buzz rolling.

 

You will be doing yourself a disservice if you skip out Final Gravity Brewing. It's a homebrew shop (Original Gravity) on one side and brewery that does awesome beers across many styles on the other side. They open at 2pm Tues - Thurs so definitely hit there. They allow you to bring food in (good BBQ joint right next door). If you are coming down 95 from NOVA then it should be pretty convenient.

Mekong is also a great go too. Fantastic Vietnamese food and 50 or so killer taps. They open at 11:30 I believe.

The Answer is another very popular Tuesday stop (4pm open) as they do to go Crowlers of their JOOSE today. It's the same building / owners as Mekong. The Answer is in the back of the building. Also around 50 taps (Completely difference beers from Mekong) and they do their own beers. The IPAs, Andalls and JOOSE are the most popular.

It's release day at The Veil so if you go there plan for a little wait to get cans although I hear the lines have been moving pretty quickly recently. Lines for draft are very quick too. If you get there before they open you will likely see a pretty good line (50 ish??) so best bet it to hit up a couple other spots first then show up there an hour or so after opening.

Have not been there in a while but Strangeways also open at Noon.

If you do head to Hardywood's original location on Ownby Ln. there's also Castleburg Brewery almost right next door. They have been putting out really good stuff. You could easily park at one and walk to the other within a couple minutes.

Have not been to the Broadberry before but since it's right there near Scott's Addition I bet you could park around there and easily walk to The Veil, Ardent, along with the other breweries, cidery, meadery in Scott's Addition (time pending of course) then not have to worry about driving after visiting a few breweries.

Last but certainly not least Triple Crossing is right in my top 4 breweries in RVA along with Final Gravity, The Answer, The Veil. Their Downtown / Foushee St location would be closest.

 

Hopping on to this. Coming in on a Friday on my way to outer banks in June. What’s a good central hotel to hit up Veil, Answer, hardywood? Thanks

 

Most of the hotels in that area are going to be closer to downtown but if its just for a 1 night stay there's a Holiday Inn (was doing renovations last I was by there) and a Clarion nearby. Average to below average at best. Less than a mile from The Answer/Mekong and probably 4-5 miles from Hardywood (Ownby Ln) is a Candlewood Suites on West Broad that I have heard good things about.

If you have the time definitely check out Hardywood's new facility (West Creek) right near Short Pump. Probably 15 miles away but all highway so the 15-20 minute drive there is probably the same amount it time it would take you to get the 5-6 miles from The Answer to Hardywood - Ownby Lane.

 

Thanks for the advice

 

Hopping on to this thread as well... my girlfriend's dream brewery is The Veil, so we are going to visit Richmond this winter. Any great pub / bottle shops to visit? Going to visit The Veil, The Answer, Hardywood, Triple Crossing, and Vasen. We love great ipas, sours (especially gose!) and stouts. Thanks!

 

The bottle shops in Richmond are actually pretty good right now, I guess because of all the great breweries in town people just don't chase distro beer much any more. Corks and Kegs and Once Upon a Vine South both have tons of great options every time I go in.

 

Agreed! If you happen to be closer to the West End / Short Pump area De Fles Winkel is great as well as the Wegman's gets a lot of the local and mainstream distro'd stuff with really good prices.

 

I would add the Answer for IPAs and sours/goses. Answer is kind of king of fruited sours so I wouldnt miss out and the food next door at Mekong (same owners) is great. They also have a great draft list and beer selection.

I wasnt the biggest fan of Vasen especially if you like IPAs and sours but its a cool tap room. It had a super loud band when I was there but not sure if thats a common thing.

 

what are the best breweries and/or beer bars to watch sports at night? preferably some place that also serves food or has a food truck, or is next to good restaurants. and also preferably somewhere in the fan/scott's addition, or downtown.

 

I was waiting for someone else to get this, but I think the lack of replies speaks for itself. There isn't much overlap between the craft beer and sports watching communities in Richmond, at least not from a business standpoint.

Most of the breweries don't even have tvs, although I think the downtown Triple Crossing location does. Mekong has tvs and will probably have sports on them, but I wouldn't consider it a great place to watch the game.

I was at a new place the other night called Pizza & Beer of Richmond (PBR) that has a nice setup, plenty of tvs with sports on, and a large, decent draft list. They say they focus on Richmond beers, which is technically true, but the list mostly pulls from the many mediocre breweries in town. There's good options though, Falcon Smash from Triple Crossing (which almost every bar in Richmond has on tap), Hardywood Pils, maybe a couple others. Its not really a "beer bar" but I liked it and will be going back. I don't think they have a Yelp page yet but its on Robinson between Cary and Parkwood.

 

To keep this thread rolling for anyone looking for general RVA direction on breweries......Many people know about The Veil, Triple Crossing and The Answer but as I mentioned a little above this anyone coming needs to check out Final Gravity Brewing. Probably the most under the radar brewery in RVA due to them very rarely distributing beers outside of their taproom (they have a small system) and also not being in the central area where most of the brewery scene is. They really are only 5 miles away from Scott's Addition though. In any case I bring them back up because they just took home Gold and Silver in the IPA Category (excluding DIPAs as those fall under Strong American Ale) of the Virginia Craft Brewers Cup. Click the preceding link to see who won from RVA. The Answer, The Veil and Triple Crossing did not enter beers this year (don't expect TBC and Veil to ever enter until BJCP updates their style guidelines to include NEIPAs) but that is still pretty big considering IPA oftentimes have the largest number of entries. And they just don't do IPAs well. They do a lot of styles that are often really nicely done. Typically b/w 10 - 15 beers on at any time. Need additional confirmation? Check out Untappd for the highest rated breweries within 50 miles of Richmond based on user check-ins and you will find them solidly at #4 (behind the 3 others mentioned above)

I'm not affiliated with FG other than being a fan of their beers and whenever I am in RVA I do my best to make it by there to support their small (and growing) operation.

 

I'm a big fan of Untappd and use it often when I travel to find local breweries. The search you describe is very cool ... however I have no clue how to work that in the app. I know there is the map screen, but that doesn't default to a radius, nor can it sort. Would love to figure out how to do this. Thanks!

 

I think it's a new feature. At least I only noticed it within the past week or so. Here's how to get there on iOS. I do know it's not available through the browser version.




(I never tried this until just now but you can also do the same thing with the "Top Rated Beers." Find out which local beers are the highest rated. And it does actually pull local beers and not just everything people have been checking in. I guess it's tied to the brewery which would have to be within the radius you define. Pretty cool!)

 

Oh WOW!! This is SO COOL!! I really appreciate the detailed screenshots. I typically use the map screen to research areas which I'll be traveling too ... but this is way easier and less cumbersome. CHEERS to you - thank you again!!!

 

Don't mean to hi-jack this thread but you all seem to know RVA and its breweries pretty well... Has anyone been on a brewery tour of RVA that they can recommend? I'm starting to look in to what looks like the popular tours - Richmond Brewery Tours / Drink Richmond / RVA Trolley, but they seem expensive and I don't want to get on a tour that only give us 30 min. at a brewery, pours that we can't choose, and / or a token tour of things. I'm thinking that renting a large limo and having them drive us around would be a better alternative.

Thanks for the opinions

 

I have not been on any but at first glance those look like terrible deals. $70/person for 3 breweries, the first doesn't even tell you which 3 and the Drink Richmond takes you to Castleburg, Isley, and Buskey Cidery. Then you get a sampler flight at each. Fuck that, those are straight tourist traps (I didn't even know we had those in Richmond). You can walk to like 5-6 breweries, 2 cideries, a meadery, and a distillery (Including Isley and Buskey) for free and then uber or limo to Hardywood, Triple Crossing, and wherever else you want to go for a small fraction of that price. Just do the legwork yourself and you'll have a much better experience for a lot less money.