Virginia is for Lagers

EDITORIAL NOTE: Beer in hand while blogging some of this entry - Backdraft Brown Ale in a bottle - Hook & Ladder Brewing, Wilkes-Barre, PA

While most of this post is about some wonderful beer I found on a road trip with my wife in Virginia over the New Year's holiday, that same road trip started in Atlantic City where I once again found myself at Firewaters Bar (see previous blog about Atlantic City) in the bottom of the Tropicana Casino with an old favorite, Stone IPA (Calif.), draught in hand (photo right). By the way, that Victory Brewing (Penn.) glass it was poured in somehow made it back with me in my suitcase. How odd? At least I am the Robin Hood of beer glass theivery as I plan to give it to my friend, Nate, who is a Victory fan. While I had nothing new while at Firewaters (even though they have 50 taps they were out of one of the few I had not tried), I did have something new at dinner earlier in the evening. It was an interesting German wheat-doppelbock (double-dark) ale called Aventinus from Schneider & Sohn Brewing. It was a little heavy after the great light seafood dinner I had, but still enjoyable and quite different in terms of wheat-based beer. Plus, its ABV of 8% was enjoyable.

Now, on to Virginia which as their tourism catch-phrase says truly "is for lovers"...beer lovers, that is. We stopped in Charlottesville for the night since it was about half way home and because it's the home of Starr Hill Brewing, one of my favorite new microbrewers in the Southern region. We were able to take a tasting and a tour of their modest facilities now housed in a section of a former chicken-processing plant in the nearby hamlet of Crozier, VA. Starr Hill, named after a Charlottesville neighborhood where it was conceived, got its start originally in Charlottesville as a downtown brew-pub and has seen enough success over the last few years to expand to the Crozier location. They now distribute to six states (including Tennessee. Thank you!) and recently signed a distribution contract with Anheiser-Busch which should see further expansion in the near future. Keep in mind this is a distribution-only contract, not a brewing contract. All Starr Hill products are still hand-produced from high quality ingredients (left) as our tour-guide, Shelley, mentions in a minute or so of his spiel in the video below.

As for the tasting my wife and I tried seven different brews. The Jomo Lager which I had already tried and had incidentally bought for our Christmas party and decorated my Beer Tree with (see previous blog). The Amber Ale which I had not tried but found to be good. The Love which was new to me. It's their wheat beer and I have to say was one of the best I have had and I am admittedly not the biggest wheat fan. Dave, who was pouring for us, shared a great hint with us to hold our nose before taking a sip, then swish it around and swallow whle releasing your nostrils. What happens? A wonderful taste of cloves and a hint of bananas. Are either of those tastes added to The Love? Heck, no!! Amazing! Next up was The Gift, a limited-edition holiday German bock.

Delcious. Next up was the reason I started to love Starr Hill, their Northern Lights IPA. This is one of my favorite regional IPAs holding a very close second in my heart to Sweetwater IPA out of Atlanta. Incredibly hoppy without being overly bitter. A true masterpiece. Fnally was the Dark Star Porter which I had before and thought was OK, but it was just a sample from a bottle. This sample I got on draught was much, much better. Not overly smokey like a lot of porters and actually quite light in body. Even my wife, Ashlee, was impressed with this one and dark beers are not her thing. Finally, after learning how far we had driven and still had to drive, our new friend and pourer, Dave, let us in on a little secret. From a tap with no handle on it he gave us two pours of their Tripel - a Belgium-style beer that is lightly sweet and sweetly light. What a great, great beer. Well done, Starr Hill, well done.

After our tour and tasting and hitting the sales counter pretty hard for ourselves and our friends back home - a growler of the Tripel, three pint bottles of The Gift and a six-pack of The Love -it was time for some lunch. From some literature available at Starr Hill we quickly learned that the area was rich with microbrewing and we settled on one nearby that also boasted a restaurant, Blue Mountain Brewing.

To see Blue Mountain Brewing from the outside you might not be impressed. It's a simple looking one-story structure with a beautiful view towards...you guessed it...a blue-hazed mountain. Our expectations weren't too high, but we were hungry. When we stepped in our expectations grew a bit because the place was packed! Lots of eating and lots of beer sampling going on in every nook and cranny of the place. We felt fortunate when we were offered a couch and armchair and a corner of a coffee table to have our lunch. Sure beats waiting who knows how long on a real table! I immediately ordered the little 6-beer sampler (below) they offered as we looked over the food menu. As with the restaurant, my expectations weren't high about their beer and again I was grossly mistaken. This was some great beer! The menu and the beer were heavily German-influenced. From light to dark I had The Blue Mountain Lager, The Rockfish Wheat, The Full Nelson Pale Ale, MacHaydens, The Wee Scotch Ale and The Dark Hollow. I don't have a bad word to say about any of them. I immediately ordered a pint of The Full Nelson which was their hoppiest concotion, and we ordered a 750ml bottle of The Dark Hollow which I can easily say is my favorite stout of all time. No, seriously, this stuff is excellent. The big difference is that this Imperial Stout has been aged in fresh bourbon barrels and the taste payoff is amazing. Very unique and inventive. Another reason I like this place is the fact that they are also operating their own hop farm which is extremely rare (and a risk of time and money) in this part of the country. But as their website factually states, Virginia was the leading hop-grower in the United States when the nation got its start, so why not bring some of that tradition back. Plus, there are successful wineries all over the place here, so hops should do well. I will definitely keep up to date on this guys and their progress in hop production as well as excellent beer craftsmanship.

In a nutshell, this roadtrip showed me that central Virginia is not only a beautiful and surprisingly undeveloped area of culture and history, but also makes a lot of good damn beer and I cannot wait to get back and do more exploring.