RVA’s Legend Brewery is breaking new ground this week as VA law has changed to allow exciting flavoring techniques to be used in local breweries.
RVA’s Legend Brewery is breaking new ground this week as VA law has changed to allow exciting flavoring techniques to be used in local breweries.
A Pin is a small keg which gets cask-conditioned, this process makes the brew naturally carbonated. But the real exciting change here is the reduction of regulations from the Tax and Trade Bureau(TTB) which dealt with adding flavors to the casks.
“Every time we had a pin of pale ale and we wanted to put in lemon rinds or something like that, we’d have to send out a formula to the TTB to make sure it was okay to sell,” said Legend Brewery’s FOH Manager Angie Durbin. That doesn’t sound too bad – except getting the ‘okay’ to sell from the TTB could take as long as 6 months.
“If we wanted to do another pin, say pale ale and coffee, we’d have to send out another formula for that – and if we wanted to make the same pin, a pin we had already gotten approved, we’d have to send out the formula again,” Said Durbin of the exhaustive process.
This lead to a system of making small batches, seeing if they work, and then sending out formulas to get approval to sell the beer months later.
But now, Legend has gone crazy (PINsane) and they’re making any pin they want. “It typically takes 45 mins to an hour now,” said Durbin.
To help celebrate, Legend will have a new pin Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week. They’ll tap the pin at 5:30 and provide brewery tours so beer aficionados can come out and see where the magic happens.
Schedule below:
Monday, 5:30pm: Aaron (Cask Extraordinaire) will tap a Lager with Vanilla Beans and Orange // Brewery Tour to follow
Wednesday, 5:30pm: Cam (Quality Control Tech) will tap a Pale Ale with Jalapeño and Cinnamon // Brewery Tour to follow
Friday, 5:30pm: Jeff (Cask Extraordinaire) will tap a Brown Ale with Raspberries and Chipotle Peppers // Brewery Tour by Ashley (Marketing Guru) to follow
