What’s happening, craft beer lovers of RVA?! Welcome to this week’s RVA On Tap, RVA Magazine’s weekly column for all your craft beer-related events, releases, festivals, and all the booze news your hearts desire. 

If you missed the last column, you can check that out here. Our kegs are overflowing with news this week with beer releases and festivals, events, and other cool happenings around town — so hold on to your mugs! 

This week is a bit lighter than lately on new beer releases since the holidays had so many special recipes, but we’ve still got a few great ones (that are extra special), and plenty of events to keep you busy in the cold weather all week.

Happy birthday, Legend Brewing Company! Legend is Richmond’s OG craft brewery, and we’d like to wish a big, big congrats to our close friends across the bridge for 25 trips around the sun together. They started the celebration over the weekend,  so if you want to celebrate with them, fear not: A big birthday party is certainly in order with a series of craft DIPA’s to commemorate the occasion. 

Legend’s 25th Anniversary DIPA dropped on Friday, the first in their triple-series of Double IPA’s with different hop combinations. The first round, fresh at the taps now, is brewed with Centennial and Amarillo hops — according to Legend (nice), both dual-purpose and with clean-bittering, rich, aromatic properties. These give off a nice and deep, layered hop profile, backed with a “sturdy supporting malt base.” 

This 8.3% ABV beer is packed with fruity citrus and stone fruit notes with some herbal flavors as well, and its warming back end finishes off nice and dry. Get ‘em while you can, because this one’s a rarity!

Hardywood has not one, but two(!!) releases this week. First off is a new tap release, Ruse, which hails from red wine barrels aged over a nice, long time. Ruse has some other flavors up its sleeve, too: Chocolate, the best one of all, obviously. This beer’s port-like qualities blend into its dark chocolate and molasses flavors, and has a strong smell of oak and leather. Altogether, this one couldn’t sound more suited for the dead of winter, and I think it’s the perfect hibernating beer to curl up inside with and embrace all the good that comes out of this freezy season. Winter is my favorite! If you want to grab a taste of Ruse, head over to Hardywood this Saturday for its release. I can’t wait to give this one a try. 

Next up this week from Hardywood… confusing you, or trying to. But Does It Make Sense? drops on Friday in a new can release. This 7.5% ABV New England Double IPA is brewed with Mosaic Lupulin Powder and Galaxy hops, to bring in plenty of flavor to mix in with this special brew. Yum! 

Ooooooooh, am I excited about this one. Final Gravity Brewing Co. is releasing their Foggy Mountain Breakdown this Friday, which makes me even more sad that I won’t be in town to try it. As a big-time enthusiast of both foggy mountains and IPA’s myself, this sounds like a dream!

Foggy Mountain Breakdown is brewed with their classic Citra-Mosaic hop combination, with nice fruity flavors like grapefruit, lemon, and tropical fruits “that will get stuck in your head like a favorite old tune”…… and man, if that ain’t the same feeling I get in the mountains. A favorite old tune, indeed. I hope this one sticks around long enough for me to grab one when I make it back to town — it’s said to hit you with flavors that glow right from the glass.

A new name to much of Richmond’s drinkers, I’m sure, Fonta Flora Brewery isn’t actually too new to our brewers. The North-Carolina based brewery dropped a collab with our very own The Veil over the weekend, and even if I didn’t know anything more about it, the artwork on the can is enough to get me to grab one off the shelf. 

But lucky for me (and you), I do know anything more about it! In fact, I know many things more about it. YA YA KNOW KNOW is a complex, hoppy DIKA Double-India Kvoss Ale. Fonta Flora learned from the best, and took The Veil’s hop skills to create this beautiful, unique brew. It’s dry-hopped in the whirlpool with Citra and Mosaic hops, then double-dry hopped with Galaxy and Citra. As far as they’re concerned — it’s the most complex hoppy beer they’ve ever made. 

YA YA KNOW KNOW has a mind-bending amount of aroma according to its tasters, and it’s mashed with local grains and bread loaves from North Carolina. It comes as no surprise to Richmond that The Veil’s fingers were dipped in the making of such a special beer, and I’m sure NC knows it, too. 

Did you resolve to spend more days out in the fresh Virginia air, and less afternoons stuffed up in your house? Good! So did Väsen Brewing Co. — and this year, they’re offering up their know-how to help you do it right. With Vagabonds leading mentoring sessions to craft your very own New Year’s resolutions, they’re opening up their hearts (and minds) to help folks craft new skills in outdoor adventures. 

Session 1 went down yesterday, but not to worry if you missed it: Three more are on their way over the next week or so, and Session 2 is coming up on Sunday. Come with an open mind and the desire to explore, and Väsen will take care of the rest. No prior skills are needed, so save the excuses and go experience the beautiful state we’re so lucky to call home. 

Have your fun, and drink it too. It’s been a while since we’ve had a lot of fun events in Richmond, which is so uncharacteristic of us. Everyone’s been so busy with the traveling and the festivities of holiday season that we haven’t had time for our favorite pastimes: celebrating for no reason at all just because our city’s awesome. 

Thankfully now that we’ve made it into the new year, that trend is starting to turn itself around. We’re getting back to all the fun weekly happenings of the beer scene in Richmond, and  Center of the Universe is here for a good time. Back by popular demand, their Beer, Bingo and Bloodies events are starting back up, giving us all the pick-me-up we’ve been needing. If you win their hourly bingo game on Sundays, you’ll get a big chance to win COTU swag and free prizes, all while you sit back and enjoy a beer bloody. I’m in serious need of some beer swag, so you’ll definitely catch me at these this season! 

RVAMag beer column meets RVAmag Comics X-Change column: Intermission Beer Company is hosting DC Comic Trivia at the brewery tomorrow night! Head on over for all things DC Universe, from comic books to movies, and TV shows to pop culture. Grab a few friends, too — you can team up in groups of 4 (or split for more) to test your knowledge in one of the best trivia themes ever.  

Thanks to Garden Grove Brewing, you can enjoy your favorite local beers with your favorite local eats at the same time! And not in food trucks!! Once a month, Garden Grove hosts their Taproom Dinner Series, and this month’s a good one. Sabai and Temple RVA are both teaming up with the brewery to match up five courses of mouth-watering meals with five of Garden Grove’s brews, wines, ciders, or honey wines. If you’re interested in going, I’d suggest heading over to their site and getting a ticket soon — these guys sell out fast! 

That’s it for this week’s RVA On Tap! As your weekly columnist, I’m here to take all your beer releases, event info, ideas and questions. If you’re a brewer, send me your release info at [email protected], and if you’re a beer enthusiast, drop me a line anytime to talk booze. Catch y’all next week!