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RVA ON TAP: The Big Release

Caley Sturgill | August 6, 2019

Topics: Ardent craft ales, beer, beer column, Black Heath Meadery, Blue Bee Cider, breweries, Buskey Cider, courthouse creek cider, events, final gravity brewing co, fine creek brewing, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Isley, local beer, Reservoir Distillery, richbrau, RVA On Tap, scotts addition, scotts addition beer, Starr Hill, strangeways, the answer brewpub, the big release, The Veil Brewing Co., three notchd, Väsen

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 this week with beer releases and festivals, events, and other cool happenings around town — so hold on to your mugs!

This week, we’ve got some great returns of old favorites, plus a brand-new festival: the Scott’s Addition Big Release. All the brewers in Richmond’s booziest neighborhood are coming together for the first annual collaboration release, so if you’re looking for some new flavors in your life, the beer family of Richmond has you covered.

Summer is slowly coming to an end (thank god for me, and maybe a bummer for some of you), and our pals at Hardywood are dropping one of their early-spring favorites in cans this Friday to bring the season of fruity beers full-circle. The Original Five Flavors came out at Hardywood back in May alongside Dreamlike — which sounded like an actual dream, and incredibly tasty — and it’s making its second debut in cans. Dreamlike made its debut again back on August 2, along with Kiwi Lime Berliner Weisse.

The Original Five Flavors is a candy lover’s delight. This one was made to match the early days of Lifesavers candy, and comes in the classic flavors of cherry, orange, lemon, lime, and pineapple. Dreamlike, on the other hand, is a pillowy-soft DIPA, with nice, fresh hops released with Kiwi Lime Berliner’s hot-day flavors.

“What’s that in the clouds over there?” says Hardywood, “A Dog? A Bunny?” Nah, booze. There’s no rush to wake up from this dream.

Also returning this Friday is Final Gravity Brewing Co.’s Absolute Magnitude Double IPA. This one was brewed with 100 percent Citra hops to really bring out the fresh hop flavor, and focus in on a widely-loved favorite in the brewing process. Citra brings out orange zest, grapefruit, and lemon tastes that bring this Double IPA up to 8% ABV — and according to the brewers, it “radiates” with its astronomical sum of citrus, magically brewed with a velvety finish.

I’m a big fan of a soft finish to an IPA, and the trend of these fruity IPAs with soft finishes is delicious. Final Gravity never disappoints, so this is definitely one on my list to try for the week!

Are you looking for a party where you can brewery hop around the neighborhood and try something brand-new at every single one? Yeah, these don’t come around too often. That’s why you’re going to want to head out to Scott’s Addition this Saturday for The Big Release, a massive collab between the booziest area in town with breweries all cooking up fresh recipes for a full day of new brews.

A few of the new releases I’m most excited about on this list start with Blue Bee Cider’s Hot Honey Gold Rush cider. This barrel-aged cider comes from an apple brandy barrel that started off with jalapeño-infused honey, so you’ll get an awesome kick of spice at the end to round out the brandy and honey flavors. Another I can’t wait to try is Three Notch’d RVA Collab House’s Lush-ious — this one looks SO good, y’all. This Maple Pecan Brown Ale (holy wow, I’m in heaven) was brewed in collaboration with Lush Cupcakes. If you haven’t heard yet, Lush makes alcohol-infused cupcakes, and just celebrated their opening in Scott’s Addition. Their Lush-ious collab with Three Notch’d set off to create something similar in beer form, and landed on maple and pecans added into a Three Notch’d brown ale that started off with biscuit and chocolate undertones to create the best dessert-brew flavors ever.

You’ll catch your favorites like Ardent Craft Ales and Strangeways, plus Starr Hill, Vasen, Three Notch’d RVA Collab House, Isley Brewing Company, Buskey Cider, Black Heath Meadery, Courthouse Creek Cider, Blue Bee Cider, Reservoir Distillery, and The Veil… who has an extra surprise up their sleeve this week as well.

Last night, The Veil Brewing Co. released four debuts and one return to fill glasses for every taste.

Kicking off the releases, Very Berry Tastee (pictured above) brings the sour and the smoothie to one perfect combination. This thick, fruity ale is the product of combining raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, blueberries, and strawberries with milk sugar to pull the fruits together in a smoothie-style sour ale that hits in at 5.5% ABV.

Next up comes Steady Incline, a light-orange colored Double IPA with Citra, Galaxy, Amarillo, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops at 8% ABV. Strong Enough follows, and this brand-new IPA release combines some flare with flavors like El Dorado and Vic Secret in addition to its Galaxy, Mosaic, and Citra with a bright color in the glass. Strong Enough is a lighter 6.5% ABV beer, and it comes with Color of Blood’s high 11% ABV for the stronger drinkers out there. Color of Blood is a triple IPA that benefits from hops like Wakatu and BRU-1 to complement Galaxy, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Nelson, and although it pours with a crispy orange juice color, its heavier ABV and bold taste bring out its name.

Another featured release in the bunch is Brenner Pass: Grand Cru, which is returning to commemorate the second anniversary of the beloved local restaurant. This brew is unlike the rest, and drinks more like a fine table wine with textures like Chardonnay coming from its spelt, raw wheat, and floral American hops from the brewing process. The Mixed Fernie is funky and dry with a subtle acidity, and was stowed away and inoculated with The Veil’s house culture to prepare for the anniversary celebration.

All in all, The Veil has a beer for just about every preference out right now, and all of them bring something unique to the table for every kind of drinker. If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to bring your wine friend or your daiquiri friend to a brewery, now’s your chance!

Summer may be slowly making its way out the door, but the brutal August heat of the River City is still to come before we can lay this hell season to rest and get back to the good stuff: pumpkin picking, hay rides, getting lost in corn mazes, haunted houses, chilly mornings, hot chai, sweaters, bonfires (!!), weekend trips to the mountains, colorful leaves falling on Monument Avenue, SNOW, the good food and fam time of the holidays, and pretty much everything else that makes cold weather good and summer awful. Halle-fucking-lujah.

Anyway, we’re not there just yet, and it’s going to be a rough one for these next few weeks. Thankfully, Väsen Brewing Company is here to take the heat off.

The Watermelon Puffin is on its way to Väsen this Saturday, and this crisp, refreshing American-style Berliner Weisse is the perfect beer for the end-of-summer hear, according to its brewers. The Watermelon Puffin brings out some slight sour flavors in addition to its watermelon puree to give you all the fruity twists you’ll need when the temp gets above 100° — and you know it’s coming, whether we like it or not. Cool down with these blueberry and lychee notes in a watermelon brew, and try to stay out of the heat (lord knows I will).

Out at The Answer Brewpub, a fresh beer made its way in cans right after we got together for RVA On Tap last week. Corporate Headquarters is a Double IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic, and a touch of Columbus to come together in a nice, pale-orange pour that looks as crisp as it is creamy. Is there any better combination in a beer? I haven’t found one yet, and I don’t plan to as long as these awesome Double IPAs are around.

The Answer also dropped FRESH AF, which is as green as it gets:

This Session IPA was double-dry hopped with Ella, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops, and according to our buds at The Answer, this crusher “bursts with aromas” of mellow mango before its grapefruit finish. If you’re in the mood for one, go grab one while you can, and don’t forget to give The War on Glycol a taste while you’re out there.

PHOTO: Fine Creek Brewing and Väsen Brewing Company

This week, we also saw an awesome beer feature in a collaboration between Fine Creek Brewing and Väsen Brewing Company. The International dropped as a mixed-fermentation Bière de Garde to celebrate the international collaboration with the Farmhouse Ale Appreciation Society, and it came as part of the International Craft Beer Weekend Red Paint hosted in Richmond last week.

This brew came together with Murphy & Rude Pils malt and raw wheat, and was hopped with Saaz and Strisselspalt — but the real kicker on this one is its unique, prolonged 5-hour boil in addition to primary lager fermentation and secondary wooden barrel fermentation that brings out its funky Brett tones and citrus and grape skins. It’s got a mouth-puckering acidity with a dry finish, so if you’re into the sour and the sweet, these breweries have plenty of options to get your week rolling.

For National IPA Day, Richmond’s oldest craft brewery dropped an awesome new Citra-hopped beer. Richbrau released Psychic Horse with the tale of its origin:

“Born in 1924, Lady Wonder was a prophetic horse that lived on the southside of Richmond. Taught to communicate on blocks with letters of the alphabet, Lady Wonder answered questions daily from noon to three, 3 questions for $1, and was visited by more than 150,000 people over 30 years. Her prognostications included Truman’s presidential defeat of Dewey, 28 of 28 winning horses at a Baltimore race track, and she garnered national recognition in 1952 for helping police locate the body of a missing Massachusetts boy. Lady Wonder died in 1957 at the age of 33, three years later than she predicted.”

And the horse girls of the world rejoice. Lady Wonder sounds like she really was a wonder to the residents of Richmond in the last century, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m bummed she’s not around in our time. Thankfully, her legend lives on, and like the horse that came from historic Richmond, the brewers who keep her name alive are a big part of our history as well. Richbrau has been a staple of the River City for decades, and now that it’s back, you can get a taste of history at their brewery (and learn something about Richmond’s legends, too).

PHOTO: Black Heath Meadery and Buskey Cider

Coming up this Saturday at Black Heath Meadery, an awesome new collab with Buskey Cider is making its way to the taps for the Scott’s Addition Big Release.

Buskey Orange Ginger Cyser was crafted between the brewers with local ingredients like Virginia apples and Virginia wildflower honey, plus baby yellow ginger from Casselmonte Farm and orange peels.

According to the brewers, this one’s getting drier by the day, and it’s fermenting in the tank ready to make its way into your glass this weekend.

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!

RVA ON TAP: Hemp, Hops & Events

Caley Sturgill | July 24, 2019

Topics: Ardent craft ales, beer, beer column, beer history tour, craft beer, Garden Grove Brewing, Hardywood, Intermission Beer Company, Isley Brewing Company, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, richbrau, RVA On Tap, Stone Brewing-Richmond, Three Notch’d RVA Collab House, Triple Crossing Beer, Vasen Brewing Company

Wasn’t it absolutely beautiful out yesterday? I wish every day in RVA could be 75 degrees and cloudy. For those of you who enjoy the heat, though, I’ve got you covered: Richmond’s packed with events this week to get you out of the house and into the sun all through the weekend, with more beers on tap than you can count.

Happy birthday, Väsen! These outdoor enthusiasts are turning two years old, and we’re stoked on their plans. This Saturday, they’re kicking off their anniversary festival with a block party all weekend long. And it ain’t no little get-together, either — they’ll have more than 25 bands out, plus breweries, cideries, and meaderies from all around to celebrate their second trip around the sun together.

They’ll also have food trucks and outdoor activities (in true Väsen fashion) that’ll make it “one of Scott’s Addition’s biggest bashes to date.” With three different levels of tickets, you can swing by for a few bands or come out for the whole thing with awesome drink deals and entertainment throughout the weekend. You’ll catch more than 20 breweries from around the state (including a few of my personal favorites, like Allagash, Hardywood, Trapezium, and Final Gravity, among others). It’ll definitely be one for the books, so if you’re looking for some new flavors in your life, now’s your time to shine.

Hardywood’s 4th Annual HeART and Soul Brew Fest is heading back to our favorite brewers this Saturday, with eight hours of urban art, dope entertainment, soul food, and craft beers to kick start your hearts.

There is a PET LAND (!!) from RACC, plus a VIP Experience from the Virginia Lottery coming out for this one. They’ve also got a Fun Zone with the VMFA — so make sure to bring the kiddos along — and art-lovers galore with the Studio Two Three Art Lounge and Made by RVA’s Creative Vendor Market.

Best of all, the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience group is coming out to provide the whole event with a food court on Ownby Lane, packed with awesome spots from all around the city. If you’re in the market for some good eats, Hardywood’s got you covered bigtime this weekend.

In more event news, Triple Crossing Beer is dropping cans in the nation’s capital this Saturday. If the excitement of Richmond’s events just isn’t enough this week, and you want to get out of town, this’ll be a really fun one to check out. They’ve got two different events happening together — one featuring cans, and one featuring drafts.

For cans at The Bruery Store, you’ll find Dawn Chorus Double IPA, a pineapple and peach-gummy ring beer made with Galaxy and Vic Secret hops. Salinity Gose with Lime will also make an appearance (with pink Himalayan sea salt, with lime zest and juice) along with DDH Falcon Smash IPA made with Falconers Flight, El Dorado and Mosaic hops, and lots of grapefruit and citrus pine character. The Grid DIPA is on the fruitier side, with passionfruit, guava, mango, and peaches (is there a better combination than that?). Bright Lights IPA is another summer brew, with ice cream throwbacks in its orange sherbert and melon. All Neon Like IPA, brewed with Galaxy and Vic Secret hops, leans more on the stone fruit and less on the bitterness than its sister in Dawn Chorus. Last, Night Call Double IPA is Denali-hop focused with deeply-tropical pulpy pineapple, candied citrus, and a bright, mango-like apricot softness.

If you’re more of a draft girl (like myself), you can catch brews at ChurchKey like Less Than Alone Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout with flavors of vanilla — plus Tiny Pils, a 3.8% German Pilsner, Pathway Pilsner, Deep Dark Woods coconut Imperial Stout, Chroma Cerise Barrel-Aged Golden Sour aged on Montmorency Cherries, Bright Lights IPA, Falcon Smash IPA, The Grid Double IPA, and finally, Delta Oak, an aged Golden Sour which was dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin.

Now, after those mouthfuls and tongue-twisters, I think it’s pretty clear that Triple Crossing isn’t messing around with their D.C. Fest. For those of you who like to change it up, I think you’ve found your spot.

Triple Crossing also just dropped a new recipe over the weekend, a citrus-zest flavored beer called Waveform. This one has a golden sour base with fresh lime zest, so it’s great for a hot summer day (unlike yesterday, which in my opinion, was the best weather we’ve had in months). Blended with oak ferment and from multiple vessels in their wood cellar, Waveform is the newest to the above list of Triple Crossing’s perfectly-balanced recipes.

I don’t know about you guys, but I definitely know a lot of people who appreciate hemp. Lickinghole Creek is on board, too, and they’re throwing a party for it coming up this Saturday. The Virginia Hemp & Hops Festival is going down this weekend at our favorite farmhouse spot with fun for the whole family, like hayrides and slip ‘n slides to keep everyone stoked all day.

The Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition is coming out, with speakers to talk about the hemp industry in the great Commonwealth in the afternoon. They’ve also got food from Gourmet Hemp Foods, plus live music and partners like Botanaway and First Necessity.

Over at Intermission Beer Company, 50 Years of Love rolls on. In a truly-tropical brew, they’re celebrating the campaign and a half-century of love in the Commonwealth with a new release.

Tropical Thunder IPA is dropping this Saturday at the brewery, and it’s everything we need this summer. With notes of tropical fruit hops, they went the extra mile and added in more flavor with batches of passionfruit, mango, and pineapple — made for a day at the river. It’s gluten-reduced and hits in at 7.2% ABV, so it’s a nice, easy drinker for those days when most IPAs feel too heavy.

In new-brew-news, Ardent Craft Ales is dropping their Berliner Weisse tomorrow night. This low-alcohol beer has a light body with high carbonation to bring out its clean, sour flavors — which are packed with lemon and citrus along with a special addition.

On top of the brew itself, according to Ardent, Berliner Weisse beers are traditionally served with a flavored syrup to spruce things up. For their variation, Ardent partnered up with Richmond’s ZZQ to cook up something new: a smoked pineapple and habanero syrup to give this Weisse a kick. You can only catch the syrup in the taproom, so be sure to swing by and get a taste of the best thing since hot sauce. I recently had the pleasure of tasting a mango habanero beer, and good lord, it was incredible (even for a white girl who’s usually a pretty big baby about spice). I’d definitely recommend you go give this one a try.

Overall, this one’s tart and refreshing, and its pale straw colors and cloudy, effervescent feel is the perfect release for this time of year.

Our favs out at Stone Brewing Richmond are throwing it back tomorrow for a #ThrowbackThursday Tapping. From their Mission Warehouse Series comes The Stone Mission Warehouse Sour, available at the brewery tomorrow in all its Mosaic dry-hop and Lambic style glory.

Stone’s also having Nicky Lee and The Wiz this Saturday from the afternoon to the early evening, so if you can’t make it on Thursday, be sure to drive out to their awesome East End spot for good brews and good jams over the weekend.

Three Notch’d RVA Collab House cooked up something awesome for the adults and not-so-awesome for the kids: Summer School! This New-England style IPA just dropped over the weekend for Tap That Friday, and it was made as a collab with the University of Richmond. College students are no strangers to summer school, so I can understand why they would hop on board to spend some of that classroom time brewing up something to take the edge off from all those exams and late-night study sessions in the middle of vacation season.

This one’s got heavy amounts of Citra hops, along with Amarillo and El Dorado to make sure it “aced the final exam.” If I were them, I’d want to be drinking at school, too.

Hey, Isley! Thanks for curing the too-hot-blues: with their new Summer Sipper, they’ve got one designed for the hottest heat to cool down in July. This Session Hazy IPA just dropped at the brewery and was dry-hopped five times throughout its production to carry the hop flavors of a stronger beer with a low 4.2% ABV. It was created with Jarrylo, Huell Melon, and El Dorado hops, and its bright colors suggest a fruity finish as well. It’s light, approachable, and thirst-quenching, to kick it in the sun no matter how much you love (or don’t love) this time of year.

The Brewing in Richmond History Tour is back this weekend! Head over to Scott’s Addition on Saturday to catch the tour — if you’ve never made it out for one before, we definitely recommend it. As they say, today’s bustling beer scene in the River City is only the latest chapter of our city’s history with fermented drinks.

Through the afternoon, they’ll walk you through our booziest neighborhood to talk beer with some great brewers like Three Notch’d, Buskey Cider, and the new Bingo Beer Co. If you’re shying away from the ticket prices, don’t worry. Your beer is included, so jump into the tour and learn something new.

PHOTO: Garden Grove Brewing & Urban Winery

Garden Grove Brewing came back into the Anthem LemonAid challenge again this year. To benefit the Children’s Hospital at VCU, the challenge donates to children undergoing cancer treatment and help fund the society. This year, they released Innocence and Dreams, a light, refreshing Belgian Ale that donates a dollar straight to the hospital for every glass sold.

I’m always stoked to see Richmond brewers finding ways for their customers to drink for a good cause, and this one tastes great, too. Brewed with Lemon Balm from their urban gardens, you’ll get some great citrus flavors in a crisp beer that helps the hospital with each draft.

On the flipside from light lemonade brews, Richbrau has a cookie stout on tap to enjoy some wintery flavors. Keeping it heavy in the middle of summer, they’ve got cold glasses of their 13 O’Clock Randall stout, infused with actual Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies to bring out an opposite for this time of year — and as Richbrau reminds us, “Stout… it’s not just for winter anymore.” I know a lot of heavy beer enthusiasts who will be stoked to see this one pouring right now, so if you’re one of them, go check out Richmond’s newest/oldest brewery down in Shockoe.