We'll start off with Virginia Beer Live where there were 21 breweries present. Most of the breweries brought two different beers for tasting. There were pouring two ounce samples so we split each sample to try and make sure we could try them all. There were also a number of food vendors there serving food - we stopped halfway through the samples and grabbed some dinner as well. Because the list is quite long, we won't put many comments here, but the full reviews are linked. We will note that even though we were minimizing our tasting by splitting samples (and often not even finishing those) and having dinner mid-way, our palates were very blown out by midway through the start of the second half.
- Three Brothers Brewing - Great Outdoors Pale Ale
- Three Brothers Brewing - Tri Brathair
- Apocalypse Ale Works - Hopocalypse Imperial Red Ale
- Apocalypse Ale Works - Lustful Maiden
- Blue Mountain - Full Nelson Pale Ale
- Blue Mountain - Kolsch 151
- Bold Rock - Virginia Apple
- Bold Rock - Virginia Draft
- Center of the Universe - Main St. Ale
- Center of the Universe - Flight School Belgian Amber
- Devils Backbone - Reilly’s Red Ale
- Devils Backbone - Schwartz Bier
- Extra Billy’s - Billy’s Brown
- Extra Billy’s Citra Ass Down
- Hardywood Park Craft Brewery - Hoplar IPA
- Hardywood Park Craft Brewery - Virginia Blackberry
- Legend Brewing - Hopfest
- Legend Bewing - Tripel Ale
- Lost Rhino Brewing - Face Plant IPA
- Lost Rhino Brewing - Final Glide
- Midnight Brewery - New Beginning Kolsch
- Midnight Brewery - Rockville Red
- O’Connor Brewing - Great Dismal Black IPA
- O’Connor Brewing - Green Can Golden Ale
- Port City Brewing - Monumental IPA
- Port City Brewing - Optimal Wit
- Rusty Beaver Brewery - Roy's Big Bad Brown Ale
- Smartmouth Brewing - Murphy’s Law Amber Ale
- Smartmouth Brewing - Notch 9 Double IPA
- St. George Brewing - India Pale Ale
- St. George Brewing - Summer Ale
- Starr Hill - Grateful Pale Ale
- Starr Hill - Northern Lights
- Strangeways Brewing - Albino Monkey
- Strangeways Brewing - Mixolydian Rag Rye Bock
- Wild Wolf Brewing - Alpha Ale
- Wild Wolf Brewing - Blonde Hunny Ale
- AleWerks - Chesapeake Pale Ale
- AleWerks - Brewmasters Reserve Springhouse Ale
- Wolf Hills Brewing - Troopers Alley IPA
- Wolf Hills Brewing - Pils
Dinner at the festival was the same for both of us:
- Bacon cheeseburger with buttermilk garlic aioli and handmade potato chips, while not burned, taste burned. Aioli is okay, but taste is too much buttermilk rather than garlic.
We also went and tried Brew in Chesterfield. They have 30 taps and 53 different bottled beers and a pretty wide selection of salads, sandwiches, and burgers on their menu. All of their sandwiches are named after wines and all their burgers are named after beers. You can also substitute a chicken breast on any of the burgers if you so desire. Dinner was quite good and the beer list is almost overwhelming. The weather started off cool and comfortable but it soon became apparent that a storm was blowing in. Fortunately, we finished eating before it really hit but just as it did, we witnessed an accident where a Jeep Cherokee drove across the median and into the construction site where they tore down (and are rebuilding) a Taco Bell.
- Unibroue - Trois Pistoles - this is a very nice Belgian strong ale, very rich and complex, decadent even. There's a reason it's got a 100 score overall and 100 for style on ratebeer.com! Megan had this.
- Hardywood Park Craft Brewing - Bourbon DIPA - From Richmond favorite, Hardywood Park, this was what Brett ordered. It was very apparent that this was aged in a bourbon barrel. However, Brett is not a huge fan of Double IPA/Imperial IPA, but it was still pretty good.
- The stout (burger) - bacon, white cheddar, fried onion strips with raspberry bbq sauce. Megan ordered this burger with a chicken breast instead. She thought it needed a bit more bbq sauce, but was otherwise very good.
- The lager (burger) - craft sausage, provolone, roasted red pepper (pictured above). Yes, it's a burger with sausage on top! It was utterly delicious and I would definitely order it again if I couldn't make up my mind on something new to try off the menu.
Finally, Megan won us a trial membership to the Craft Beer Club. They send you 4 different beers to try each month (3 of each) from two different breweries. We have only tried three of the four so far, but it is a fun idea.
That's it for this mega-update. The next update will cover our trip to Carolina Beach, including some new foods from restaurants, family meals, ice cream parlors, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar tastings. That should hopefully be the last giant update and more regular updates will re-commence!
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