Strangeways gets even stranger as they take over all of their taps. Wait?! What?! Yep, those crazy guys will have 25 different beers flowing in the lab on at one time including their new Blitzkrieg Bock.
Here’s the run down on their newest stranger:
Hey ho, let’s go…Blitzkrieg Bock is a revved up black lager brewed with a slew of angst-ridden malts. Opal, Smaragd and Perle hops are piling in the back seat, as healthy additions of cinnamon and cocoa nibs pulsate to the back beat. Blitzkrieg Bock went through a tight wind in some old oak barrels, while simultaneously being intensified with a duo of light roasted local RVA coffees. The brewers are losing their minds worshipping this Punk Anti-Stout. 6.66% ABV/17 IBU
Head over to the Facebook event for more details and updates.
Strangeways Brewing
2277A Dabney Rd
Richmond, VA 23230
Capital Ale House Downtown is celebrating with a night of all things Stone Brewing. They will have some limited glassware and growlers to steal as well. You will have the opportunity to try some rare and highly sought after beers from this year and years past.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s50th Anniversary Craft + Design Show will open to the public Saturday November 23rd at 10am showcasing local favorite craft artists as well as artists from California to Maine and members of VCU’s Contemporary Craft Society. This year some of Richmond’s favorite craft breweries and local food vendors have also been invited to participate.
As a special treat, each brewery was paired with a local artist to decorate and fill pins with cask beer. Here are the cask to be tapped Saturday:
COTU & Diego Sanchez: El Duderino with Mexican cinnamon & sugar, dried peppers, vanilla bean, and cocao nibs (inspired by Mexican hot chocolate).
Hardywood & Ed Trask: Gingerbread Stout with cocao nibs & Blanchard’s Dark as Dark coffee beans.
Lickinghole Creek & Chris Milk: Three Chopt Tripel conditioned on 2006 Pu-er tea.
Strangeways & Mickael Broth: new Blitzkrieg Bock with vanilla beans & cocao nibs
Here are the other beers on tap for the event:
Center of the Universe — Ashland
Hardywood — Richmond
Pocahoptas
Singel
Main Street
Dry Irish Stout
Lickinghole Creek — Goochland
Strangeways — Richmond
Magic Beaver Belgian Pale Ale
Albino Monkey
Three Sheets ESB
Woodbooger
Bold Rock Cider — Nellysford
Virginia Apple
Alamo BBQ and Mosaic will be the featured food vendors. Go out and enjoy craft beer and some of the finest contemporary crafts in the nation!
General admission for the show is $8/person or $6/person with valid student ID or VisArts or Science Museum membership. Craft beer tickets will be $6 each or you can get a commerative tasting glass for $12 that includes four tasting tickets.
Head over to the Facebook event for more information and updates.
Thinking of starting a nano? It seems like every homebrewer’s dream. It was my dream. If you’ve ever thought about it, let me just be honest about a couple of things. First, it is some of the hardest work you will do for the least amount of money. Second, it can be really, really fun. Keeping that in mind, here are ten rules I wrote for starting a nano.
1. Nanos are just like any other business. To be successful, you need to make money. Enough money to cover costs, pay yourself and pay off any loans you have to take in a reasonable amount of time. If you are fine with not making any money and just want to have a go at it as a hobby business, you can ignore the rest of what I have written here if you want.
Trae Cairns has been brewing some delicious beers over at Midnight Brewery in Goochland but Christmas at Midnight is one of my all time favorites. Kickoff the holiday season with a snickerdoodle in a glass.
If you haven’t stopped by Midnight yet, now’s the time.
Midnight Brewery
2410 Granite Ridge Rd
Rockville, VA 23146
Head over to Mekong tonight Monday November 18th as they tap some rare and vintage kegs An Bui has been holding on to. Tonight is also another installment of Mekong’s weekly RVA Appreciation Night so I’d expect a lot of these to be priced at $5.
Here’s the list of what they are tapping so far:
Dogfish Head 2009 World Wide Stout
Dogfish Head 2010 120 Minute IPA
Dogfish Head 2011 Palo Santo Marron
Goose Island 2012 Big John
Great Divide 2010 Oak Aged Chocolate Yeti
Bells 2009 Expedition Stout
Founders 2010 Breakfast Stout
Founders 2010 Backwood Bastard
Weyerbacher 2009 Heresy
Hardywood 2011 Mocha Belgique
Hardywood 2011 Bourbon Cru
Evil Twin 2011 Imperial Biscoti Break
Oskar Blues 2010 Ten Fidy
Heavy Seas 2012 Bourbon Below Decks
Allagash 2009 Curieux
Allagash 2010 Four
Hebrew 2010 Vertical Jewbelation
I always have a tough time deciding when to take trips out of town. There is always something awesome going on. If you haven’t noticed, Virginia craft beer is better than it has ever been and shows no signs of slowing down. Sometimes you just need to get away so I’ll be off to Washington, DC to check out Bluejacket and their restaurant, The Arsenal. While I’m doing that, I’m going to need you to fill in for me at some events this weekend.
Center of the Universe First Anniversary
COTU is throwing a three day party to celebrate one year of great beer in Ashland. This all starts tonight Friday, November 15th at 4pm with the return of The Richard Imperial IPA. Originally released at their grand opening, Richard was the happy accident of COTU’s first brew on their system. A little off here, short some water there, and they were left with a double IPA very similar to Pocahoptas, but much stronger. COTU will also be tapping some “Barrel Aged wonders,” barrel-aged versions of a selection of COTU beers. Something Shiny will provide live music for the evening.
Saturday, the celebration resumes at 3pm with guest taps from Homefront IPA collaborating breweries. Left Hand, Cigar City, 21st Amendment, and Stone have provided 2 kegs of limited release beers. Enjoy music from The Hippy House Band and Chuck County.
Sunday, the party continues with music from The Royal We. and growler fills of all remaining guest taps. Football fans can enjoy the Redskins/Eagles game on COTU’s 22 foot screen in the back.
“There are a lot of people in Virginia, as well as around the country, that have helped us get to where we are today. This weekend is a celebration for them, and a thank you to our community and industry friends. Lets celebrate beer!” – Chris Ray, co-founder of Center of the Universe Brewing Company
Center of the Universe Brewing Company opened its doors in Ashland, VA on November 16th 2012. Brothers Phil and Chris Ray, who started as homebrewers turned their hobby into an obsession that is now a successful brewery in Virginia.
Hardywood Gingerbread Stout Release
Hardywood is releasing Gingerbread Stout Saturday November 16th at 2pm but the night before Mekong is hosting a pre-release party with some Hardywood beers that haven’t been seen in awhile.
Brian Barrel Blend #3
Heaven Hills Imperial Stout
Four Rose Imperial Stout
Bourbon Sidamo
Bourbon Cru
Hoplar
Raspberry Stout
Mocha Belgique
Virginia Blackberry
Quad
Andall Gingerbread Stout
If you’re looking to skip the lines during the party, Hardywood will be open 9 – 10:30PM Friday night for a pre-sale event for bottles (4 bottle/person limit) and other seasonal merchandise. The lines will be cut off at 10:30, and there will be no on-site consumption.
Lickinghole Creek Pumpkin Ain’t Easy Release & Farm Fest
LCCB is releasing the last pumpkin beer of the season Saturday, November 16th during a farm festival from 11AM to 8PM. Pumpkin Ain’t Easy features sugar pie pumpkins grown on LCCB’s farm. LCCB chose to omit the typical pumpkin pie spices in favor of their Belgian house yeast strain and German Tettnang and Hersbrucker hops.
The festival will feature a farmer’s market, artisan crafts (blacksmiths & gunsmiths), and children activities(bounce houses, a petting zoo, pony rides). Music will be provided by the ReVinyls, Barrelhouse, and Cashmere Jungle Lords.
Advance festival tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite here and include the following:
$5 advance entry ticket only/ $8 day of entry ticket only
Advance Purchase Only Brew Fest Ticket: $20 (Plus Fees) Good for entry to the vent, four 15 oz beer pours, an LCCB pint glass, access to farm and craft vendors, music, and activities. Discounted Brew Fest Tickets are only available online in advance. You must be 21 years of age or older to buy a this ticket. One ticket per person.
Head over to Brew in Chesterfield today, Wednesday November 13th for their Allagash Brewing tap takeover which will include some rare and vintage kegs. You can steal a cool Allagash chalice with any Allagash beer or flight. Les Addis from Allagash wll be joining the fun talking all things Allagash so bring your questions. Brew will also be raffling off a very special beer from Allagash’s coolship series to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
UPDATE: Taplist has increased to ten beers below. Brew will be holding raffle at 7pm for a bottle of Resurgam.
Here are the beers they will be tapping starting at 5pm:
Rotary’s Brews for Charity is a local beer festival happening tomorrow, Saturday at Virginia Historical Society in order to raise money for non-profit organizations around the Greater Richmond Region. Rotary Club of Richmond has contributed over $300,000 to dozens of non-profits that work to improve the community over the last five years.
Tickets for the festival are available online here for $20/person (includes 2 drink tickets) or $10/person (non-drinking). Additional drink tickets are $5 each. I’m not sure if ticket prices will be increased at the gate so you should get tickets now.
Here are the beers to be served at the event.
Center of the Universe — Ashland
Bold Rock — Nellysford
Ray Ray’s Pale Ale
Virginia Apple
Main Street
Virginia Draft
Hardywood — Richmond
Legend — Richmond
Singel
Winter White
RVA IPA
Chocolate Porter
Lickinghole Creek — Goochland
Strangeways — Richmond
Magic Beaver Belgian Pale Ale
Wallonian Dawn Saison
Three Sheets ESB
Phantasmic IPA
Food Trucks
Paris Creperie
Pizza Tonight
Mosaic
Chupacabra
Meatball Company
Thai Wagon
Music
Tin Can Fish Band (11-1pm)
Starlighter Band (1-3pm)
The Taters (3-5pm)
Contact me at rvabeermeister@gmail.com to send recommendations on beers to try, places with a beer selection I should check out, or upcoming beer events.
Hardywood is 
Rotary’s Brews for Charity is a local beer festival happening tomorrow, Saturday at Virginia Historical Society in order to raise money for non-profit organizations around the Greater Richmond Region. Rotary Club of Richmond has contributed over $300,000 to dozens of non-profits that work to improve the community over the last five years.
Richmond Beermeister 