Monthly Archives: September 2014

Lickinghole Creek’s Three Day Anniversary Celebration Starts Tonight

LCCB Farm brew AnniversaryLickinghole Creek has a busy weekend planned for their one year anniversary starting tonight Friday September 26th starting at 4pm.  First off, as we speak, they are making their first canning run of Til Sunset Session IPA.

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Next up will be the release of their Gentleman Farmer Fresh Hop Ale.

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Here is the list of beers to be tapped throughout the weekend:

Bourbon Barrel Three Chopt Tripel
Pony Pasture Pilsner
Creator Hoppelbock
Nucelar Nugget Imperial Honey IPA
Estate Series Gentleman Farmer Fresh Hop Ale
Estate Series Rosemary Saison
Batchelors Delight
Magic Beaver

There will also be a special pin of Berry Virginia Black Bear tapped Saturday. It’s their Russian Imperial Stout aged on a mix of fresh blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  Virginia Black Bear is the base beer for Enlightened Despot.

Head over to the Facebook events for day one, day two, and day three for more information and updates.

Bunnyman R.I.P.s Into Station 2 with Legend & Lost Rhino Tonight

Experience the urban legend of the Bunny Man tonight as Legend Brewing teams up with Lost Rhino to present the latest in the Urban Legend series “RIP Ale,” a Red IPA at Station 2 tonight Thursday September 25th at 5pm.

Urban Legend Story: Incidents dating back to the early 1900s suggest a man wearing a white bunny suit with long floppy ears terrorized innocent Northern Virginians. In one such instance, a man and his fiancé were foolhardily parked alone and became startled by a knocking outside their window. Moments later, their front windshield was smashed with a weighty axe, and through the specks of shattered glass, they saw a man dressed head to toe in a bunny costume. Again, the Bunny Man was identified intimidating Fairfax County residents—he bludgeoned possessions with an axe and induced fear in the community with his savage behavior….

Description of Style: Legend Brewing Co, in collaboration with Favio Garcia (Brewmaster, Lost Rhino), shed light on this urban legend with the creation of the “RIP Ale,” a Red IPA. Specialty malts evoke a soft, drinkable profile, while Amarillo and Chinook hops add a tropical aroma and piney bitterness. If there’s a better boozy representation of a bunny suit wearing ax-murderer, we’ve yet to try it. Though the story is cryptic and one to keep you up at night, Legend Brewing Co. and Lost Rhino transforms the terror of the murderous Bunny Man into imbibing enjoyment.

Rescheduled Manchester Block Party Is On For Tonight!

If you missed Spin, Spit & Swear’s Cover to Cover performance of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours at Hardywood, the Manchester Block Party rescheduled for tonight Thursday September 25th is giving you a second chance.  The party starts at 4pm with the Cover to Cover band going on at 6.

Check out the Facebook event for more information and updates.

Talk Like A Pirate With Heavy Seas At Hurley’s Tavern & Southern Railway Taphouse Today

Credit: Heavy Seas

Credit: Heavy Seas

Once again it is time to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day today Friday September 19th.  Of course, Heavy Seas is up in the mix but this year they have raised the stakes by attempting to set the record for the largest simultaneous cask tapping in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Making its first debut outside of Heavy Seas’ taproom, the firkin to be tapped at several locations up and down the East Coast will be Loose Cannon IPA with grapefruit zest.

The Richmond area boasts two locations on the list: Hurley’s Tavern and Southern Railway Taphouse. Beyond the firkin tappings, you can expect  many give-a-ways for including t-shirts, eye patches, stickers, temporary tattoos, and a backdrop for pictures.

Southern Railway will also have a live pirate show.

Head over to the Virginia ITLAPD Facebook event for more information and updates. The parties start at 5pm with cask tappings at 6pm.

St Benedict Celebrates Ten Years Of Oktoberfest This Weekend

St benedict Oktoberfest 2014There is always a lot to look forward to when Oktoberfest season rolls around.  Entering its tenth year, St Benedict Oktoberfest is possibly the most well attended Oktoberfest in the city. The festival starts Friday, September 19th at 4pm and runs all weekend.

There are so many great beers to choose from no matter which day you choose to go. Here is the complete beer list with the numbers to order by:

GERMAN BEER
(1) Spaten-Franziskaner | Original Munchner Helles Lager
(2) Spaten-Franziskaner | Oktoberfest Marzen Lager
(3) Spaten-Franziskaner | Optimator Dopplebock Stark Bier
(4) Spaten-Franziskaner | Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse
(5) Sünner GmbH | Sünner Kölsch

LOCAL BEERS
(6) Apocalypse Ale Works | Barmegedon
(7) Center Of The Universe | Chin Music Amber Lager
(8) Center Of The Universe | Kölsch
(9) Center Of The Universe | Oktoberfest Marzen Lager
(10) Devils Backbone Brewing | O’Fest Marzen Lager
(11) Devils Backbone Brewing | Schwarzbier Black Lager
(12) Hardywood Park Craft Brewery | RVA IPA Fresh Local Hopped IPA
(13) Legend Brewing Company | Imperial Harvest Wet Hopped Ale
(14) Legend Brewing Company | Legend Octoberfest Marzen Lager
(15) Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery | Creator Hopplebock Dopplebock
(16) Midnight Brewery | New Beginning Kölsch
(17) Starr Hill Brewing | The Love Hefeweizen
(18) Strangeways Brewing | Albino Monkey White Ale
(19) Sunken City Brewery | Sunktoberfest Marzen Lager

NATIONAL CRAFT BRANDS
(20) Heavy Seas | Cutlass Marzen Amber Lager
(21) Lazy Magnolia| Pecan Brown Ale
(22) Magic Hat Brewing | Over the Hills Pils
(23) Sly Fox Brewing | Oktoberfest Marzen
(24) Sly Fox Brewing | Pikeland Pils
(25) Sly Fox Brewing | Royal Weisse
(26) Southern Tier | Harvest Ale ESB
(27) Victory Brewying | Festbier Marzen

PUMPKIN PATCH
(28) Devils Backbone Brewing | Pumpkin Hunter Ale
(29) Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery | Cellared Pumpkin Ain’t Easy Saison
(30) Starr Hill Brewing | Boxcarr Pumpkin Porter
(31) Heavy Seas | Greater Pumpkin Bourbon Barrel Pumpkin Ale
(32) Southern Tier | Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale
(33) Southern Tier | Warlock Imperial Pumpkin Stout
(34) Weyerbacher | Imperial Pumpkin Ale
(35) Bold Rock | Virginia Draft Cider

TASTE THE LOCAL (DAILY LIST)

Strangeways Brewing
(36a) Friday: Uberlin Berliner Weiss
(36b) Saturday: Brewing Placebo Pils
(36c) Sunday: Virginia Vulgarian Bourbon Bock

Triple Crossing
(37a) Friday: Liberty or Death Vanilla Porter
(37b) Saturday: Rochelle Rochelle Amber Ale
(37c) Sunday: Falcon Smash IPA

Three Brothers
(38a) Friday: VA Dark Ale
(38b) Saturday: Marzen Lager
(38c) Sunday: Hellion Lager

Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery
(39a) Friday: Nuclear Nugget Imperial IPA
(39b) Saturday: Bourbon Aged Three Chopt Triple
(39c) Sunday: Bourbon Aged Three Chopt Triple

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
(40a) Friday: Ginger Bread Stout
(40b) Saturday: Dry Hopped Great Return IPA
(40c) Sunday: German Chocolate Imperial Stout

Extra Billy’s
(41a)Friday: My Only Weiss
(41b)Saturday: Citra Ass Down IPA
(41c)Sunday: Double Deke Black IPA

Isley Brewing
(42a) Friday: Choosey Mother Peanut Butter Oatmeal Porter
(42b) Saturday: Blue Hefner Blueberry Hefe
(42c) Sunday: Tall Dark & Hopsome Black IPA

Rusty Beaver
(43a) Friday: Bucktooth IPA
(43b) Saturday: Roys Big Bad Brown Ale
(43c) Sunday: Pale Ale

Ardent Craft Ales
(44a) Friday: Honey Ginger Ale
(44b) Saturday: Szechwan Peppercorn Saison
(44c) Sunday: IPA

Bold Rock Hard Cider
(45a) Friday: VA Apple Cider
(45b) Saturday: VA Apple Cider
(45c) Sunday: VA Apple Cider

SMALL BATCH JOCKEY BOXES

FRIDAY
(46a) Victory Brewing | Victory Hop Ticket Noble IPA
(47a) Weyerbacher Brewing | Weyerbacher Heresy Imperial Bourbon Barrel Stout
(48a) Lazy Magnolia | Timber Beast Rye Double IPA*
(49a) Lazy Magnolia | Southern Hopspitality IPA*

SATURDAY
(46b) Mendocino Brewing | Black IPA
(47b) Southern Tier Brewing | 2x Rye Strong Ale
(48b) Finch Beer Company | Chimera Double IPA*
(49b) Finch Beer Company | Secret Stach On Wood (AKA Sanchez Stout)*

SUNDAY
(47c) Southern Tier Brewing | 2XOne Conditioned Imperial Pale
(48c) Iron Fist Brewing Iron Fist | Hired Hand Saison
(49c) Iron Fist Brewing Iron Fist | The Velvet Glove Imperial Stout

Check out the St Benedict’s Oktoberfest Facebook page for more information and updates.

 

The Bruery Taps Invade Brew Wednesday To Celebrate Two Virginia Debuts

The Bruery logo2Head over to Brew in Chesterfield tomorrow Wednesday, September 17th as they host The Bruery CFO Carl Katz as their guest for a tap takeover featuring two beers making their Virginia debut. Brew will also tap some Bruery beers they have been holding in their cellar for just such an event.

There will be a charity raffle for several special Bruery bottles to benefit Liam’s Lighthouse Foundation fight against Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a life-threatening immunodeficiency. Raffle tickets are $5 each; the drawings will be held at 7pm for these rare bottles. 

Here are the beers to be tapped at 6pm:

  • Melange #3 – a blend of Sucre, White Oak Sap, and Black Tuesday — VA debut
  • Atomic Kangarue – a sour blonde ale brewed with Semillon and Viognier grapes and dry-hopped with Amarillo hops — VA debut
  • Sour in the Rye – an American Wild Ale brewed with a substantial amount of rye malt and soured in red wine barrels
  • Oude Tart – a Flemish Red ale aged in red wine barrels for 18 months
  • Tart of Darkness – a soured low alcohol stout aged in second use barrels from Black Tuesday (their Imperial Stout aged over a year in bourbon barrels)
  • Smoking Wood – an imperial porter brewed with a good amount of smoked malt and then barrel aged
  • Sucre – an old ale made for their anniversary brewed using the Solera Method so every batch continues with a piece of the previous batch
  • Hottenroth – a low alcohol, tart, German-style wheat ale.  Brew will have a couple of house-made syrups to show the German tradition of serving this style with a flavored syrup.
  • Mischief  – a Belgian-style golden ale with strong American hops over top of the spicy, fruity yeast strain powering the flavor
  • Autumn Maple – a big fall seasonal made with yams, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, molasses, and maple syrup

Although Wednesday is Brew’s growler fill special day, there will be no fills of these beers for the evening. Head over to the Facebook event for more information and updates.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

brew
6525 Centralia Rd
Chesterfield, VA 23832

Stepping Outside Richmond Dining For Fire, Flour, & Fork: Saturday

Fire Flour Fork 2014

Ever since Fire, Flour, & Fork was announced, I have been struggling to choose a schedule from the culinary and cultural tracks.  With so many great choices, the task of narrowing down each time slot to a single talk became very overwhelming. If you look at my printout of the schedule, there are several check marks all over the place.

Last week I took you through my Friday picks for Fire, Flour, & Fork culinary tracks. We will look at Saturday next but first let’s review my selection rules:

  1. As much as I love our local dining talent, I will look for speakers coming from out of town.
  2. The topic needs to be of personal interest to me, in that maybe I could learn techniques to put into practice in my own kitchen.
  3. No beer. Yep, I said it. Yes, I could listen to our local breweries talk about beer all day long and sometimes I do.

Now on to Saturday, November 1st.

10AM

My Pick
Flavor Flours — Flour is essential to baking but what happens when the flour is not your typical wheat base? Maybe Alice Medrich can educate this amateur baker.

Runner-up
Fork Over The Hanover Tomato — If you love tomatoes, surely you’ve heard of the Hanover tomato.

11:15AM

My Pick
The Tao of Bark — Texas barbecue in Virginia?! Sign me up!

Runner-up
DamGoodSweets — I hear they’re…well, I think you can see where I’m going.

2PM

My Pick
Fork In The Road — I love mushrooms and would love to some day try and grow them myself.  Until then, I’ll just eat Dave and Dee Scherr’s mushrooms.

Runners-up

  • Apple Stack Cake — I bet you were thinking apples only went in pies. Travis Milton will teach you about different heirloom apple varieties and how he uses them.
  • Smoked and Charred Cocktails — T Leggett’s cocktails. Nuff said.

3:15PM

My Pick
Burning Desire — I will have my chocolate! If you’re lucky, I’ll save you some Gearhart’s. Maybe.

Runners-up

  • On a Roll — I first had Drew Thomasson’s baking at D’lish in Chester, VA. To say I miss having that lunch option is an understatement.  I’m happy to see Drew put his bread stamp on Richmond.
  • The Three Sisters — Someone put a beer in my pumpkin. Someone put pumpkin in my beer! It’s the fall how could you not indulge.

There you have it; that’s one possible plan for navigating Fire, Flour & Fork. Use my plan or make your own rules and pick out a schedule.  Tickets are $70 for one-day Friday or Saturday tracks or $130 for both Friday and Saturday tracks. Get your tickets here.

If You Can’t Find Something To Do This Weekend, You’re Trying Too Hard

There is only one way to describe this weekend — jam packed! There are five festivals featuring Virginia beer so widespread this weekend you may not even have to leave your backyard to get to one. Meanwhile I will be geeking out at Wizard World Richmond part of the weekend so I need you to report back on everything.  Let’s not waste any more time…

Friday September 12th

Mystery Beer Release at Strangeways — 4PM

Even I don’t know the secret identity of Strangeway’s Mystery Beer. You’re going to have to go for yourself to find out.

RVA IPA Release at Hardywood — 4PM

Time to drink the hops you grew…

Wine & Beer Classic at Maymont — 7PM

You can hang out with your wine drinking friends…

Enjoy live music by Jubeus while sampling some of Virginia’s finest beverages from Ardent Craft Ales, Bold Rock Hard Cider, Center of the Universe Brewing, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery,Isley Brewing Company,Legend Brewing Company, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery,Lost Rhino Brewing Co., Midnight Brewery, Rusty Beaver Brewery, Smartmouth Beer,STRANGEWAYS BREWING, Triple Crossing Brewing Company, and Wild Wolf Brewing Company. Guests can partake in open cornhole play offered by BeSocial Richmond (for a fee) and enter to win a cocktail raffle prize featuring a home beer brewing kit and two tickets to the Richmond Beeristoric Tour, donated by Loveland Distributing and Brown Distributing- Richmond, VA.

Tickets are $35/person and include unlimited sampling of beers and wine. Buy tickets here.

Saturday September 13th

Richmond Spoke & Hop Fest at Hardywood — Noon – 9PM

Bike lovers this is especially for you though anyone is welcome. Tickets are $35/person and include unlimited sampling of over 50 Virginia beers including those from new to area taps, Heritage Brewing Co.  Before anyone complains, yes you must purchase tickets to enter Hardywood grounds on this day.  Who among us hasn’t spent $35 on beer?

Brew Jam Craft Beer Fest at Beaverdam — Noon

Head over to Beaverdam and sample beers from breweries such as New Belgium, Left Hand, Blue Mountain, Ommegang, and Brooklyn among others.

 

Beaverdam Brew Jam

Chesterfield Chamber Craft Beer Festival — Noon

Oktoberfest & Das Bier Run at Center of the Universe — 3PM

I really do like a good Oktoberfest. COTU’s is one of my favorites. Grab a stein…

Then maybe a bratwurst or two…

Oh and there’ll be German music…

Sunday September 14th

2nd Annual Tubes & Taps at Crossroads Coffee — 11:30AM

Float down the James  then enjoy a New Belgium and Foothills tap takeover at Crossroads Forest Hill.  Tickets are $40/person and benefit the James River Park System. You can get your tickets here.

Central Virginia Food Truck Rodeo at Chesterfield Town Center — Noon

30+ food trucks and 25 Virginia beers. What’s not to love?

 Hair of the Dog at Hardywood — Noon

After they’ve spoked the hop, Hardywood throws a brunch with five courses of music.

 

 

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