Tag Archives: Hardywood

American Craft Beer Week RVA 2014 Redux

Richmond will celebrate in a variety of ways this American Craft Beer Week (May 12 – 18).  Stay tuned as I will update this page as I get more information on different events.

Tuesday May 13th

Trivia Tuesday at Strangeways — 4PM

Collaboration Tap Takeover at Cask Cafe — 5PM

Celebrating the collaborative nature of the brewing community, Cask Cafe will tap an eclectic collection of collaboration beers.

Here are the beers expected to be tapped:

Crim Dubbel — Legend & Williamsburg Alwerks
Gentlemen’s Club — Cigar City& Widmer Bros
GAVA Joe — Terrapin & Starr Hill
Collaboration Not Litigation — Avery & Russian River
European Slaycation Belgian IPA — Greg Self (Whole Food’s Growler King) & Champion Brewing Company
Man Crush — Green Flash & Smartmouth
Devil’s Secret — Devils Backbone & Apocalypse
Good Morning Mekong — The Answer & Cigar City.

Pizza Tonight will be cooking up pizza at 5.

Perennial “Meet the Brewer” & Takeover at Brew — 6PM

Brew will host tap takeover with Perennial Artisan Ales out of St Louis, MO as part of their American Craft Beer Week celebration. Owners, Phil and Emily Wymore, will be on hand to talk about their beers.  Brew will raffle off a very special Perennial bottle with 100% of the proceeds going to charity.

Here are the beers on tap for the night:

Abraxas
Sump
17
Vermilion
Luna Mare
Regalia
Black Walnut Dunkel
Aria
Saison de Lis
Hommelbier
Heart of Gold
Dual Artisanship

Devils Backbone Mini Takeover at Bucket Trade — 5PM

Bucket Trade will have a trio of Devils Backbone beers on tap to celebrate the week.

Vienna Lager, 2012 Gold World Beer Cup and 2009 Great American Beer Festival Silver Medal winner, is a chestnut colored lager with a malty aroma and subtle toasty sweetness derived from a multi-stage mash. A pinch of noble hops gives this refreshing beer a clean finish. IBUs – 18, ABV – 4.9%

Striped Bass Pale Ale, Golden in color with a light body and pleasant hop bouquet of traditional German hops blended with the intense citrus of American hop varieties. 5.2% ABV 26 IBUs

Schwartzbier, Derived from recipes of medieval Germanic brewers, our Schwartz Bier embodies a millennium of refinement. This black bier gets its characteristically subtle roasted flavor by using the finest toasted malts. Lager yeast creates a quick & dry finish. 5.2% ABV 18 IBUs

Ale of Fergus, Scottish-style 60 shilling ale. Light brown in color, light to medium body with hints of toast and toffee in the finish. 4.0% ABV – 22 IBU

Devil’s Secret – collaboration with Apocalypse Ale Works

Wednesday May 14th

Goose Island vs Firestone Walker at Mekong — 5PM

Of course, you can go to Mekong any time this week to celebrate but Wednesday two breweries battle it out for supremacy.

Goose Island
Bourbon County Brand Stout
Bourbon County Barleywine
Sofie
Sofie Paradisi
Ogden Triple
Lolita

Firestone Walker
Parabola
17th Anniversary
Velvet Merkin
Double Jack
Wookey Jack
Union Jack

Thursday May 15th

Cheers to the Firkin Weekend with Hardywood at Station 2 — 5pm

Debut of Hardywood’s first sour beer — Rum Barrel Saison.

Perennial Takeover & Meet the Brewer at Mekong — 5PM

If you missed your chance at Brew, Phil Wymore will be at Mekong as they tap eleven of his beers.  Here’s what will be on for the night:

Abraxas – Imperial Stout brewed with ancho chili peppers, cacao nibs, vanilla beans, and cinnamon sticks
Sump – Imperial Coffee stout with Sump coffee beans
17 – Imperial Stout brewed with huge amounts of chocolate malts, cacao nibs, and mint leaves
Barrel Aged 17 – Imperial Stout aged Twelve months in Rittenhouse Rye Barrels with cacao nibs & mint leaves
Black Walnut Dunkel – chocolate brown German Dunkelweizen aged on Missouri‐grown black walnuts
Duel Artisanship – collaboration with Prairie Artisan Ales – Experimental IPA with Brettanomyces
Heart of Gold – Wheatwine
Aria – Belgian Style Ale with Brettanomyces
Hommel Bier – Dry-hopped Belgian Pale
Saison de Lis – Belgian-style Saison brewed with chamomile flowers
Regalia – Brettanomyces Saison
Regalia with pear and ginger

UPDATE: Abraxas will be replaced with an Andall.

Friday May 16th

Richmond Beer Lovers 4th Anniversary at Hurleys Tavern — 6PM

Richmond Beer Lovers celebrate their 4th anniversary with a Hardywood tap takeover at Hurley’s Tavern.  Here are the beers on tap for the night:

Singel
Beaux-Arts Triple IPA (collab with Bluejacket)
Bourbon Barleywine
Sidamo
Gingerbread Stout
2013 Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Raspberry Stout
Kristallweiss
Brian’s Barrel Blend #4
Bohemian Pils
Hoplar (cask conditioned pin)

Saturday May 17th

Nectar & Knife DIPA Release at Triple Crossing — Noon

Triple Crossing releases their latest beer fresh from their tanks:

As IPA lovers ourselves, one of our main goals when opening this place was to release a DIPA that would be a hop-head’s dream come true. We think Nectar and Knife is just that. This beer is dry hopped three separate times with over 18lbs of hops. It sits right around 8%ABV, is a deep golden color and finishes perfectly dry. Prepare your palette!

Oh, and in case you get hungry, we will be having Boka Tako out all day for grub. Come get some.

Goochland Quad Release at Lickinghole Creek — Noon

Lickinghole Creek will fill growlers of their tasty Goochland Quad from noon to sunset on the farm. With its rum-like flavor, it makes perfect sense that the next evolution of this beer will be after spending time in Flor de Cana Nicaraguan Rum Barrels. Flora De Cana is Spanish for sugarcane flower. Look for it in a couple months.

https://www.instagram.com/p/n8JUy8BWLH/

Midnight Brewery Second Anniversary — 1PM

Celebrate the end of the week with Midnight with three special cask pins, two food trucks, and live music:

We opened our doors May 2012. What a ride it has been so far! Come celebrate with us May 17th at the brewery. This will also be the end of American Craft Beer Week. What better way to celebrate than to keep it local. Really looking forward to this. Hope you are too. Cheers!

A Good Day In RVA at Hardywood — 2PM

A day full of live music and Hardywood beers.

 

How About Some Bohemian Rhapsody with Your Hardywood Bohemian Pilsner?

Of course, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” popped into my head today as I was reading about Hardywood Bohemian Pilsner:

While it may be difficult to fully appreciate outside of its homeland, the breadth and diversity of the Czech brewing tradition extends far beyond a certain Ur-lager. Hardywood Bohemian Pils gives a nod to the wonderfully fresh and complex unfiltered pale lagers being produced in the brewpubs of Prague. Brewed with an heirloom variety of floor-malted barley from the Czech Republic, Hardywood Bohemian Pils features a rich, bready maltiness balanced by smooth bitterness and spiciness from the exclusive use of Czech Saaz hops. A traditional Czech lager yeast strain ties the whole package together, creating a refreshingly clean yet characterful flavor profile with a crisp finish. Na zdraví!

Look for the beer this weekend. Here’s my favorite version by The Muppetts for your enjoyment.  What’s your favorite?

 

 

Birthday Weekend Roundup 2014: Rappahannock, Crossroads, RVA Earth Day, Hardywood, & Strangeways

Where did the time go? It is time to celebrate three years of great beers, food, and everything in between.  Here are just a few things that caught my eye this weekend.

Thursday April 24th

Devils Backbone Auster Brau Release at Rappahannock — 4PM

What is Auster Brau?

In addition to their collaboration beer, they will have:

Azrael
Dark Abbey
Gold Leaf Lager
Schwartz Bier
Striped Bass Pale Ale

A beer specifically made to pair with oysters? Sign me up!

Heavy Seas Tap Takeover at Crossroads — 5PM

If you live in Southside and have not check out Crossroads Forest Hill, then you are really missing out.  One visit had me addicted to pistachios with my beer.  Today, six of their sixteen taps are being takeover by Heavy Seas beers.

There will be glassware to steal with these beers on tap:

Black Cannon IPA
Riptide
Peg Leg
Small Craft Warning
Big DIPA
Loose Cannon IPA

Head over to the Facebook event for more information.

Strangeways Tap Invasion at AW Shucks Country Store — 6PM

AW Shucks Country Store
6100 Pouncey Tract Rd
Glen Allen, VA 23059

Saturday April 26th

RVA Earth Day Festival, Manchester — 11AM

Style Weekly is proud to bring you the city’s favorite celebration of earth day again this year. Musical entertainment from critically acclaimed local bands, tasty local food, eye-popping local art, thirst-quenching Virginia craft beers and more. In all, you can expect a beautiful day. And it’s FREE to attend.

If you’ve been to the festival in any of the past four years, we’ll be at the SAME GREAT LOCATION — in Manchester, from riverside through Plant Zero. The fun starts on the south of the 14th Street Bridge and continues from East 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th streets, from Hull to Decatur, including riverside and flood wall activities. Look for new activities on Mayo Island.

Benefitting FeedRVA, RVA Earth Day Festival will feature all nine local Richmond breweries with the following beers on tap.

Center of the Universe — Ashland Hardywood — Richmond
Ray Ray’s Pale Ale Singel
Main Street Hoplar
Isley Brewing — Richmond Legend — Richmond
The Bribe – Oatmeal Porter Brown
Lickinghole Creek –Goochland Maibock
Magic Beaver Pale Ale Hopfest
Midnight — Goochland Lager
Rockville Red Strangeways — Richmond
Triple Crossing — Richmond Albino Monkey
Falcon Smash IPA Phantasmic IPA
Devils Backbone — Roseland Bold Rock — Nellysford
Vienna Lager Virginia Apple
Starr Hill — Crozet
RooStarr Coffee Cream Stout

Make sure to head over to the Legend Lounge to continue their 20th Anniversary Celebration and for a special treat.  Legend Brewing will be the site of the official after-party from 7:30 – 11:30pm.

Hardywood x RVA Beard League Barleywine Release — Noon

To celebrate the 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Beard & ‘Stache Championships, Hardywood and RVA Beard League created a small batch of bourbon barrel aged barleywine that they are releasing in capped and waxed limited edition 16oz growlers.  

Sunday April 27th

Strangeways B-Sides Honey Bock Release — 11AM

The trend of a beer being released on my actual birthday continues this year.

Good Friday For A Hardywood Manhattan Cru Pin Tapping At Heritage

Remember these couple of Instagrams from a few weeks ago?

This was an exciting project from an idea that started to take shape just before Hardywood’s Bourbon Cru release.  The idea seemed simple; transform Bourbon Cru to taste like a Manhattan. No big deal right? Just add some vermouth and bitters then call it day? Too easy.  Early on, I consulted John Maher, now of Rogue Gentlemen, on how to get the vermouth flavors without actually adding vermouth.  He was able to point me towards using red wine, oranges and a combination of spices but we were too late.  2013 Bourbon Cru was already packaged making it too late to do any sort of cask.

Needless to say, the gang at Hardywood were thrilled with the idea behind this pin.  So off to work I went again.  This time though I consulted the man who’s bar I have dined at on numerous occasions — Mattias Hagglund of Heritage.  One email from Mattias sent me on a whirlwind idea of making sweet vermouth from scratch just to use for this cask.  This was looking to get very expensive.  Thankfully, Mattias suggested using Cardamaro, a wine based digestif, otherwise we might have missed our chance.  Luckily, I had just bought some blood oranges.  Last thing I needed was something to absorb the flavors of the amaro — wood and some dried fruit.  But what kind of wood? Oak would have been an obvious choice but I figured it would be use something different than what the beer was aged in.  The wood and dried fruit would end up being the same flavor, cherry!  Most of the dried cherries in stores are of the tart variety, a flavor I did not want added.  Luckily, Trader Joe’s carried the dark sweet cherries I was looking for.  Once selected, I combined the ingredients in a jar then poured in the Cardamaro and letting the ingredients soak for about a week until the cherries were noticeable plump.  After that, it was off to Hardywood for addition to a pin.

That was a long explanation to tell you how this idea came about.  Here is all you need to remember.  This pin will be tapped Friday April 18th at 5:30pm at Heritage.  Come join me and taste the fruit of our labor.

Oh and this not the only idea I have for Hardywood cask beer.  The only clue will give you is a drink from Heritage’s menu — Bramble!

Head over to the Facebook event for more details and updates.  This will be a nice lead in to Saturday’s Bourbon Cru release.

Heritage
1627 W Main St
Richmond, VA 23220

Who knows maybe I will get the chance to make some cask beers with other breweries in town in the future.

Forecast: Slightly Cloudy With 100% Chance of Food Trucks At Hardywood Tonight

That’s right! Hardywood’s Food Truck Court is back tonight Thursday April 3rd starting at 5:30pm.  Court will continue every Thursday until the end of October.

Here is more from Hardywood:

Hello Hardywood friends! Richmond’s much-loved Thursday night Hardywood Food Truck Courts are back at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery starting this upcoming Thursday, April 3 from 5:30 – 9:00 pm and every Thursday until the end of October! “We’re excited to present an eclectic group of favorites and diverse new vendors this season. Every week of the season will be a little bit different. I hope you’ll enjoy their community as much as I do and get to know each one as they share their craft and passion with you,” says Hardywood Hospitality Manager Kerry Anderson.

For the season kick-off, guests can expect 16 different food trucks, plus live music by The Shangri-Lords (RVA’s 1960’s girl group send-up) and The Rocket Queens (A world-class, all-female tribute to Guns N Roses out of NYC).

Participating Food Vendors for April 3

Pizza Tonight
Station 2
The Dogwagon
Mosaic
Goatocado
Boka Tako Truck
King of Pops
Monique’s Crepes
Gelati Celesti
RVA Vegan
Curbside Creations
Bodillaz
Grapevine
Poppin’ Mealies
Cielito Lindo
The Hungry Turtle

This season will feature crowd favorites like Boka Tako Truck, Goatocado, Pizza Tonight, and King of Pops, plus crepes, tacos, vegan and gluten-free options; as well as brand new food trucks, reflecting a range of cuisines from Greek to Vietnamese.

Improved scenery and additional restrooms (coming soon!) promise to make this the best season yet for what has become a world-class beer and food experience in Richmond, VA. This is an admission-free, family-friendly event. All ages are welcome at the brewery. Virginia ABC law prohibits bringing outside alcoholic beverages on-site, and underage drinking will be strictly prohibited.

Check out the Facebook event for more information and updates about tonight’s festivities.

Hardywood Tap Takeover For The Bucket Trade James’ Birthday

Birthdays seem to be the theme of the week. James over at The Bucket Trade in Chester will celebrate his today with a Hardywood tap takeover today March 19th starting at 5pm.

Here is what they will be tapping for the occasion:

  • The Great Return — West Coast IPA — cask conditioned pin
  • Singel — Belgian Blonde Ale
  • New Zeal & Pale — New Zealand Hopped Inspired Pale Ale
  • Raspberry Stout — Russian Imperial Stout with chocolate and local raspberries
  • Sidamo Coffee Stout — Russian Imperial Stout with locally roasted coffee

Check out the Facebook event for more information and updates.

Just When You Planned To Stay Far Away From Boulevard Saturday, Hardywood Says Two Words: Bourbon Barleywine

Yes, that’s right. Hardywood will release the latest addition to their Barrel Series, Bourbon Barleywine, tomorrow Saturday March 15th at 2pm:

A sipping beer to the core, Barleywine by itself is a traditional British digestif. After months of maturation in Bourbon barrels, our barleywine mellows thoroughly, with a luxuriously rich mouthfeel and a soft, rounded finish. Caramel malts shine through on this copper hued ale with hints of vanillin imparted by the toasted oak barrels, making Bourbon Barleywine a decadent accompaniment to sweets, or a dessert all by itself.

Enjoy Hardywood Bourbon Barleywine on draft with food from Boka Tako Truck, Goatocado, Monique’s Crepes, and Super Fresh Carts plus gourmet coffee from Alchemy Coffee.  750mL bottles and 4 packs will be available to take home. Music will be provided by Even Better Than The Real Thing and members of Exebelle & The Rusted Cavalcade at 2 and 6pm, respectively.  

Head over to the Facebook event for more information and updates.

Beware the Ides of March, indeed!

Double Your Barrels With Brandy Blue Bee Cider and Hardywood Bourbon Coffee This Saturday

There are some cool things coming out of barrels this Saturday February 1st.  You can try one or the other but there’s plenty of time to get them both in.

Blue Bee Rocky Ridge Release — Noon

From noon to 7PM, Blue Bee Cider debuts their sixth and final cider from their very first harvest in 2012.  Rocky Ridge Reserve was aged for five months in brandy barrels before packaging into hand numbered bottles.  There looks to be only 356 bottles available so get these while you can cider fans. 

So go out and get a taste then take a bottle or two home.  Olio’s food truck will offer an ala carte menu to pair with Blue Bee’s ciders. Music will be provided by the Cider Sippers throughout the afternoon with traditional Appalachian tunes.

Head over to the Facebook event for more information and updates.

212 W. 6th St.
Richmond, VA 23224

Hardywood Bourbon Sidamo Release — 2PM

Hardywood’s Bourbon Sidamo returns for its second year starting at 2PM.  Aged for three months in Kentucky bourbon barrels, this coffee stout will have you prepared for whatever Punxsutawney Phil sees on Sunday. 

Enjoy Bourbon Sidamo on draft while chowing down on food from Station 2, Hungry Turtle Food Truck, Cielito Lindo, Super Fresh Carts or Goatocado.  Be sure to grab some bottles to go as well in case we are hit with another polar vortex.

Music will be provided by Fear of Music, The Shangri-Lords, and special guests Full Moon Fever starting at 4:30, 6:15, and 7pm respectively. 

Head over to the Facebook event for more information and updates.

Hardywood, Strangeways, & Lickinghole Creek Heading to SAVOR This May

SAVOR 2014At the same time the VA Craft Brewers Guild elected new leadership, Brewers Association announced breweries participating in this year’s SAVOR: American Craft Beer & Food Experience on May 9th & 10th in Washington, DC.  Of the seventy six participants, five breweries are from Virginia including three from the Richmond area:

Devils Backbone Brewing Co — Roseland, VA
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery — Richmond, VA
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery — Goochland, VA
Port City Brewing Co — Alexandria, VA
Strangeways Brewing — Richmond, VA

Richmond will be very well represented at this year’s event. Hardywood even became a Supporting Partner for this year.  See who else made it on the list this year here. The American Homebrewers Association and Brewers Association members-only presale is March 25 with public ticket sales starting March 26.

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