Tag Archives: pumpkin

Get The Last Pumpkins At Strangeways And Lickinghole Creek Today

We are coming to the end of the release season for pumpkin beers. If you missed earlier releases, Strangeways and Lickinghole Creek have you covered today Saturday October 17th starting at noon.

Head over to Strangeways as they release their final Gourd of Thunder variant, Oak Aged Gingerbread. The original GOT and its variants will be available in a 4-pack at a special price for this weekend only.

Strangeways GOT Pumpkin Porters

Strangeways Brewing
2277 Dabney Rd
Richmond, VA 23230

Meanwhile LCCB sees the release of “Pumpkin Ain’t Easy” using pumpkins grown at the farm brewery and roasted at Short Pump’s Tazza Kitchen. In addition to their spiceless version, LCCB will offer two spiced variants — “Pumpkin Is Easy” (pumpkin spice) and “Spiced Pumpkin Latte” (pumpkin spice & coffee). Only 500 bottles of each variant were made and are limited to 2 bottles per person.

LCCB Pumpkin Aint Easy & variants 2015

Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery
4100 Knolls Point Dr.
Goochland, VA 23063

Reconnect With Richmond Beer This Fall At Ardent, Center of the Universe, Lickinghole Creek, Hardywood, and Strangeways Today

Hello Richmond.

Sorry for the empty pages over the last month. It has been a busy one here as we completed our second and final move of the year. Sadly, I ended up missing most of Virginia Craft Beer Month but I’m sure you had a great time. I’ve seen the pictures. Now that I am a full fledged city resident, I am excited to reconnect with our breweries to see what they will be up to these coming fall months.

Let’s see what is in store this weekend.

Ardent Craft Ales

Sweet Potato & Sage Saison is back.

Hanover Oktoberfest & Das Bier Run at Center of the Universe 

COTU makes one of my favorite Oktoberfest beers. You are missing out if you haven’t tried simmering bratwurst in it before grilling.

Also, I hope there are some of these smoked beers left because I missed out.

Maiden’s Adventure Release & Pumpkin Picking Party at Lickinghole Creek

Show LCCB some love this weekend as they go from summer into fall in one weekend.

Farmhouse Pumpkin & RVA IPA Release at Hardywood

Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin

Brewed in the style of the farmhouse ales of Belgium’s southern countryside, Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin utilizes a blend of rye, wheat and barley in the grain bill, earthy flavoring hops and a classic saison yeast. Ripe, flame roasted Virginia sugar pumpkins and brown sugar provide a hearty backbone to this 8.5% ABV beer. Freshly ground Ceylon cinnamon, whole Grenada nutmeg, whole Madagascar clove and whole allspice harmonize with pounds of freshly sliced organic ginger root.Farmhouse Pumpkin Ale incorporates local ingredients from Grandma’s Pumpkin’s of North Chesterfield, Ellwood Thompson’s, Sauer’s Spices and Penzeys Spice Company.

Hardywood RVA IPA

Our “community hopped IPA” is brewed exclusively with freshly harvested local hops, from the first bittering hop addition to the flavoring/aroma additions to a final wet hop addition, more than 300 pounds of local Cascade, Columbus, Chinook, Glacier, Magnum, Nugget and Centennial hops were used in this 60-barrel batch of beer. Brewed just once a year when hops are at their peak freshness, RVA IPA is sure to go quickly!

Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin and RVA IPA will be available in 750mL bottles, 4 packs and for growler fills at 2pm. Roundabound Pretzels,BoDillaz and Slideways Mobile Bistro on site through the day!

Join us for a special performance of the seminal Paul Simon album, Graceland, presented as RVA production company Spin, Spit & Swear‘s Cover To Cover at 7pm:

https://www.facebook.com/events/774432892702918/

Gourd of Thunder Release at Strangeways

Strangeways Gourd of Thunder

Your favorite pumpkin brew is back- with one twist- it’s now available on draft and in 750 ml bottles.

Gourd of Thunder is a dark and gnarly Imperial Pumpkin Porter brewed with freshly picked local pumpkins that were ripened on the vine while continuously listening to heavy metal. The malty pumpkin backbone fuses robustly with a milky sugar creaminess. Bourbon vanilla beans lay down a rock-steady foundation that drives the cinnamon, ginger and clove spices through your skull. This brew does not merely mimic the flavor of a mortal pumpkin pie. Gourd of Thunder will cataclysmically blow your mind with its face-melting, high-voltage attitude. Headbangers Unite!

9.2% ABV | 18 IBU

World Pediatric Project Fundraiser And Skellington Stout Debut At Triple Crossing Today

Head over to Triple Crossing today Saturday October 25th from Noon to 9pm as they raise money for the World Pediatric Project.  Triple Crossing will also debut Skellington Stout, a sessionable pumpkin spiced coffee stout.  You can read more about the creation of this stout and their collaboration with Black Hand Coffee here.

It’s The Great Scott’s Addition Pumpkin Saturday Richmond!

Scotts Addition Pumpkin Fest 2014The Scott’s Addition Pumpkin Festival returns for its second year Saturday October 25th from Noon to 6pm.

Last year’s Boulevard Pumpkin Festival was a great success drawing in over 13,000 people.  Organizers changed the name to focus on the area businesses as a whole thereby including the local breweries who call the area home.

Here are some of the pumpkin and seasonal dishes being served at the festival:

  • Buz & Ned’s: Roasted Pumpkin Brunswick stew, Pumpkin Funnel Cake
  • Iron Horse: Roasted Pork BBQ on Pumpkin Yeast Roll, Cranberry Apple Coleslaw with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin Chiffon Dessert topped with graham cracker crumbs and toasted coconut
  • Nacho Mama’s: Pumpkin Empanadas
  • The Camel: Candied Bacon
  • William’s Bakery: Apple-Walnut Bread, Pumpkin Cakes, Pumpkin Donuts, Pumpkin Rolls
  • Mosaic: Smoked Gouda Mac n Cheese
  • Martin’s: Pumpkin Cupcakes
  • Fat Dragon: Bao with filling and Pumpkin Dish
  • Mark’s Airborne Kettle Corn: Kettle Corn and Apple Cider
  • Alamo BBQ: Jalapeno mac n cheese, Texas Caviar, Pumpkin Pie
  • Moore St. Café: Pumpkin Crab Cake Sliders
  • Polar Roller: Self Serve Frozen Yogurt featuring Pumpkin/Cheesecake, Pumpkin/Pecan Praline with full-serve toppings

Beers on tap for the festival include:

Ardent Pumpkin
Ardent Sweet Potato & Sage Saison
Ardent Virginia Common
Bud Light
Hardywood Singel
Hardywood Pils
Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin
Isley Tall Dark & Hopsome Black IPA
Isley Choosy Mother
Isley Stunt Dubbel Pumpkin
Strangeways Albino Monkey
Strangeways Woodbooger
Strangeways Gourd of Thunder

VIP ticket holders will gain access to these limited pumpkin beers:

Heavy Seas Great’r Bourbon Barrel Pumpkin
Twisted Manzanita Witches Hair Imperial Pumpkin
Weyerbacher Aries Pumpkin Imperial Stout
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin

VIP tickets are $30/person in advance or $35 at the door if available. Buy your tickets here.

Once the festival ends, head over to the Redskins Training camp for free showings of “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and “Monsters, Inc.”

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.

Stepping Outside Richmond Dining For Fire, Flour, & Fork Culinary Tracks: Friday

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.  Finally, I came up with a selection method that I thought would work that would satisfy my desire to learn new stuff and be in line with the goals of the event.

First I needed some 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.

Today, we will look to navigate a schedule for Friday October 31st.

10AM

My Pick
Relish Fork — I’ve always wanted to learn more about pickling and possibly get into canning so I thought this demo from Paul Virant of Vie would be a great choice.

Runner-up
Budino with Bereika — Do you have any idea how much I hate choosing against learning from Tim Bereika?!

11:15AM

My Pick
Pie for Breakfast — Um…I like pie! I like making them and eating them.  Maybe Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar will share her secrets for making Crack Pie. I hear it’s addictive.

Runners-up

  • Chocolate Packing Heat — Yes, I could eat chocolate all day but somehow pies won out.  Maybe because my favorite pie is a Kentucky Pecan Pie with chocolate and bourbon.
  • Meat Fork — Jason Alley will teach you how ham is made. Have you had the ham cured ribs at Pasture? Delicious!

2PM

My Pick
Professor Pitmaster — I have been working on my barbecue skills but still have a long way to go before I’m ready for competition.  Help me Tuffy Stone, you’re my only hope.

Runners-up

  • Rise of Richmond Brewing — Did you really think beer wouldn’t be mentioned here? Mike Gorman will make you love the history behind our growing beer town.
  • Oyster Fork —  Did you hear about the Virginia Oyster Trail? Now is the time to fall in love with them.
  • Pickle Fork — Who knew you could pickle things other than cucumbers?  David Schulz of Pickled Silly, that’s who.

3:15PM

My Pick
From Farm to Fork — Ok, I might be breaking rule #1 with this one. Nicole Lang is local but Craig Rogers of Border Springs Farm is not. Lamb is also one of my favorite things to cook.

Runners-up

  • Charred Ordinary — Yes, Richmond has a local cidery!
  • Fork Tender — Kendra Bailey Morris will change your perception of the slow cooker.  I have used my slow cooker a lot more since buying her book.

That’s one possible plan for get through Friday’s culinary tracks for Fire, Flour & Fork. Use my plan or make your own rules then 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.

Come back later this week to see what I pick for Saturday.

If You Need Me, I’ll Be At Mekong Drinking Cigar City Beer Tonight

Cigar City Brewing is coming to town tonight Thursday August 14th with a RV packed full of their ambassadors and a ton of their beers.

Their party bus will stop at Mekong to throw the largest Cigar City tap takeover Richmond has ever seen.  Mekong will tap twenty two beers in total with many of them debuting for the first time in the city.

Here are the beers to be tapped starting at 4pm:

Mekong Restaurant
6004 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23230

Great Pumpkin Takeover at Bucket Trade Tonight

This is going down at Bucket Trade tonight October 31st at 5pm:

After the kids have their tricks and treats stop by for an evening of all treats! Join us for the return of the Great Pumpkin! Featuring:

– Hardywood Park Craft Brewery Farmhouse Pumpkin poured through a pumpkin

– Southern Tier Brewing Company Pumking
– 21st Amendment Brewery He Said Pumpkin Tripel
– AleWerks Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale
– STRANGEWAYS BREWING Gourd of Thunder

As a special treat we also have Ace Cider pumpkin cider on tap and bottles of Southern Tier’s Warlock.

Learn more over at the Facebook event.

13131 Rivers Bend Boulevard
Chester, VA 23836

Navigate the “Brew Quarter” Saturday With Boulevard Pumpkin Festival, Hardywood Second Anniversary, & Isley Brewing Opening

Brew Quarter3A new brewery opening, a festival, and an anniversary–all happening Saturday October 26th just north of Broad St in a section of town I will now lovingly refer to as Richmond’s Brew Quarter.  You could easily spend all day checking out these three events but what should you do first?  Any order is probably fine but I will share my planned attack order.

Boulevard Pumpkin Festival — Noon

Yes, the pumpkin festival is where I’m starting simply because it starts the earliest.  Make sure you don’t eat lunch beforehand.  Richmond.com has the all the details on pumpkin dishes to be served at the festival but here are a few that stood out to me:

  • Fat Dragon: Pumpkin seafood soup, pumpkin fried rice, beer battered fried pumpkin This just might be the holy trinity of pumpkin dishes
  • Sasion: Pumpkin mofongo I don’t know what mofongo is but I sure am having fun saying it.
  • The Camel: Fried chicken and pumpkin waffles, pumpkin shrimp & grits Pumpkin waffles & chicken, I mean someone had to do it!
  • Mosaic: Pumpkin curry, pumpkin chili, crispy chicken with cornbread I could see the pumpkin used in place of potatoes in Mussuman curry or just pureed with coconut milk to serve as the broth. Either way sure to be delicious.

Isley Brewing Grand Opening — 1 – 7PM

Now, this one caught me totally by surprise as I did not realize they were this far along.  They will have four beers for people to try:

Plain Jane Belgian White Ale
Plain Jane Blueberry Belgian White Ale
The Bribe Oatmeal Porter
Decadence Coconut Cocoa Oatmeal Porter

Have to say I’m intrigued by the Blueberry White Ale.

Isley Brewing Co
1715 Summit Ave
Richmond, VA 23230

Hardywood Second Anniversary Party — 2 – 9PM

Last but certainly not least, end the day at Hardywood for tequila or at least their Tequila barrel aged Second Anniversary Ale.  Definitely get there before 6pm as Goldrush will provide a live soundtrack for Godzilla Destroy All Monsters.

Side note: Is it too late for me to go as Godzilla for Halloween? 

Second Anniversary Ale will be available by the pint as well as a limited number of  750mL bottles starting at 2pm.  Special event beers are to be announced. RVA Street Foodies will bring the yum with  Pizza Tonight, Monique’s Crepes, Super Fresh Carts, Thai Cabin, Estes Bar.B.’Que,  Cielito Lindo, Soul-Ice Vending, Inc., and Station 2.

Additional music will be provided by Scorpio Brothers Marty Key and Troy Hurt (rare garage, soul and funk) and The Green Hearts (power pop & rock ‘n’ roll) at 2 and 4:30pm, respectively.

Hey Chester! Check Out Bucket Trade Grand Opening This Weekend

image

They’ve been going through their soft open for awhile but this weekend The Bucket Trade will have their official grand opening starting tonight Friday October 18th at 5pm.  Special guests Friday night  include Melanie from Stone and Ben from Hardywood.  As a special treat, they will be serving Hardywood Rum Pumpkin from a pumpkin!

Saturday, they will be doing it all over again, a little bit early at 4pm with Sean from Lickinghole Creek will  with a pin of Three Chopt Tripel.  Nat from Brown will also be there talking about other Virginia beers on tap.

So go trade some buckets this weekend.

13131 Rivers Bend Blvd
Chester, VA 23836
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