An Open Letter to Kuhnhenn

Dear Kuhnhenn,

Please fix your infection problems.

Love,
Chris

Bar Exam Blues

I'm currently finishing up a Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA and felt strangely compelled to write a blog post. I know it's been quite a long time since I've updated this blog, but I still am regularly reviewing on BA (in my own overly verbose, "pretentious" way - according to Dan!) and would encourage people to check there for local beers that I add. W/ re: to my absence, I'd like to blame it on my impending bar exam (6 days and counting), and think I will. I'll likely be back in some capacity following the end of this trial by fire ... likely!

Midlothian Beer Festival

Want to try a bunch of Virginia beers in one easy time and place? On July 3rd, a mere hour and change away from Charlottesville, Capital Ale House in Midlothian is hosting their 2nd annual Virginia Beer Festival featuring nearly every brewery in Virginia. This is a great opportunity to try beers from breweries that don't distribute around here, are several hours away, or like Shooting Creek, are simply impossible to visit. I know from personal experience that there will be a lot of very good beer at the event. I will be there around opening time at 12 PM, so if anyone wants to join me and a few Richmond area beer enthusiasts, shoot me a message in the comments. Unfortunately, Chris and Proteus cannot make it. Cost is $10, which includes 5 tasting tokens. I'm not sure what the price of additional tokens are, but regardless, this is a great value. According to the website, the event goes until midnight.

Breweries in attendance:
Blue & Gray
Blue Mountain
Bull & Bones
Cally's
Capitol City
Devil's Backbone
Dominion
Jefferson Street
Legend
Richbrau
River Company
Roanoke Railways
Shooting Creek
Starr Hill
St. George
Sweetwater Tavern
Tuppers
Vintage 50
Williamsburg Alewerks

Breweries who MIGHT make it:
Battlefield (yeah, I've never heard of them either. Turns out it's a BRAND new brewpub in Fredericksburg)
Shenandoah
South Street

World Beer Festival Arriving Next Door

All About Beer magazine just announced that their famous World Beer Festival is coming to its fourth location in Richmond, Virginia in just a couple of months. It can be a pricey event, but those of us who have been to one of the North Carolina festivals know how much fun it is, with hundreds of breweries in attendance, many with some of their more unusual offerings. At the Durham Festival I managed to snag an ample sample of Foothills Sexual Chocolate, long after that batch was supposedly gone. And of course the high price tag does have the benefit of keeping the fraternities and sororities to a minimum.

The other festivals have been two sessions, generally noon to four and six to ten, each $40. I will be at the early festival, if not both. Tickets have sold out extremely quickly in the past, so being an All About Beer magazine subscriber and having access to the subscriber's only presale is very helpful. Turns out it's a pretty awesome magazine to boot!

The Newcomers are Here

Those new offerings that Hop & Wine announced last month have arrived! At Beer Run, I'm seeing Nøgne Ø India Pale Ale and Dark Horizon, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast, It's Alive!, and Stateside IPA plus 3 Dieu Du Ciel! brews (no Peche Mortel yet, but watch out for it!). Since it wasn't mentioned since it came out, Southern Tier's Mokah has also been in town for a few weeks now and is an interesting taste if their Choklat or Jah-va was to your taste. I found it to be a pretty equal blend of the two myself, and enjoyed the bottle I've tried. They tend to be massive, though, so it's usually a 'mood thing.'

On the local front, Starr Hill's Maibock has been available on draft, both at the brewery and around C'ville... it also may be appearing at the Capital Ale House fairly soon. Additionally, the big barleywine has been sitting in the fermenter since March, and was just transferred to a pair of Maker's Mark barrels that came over from Blue Mountain . Each barrel was dry-hopped... one with Mt. Hood, the other with Willamette. It should be amazing when it's finally ready to go, so keep your eyes peeled. Jason Oliver out at Devil's Backbone had also put out a maibock recently. They continue to put out a solid product, and have a steadily growing roster... I really need to get out there far more often!

Your Intrepid Beer Explorer...

Luckily at least one of your friendly local beer bloggers is willing to make the long slog out to places near and far so you don't have to. Today I took advantage of a pleasant afternoon to visit two places in southern Albemarle County. One of them I heard about from a friend who lives in the area and the other I happened on their website.

The first stop was Country Blessings Local Food in downtown Scottsville. They spell it Blessing's... fie upon them. Fortunately I did not notice this before I entered and so I was not predisposed against them and their grotesque grammar. They have a lot of macros here but also a huge focus on local beer. All the usual suspects were here in good quantity... Legend, Alewerks, Starr Hill and Blue Mountain. There was also a smatter of other major micros such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Rogue Dead Guy. If you find yourself in Scottsville without any good beer, this will suit your needs. Otherwise, I'd stay clear.

Next up was Buck Island Barbecue. This was an odd experience. Their website, which seems to have been updated as recently as January 2009, suggests that in addition to excellent barbecue, they have winemaking equipment as well as lots of craft beer... singles and kegs. I found something entirely different. Yes, there was some craft beer... a couple of different Stone bombers, Smuttynose IPA and maybe one or two others. But there was also a large amount of macros and if there was any winemaking equipment, I didn't see it. The barbecue was tasty but not outstanding (they called it wet... I considered it dry) and the side dishes (macaroni and cheese, green beans) were absolutely tasteless. Very disappointing stop and they should update their website to reflect what they really do. Granted there is probably nothing better beerwise in the area, but I certainly wouldn't make any effort to get out here. Unless you're really craving barbecue, Monticello Winery would probably be a better option in the area.

New Beer Offerings coming to Virginia in June

There is word from our friendly neighbourhood Hop & Wine distributor that Virginia is soon to be seeing a new group of great beers from Dieu Du Ciel!, Nøgne Ø, and Mikkeller. They should be available some time in June, and it can't come too soon! I have longed for a local source for Péché Mortel, and look forward to enjoying it more often.

Virginia has always been a fairly "beer friendly" state and it is great to see all of these new items finally making their way into the area - even though some of the stores are starting to run out of places to put them! If Deschutes made the bold move to venture out this way, my perfect world would be pretty much complete. I'll hold out hope for that one yet, and in the meantime, I'm going to celebrate the current good news with a brew!