The Beer Road

There has been quite a bit of press, and deservedly so, over August becoming Virginia’s official craft beer month.   The official, culminating event is the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, which is being held on the 25^th.  It’s a celebration which from the looks of things will a fitting crown for the month – featuring numerous Virginia craft breweries, and to top it off, it’s being held right on the grounds of one of the state’s most up and coming establishments, the Devils Backbone location in Nelson County.

But at least unofficially, I’m proposing that the month needs its other bookend, and that maybe it’s right here in Roanoke.

Sure, the month has already gotten underway.  And yes, there will be other festivals occurring in the state this summer, without a doubt.  No, we don’t have acres of serene campground surrounding a fully functioning brewery.  But when it comes to August and craft beer, Roanoke’s own festival has been putting on quite a show for a while, and this time around, the stars have aligned in a way no planning committee probably could’ve ever wished for.  Not only is Microfestivus celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, but here, in the light of Virginia’s first official craft beer month, it will welcome what appears to be more Virginia based breweries than the event ever has previously.  The official numbers were difficult to come by, but this years’ stats stand pretty well on their own:  out of the forty nine breweries which will have representative beers at Microfestivus this Saturday, fifteen of them are from the state, accounting for close to thirty percent of the total.  It seems that August is a naturally perfect time to hold Virginia’s craft beer month – after all, Microfestivus falls within its days, each year.  And this year, the festival couldn’t have celebrated the state’s growing craft beer culture any better, or had any better timing.  Perhaps August was always meant to become Virginia Craft Beer Month after all.  Cheers, and a tip of our beer glasses…to both!

A few notes:

Some of the state’s breweries are also coming off of celebrations of their own – Blue Mountain (Afton) recently opened their new “Barrel House” production facility, and is scheduled to bring their “Local Species”, a new Belgian style ale, for tasting.  Devils Backbone is also bringing their recently produced Azrael Belgian style ale.  Among the relative newcomers to the festival are Wolf Hills (Abingdon) and Lost Rhino (Ashburn), who join festival veterans Jefferson Street (Lynchburg) and Blue & Gray (Fredericksburg).

Below is a list of the state’s breweries which will be offering beers at Saturday’s Microfestivus.

River Company (Radford), Wild Wolf (Nellysford), Starr Hill (Crozet), Legend (Richmond), Williamsburg Alewerks, Dominion Brewing (Ashburn), Bull & Bones (Blacksburg), Big Daddy’s (Roanoke), Roanoke Railhouse.

~ by thebeerroad on August 8, 2012.

Posted in Events.