The Beer Road

From time to time, you can still hear the faint murmur of generalized, anti-IPA sentiment.  The grumbling usually comes from the direction of an occupied bar stool at the moment when its occupant, in the mood for something other than a tongue blistering, lip puckering beer, notices that half the choices in front of him or her hail from that one particular assertive category of ale.  First, a moment of consolation.  I wholeheartedly agree that there is most certainly a time and place, a moment and mood, for nearly every “style” of beer.  For me, it’s the bottom line of what helps define the craft beer movement – diversity.  And here’s one more shoulder to cry on (which is better than crying in your beer, every time):  I’ll be the first to tell you that occasionally, I nearly faint over the lightly smoky, clean maltiness of a Scottish ale.

Having said that, and this comes straight from the “Oh, here we go” department, could it be that the venerable hopped up style that takes up so much room in bars and on store shelves still hasn’t gotten its due?  There, I said it.  Could it be that this beer which always seems to be on the verge of being over sold, over hyped, and over marketed, still hasn’t seen its full potential?  Here’s how one of IPAday’s – that social media fueled day of international recognition for the style, which is, by the way, today – founding forces, Ashley Routson, describes the IPA style:  “this illustrious style represents the pinnacle of brewing innovation with its broad spectrum of diverse brands, subcategories and regional flavor variations – making it the perfect style to galvanize craft beer’s social voice”.  In a nutshell, while it may seem that at any one moment there are way too many IPAs on the market, there is immense variation among them, and thereby immense numbers of drinking experiences to be had from one IPA to the next.  While this is true to some extent with just about any general type of beer, it seems much more so for the IPA.  To say that you have a firm handle on what the next one will taste like seems akin to saying that you know what walking on the moon must be like since you just took a stroll around your block.  Too much of a stretch?  Why don’t you and I split a bottle of 60 Minute, and next up, perhaps a Green Flash West Coast IPA?

No one’s saying there aren’t a ton of choices out there.  All we’re saying is that the style is built for it.  From the never ending list of hop varieties with their varying characteristics (piney, citrusy, tobacco like, ‘hop oily’, tea like, etc) to how they’re used, in brewing techniques such as dry hopping, first wort hopping, wet hopping, and so on, the beer style that frames them so well, simply known by three letters, is worthy of so much more than to be described by the far too simplistic term “hoppy”.  Basically, when one refers to IPAs in such a way, or as simply “bitter”, they’re missing out on so, so much. To draw a few differences – oh, and since today is officially #IPAday – I thought we’d list a few examples from my home state of Virginia, found below.  Go ahead, track them down, line them up – if you’re a certified hop devotee, you’ll just enjoy the beer.  But if you’re still sitting on that bar stool, lamenting over your choices, or what you might see as a lack thereof, don’t worry, it’s not that we don’t hear you.  It’s just that after lining a few different IPAs up as well, we think you might agree that having a day to recognize the style, well, just makes perfectly good sense.  Cheers, and Happy #IPAday.

On to the list…. Please don’t treat this list as a “favorites”, a “best of”, or anything of the sort.  It’s simply a short list of many of the outstanding examples produced here in the state I call home.  A couple are of the bigger, Double/Imperial sort, while others are not quite as extreme.

Williamsburg Alewerks Bitter Valentine Imperial Pale Ale (seasonally released).  It’s a shame – maybe an understandable one – but a shame nonetheless that Bitter Valentine isn’t a year round beer.  Plenty of various citrusy fruit – nectarines? grapefruit? mango? All with enough bitterness to match, and a slight layer of sumptuous sweetness. Each sip is like a mouthful of some unholy hybrid of all those fruits, their citrusy flesh captured in time when each is at the absolute, down to the very second pinnacle of their in-season naturally perfect sweet goodness, of course along with ample amounts of their pith for bitterness.  It’s big, but not overly so, and everything comes together pretty darn perfectly.  I’d put this DIPA up against just about any in the country.

Devils Backbone Eight Point IPA and Starr Hill Northern Lights IPA (both year round).  Not to lump these two together, because they offer distinctly different tasting experiences, but I do often describe both of these beers as “angular”.  It’s a term I’m sure only makes sense in my own mind.  Eight Point has loads of floral aroma, and some pine and a bit of citrus in the flavor, but is a bit restrained when it comes to much balancing malty sweetness.  The brewery itself describes the bitterness as crisp, and maybe that’s where I get “angular” description – there is a sharp hop edge to it that is present throughout the entire taste.  Northern Lights may even be tilted a bit more towards a higher, less forgiving level of bitterness.  If you care for IPAs which are tilted more towards the hops than any malt sweetness, as well as a more floral/pine aroma and flavor than an overly citrusy one, these are your IPAs.

Parkway Get Bent Mountain IPA (year round).  Parkway Brewing describes this one as a “West Coast” Style IPA, which might lead you to believe it is plenty bitter, but I’d put it geographically squarely in the middle of the country.  Bursts of juicy citrus aroma and flavor along with enough bitterness and a respectful malty undercurrent, it’s a well done IPA which touches all the bases and has the ability to win over non IPA drinkers as well as hit a home run for the true hophead.

There are plenty of others, ranging from Center of the Universe’s bitter, piney, citrusy Pocahoptas to Lost Rhino’s moderately bodied, hop marmalade sweet Ice Breaker (a double IPA).  There are even ones aged on wood, like Hardywood Park’s Hoplar.  Each one offers a uniquely different tasting experience, which is why lovers of such hop forward beers continue to fuel the interest in the style, and is ultimately why it is the perfect beer style to have a day devoted to celebrating it!  Happy IPAday, all…Cheers!

If you should need a spot to enjoy #IPAday, Local Roots Restaurant will have several of the style on draft to celebrate, including the classic from Bear Republic Racer 5, and as mentioned yesterday, 3 Brothers Brewing from Harrisonburg will be at Jack Brown’s for a tap takeover event, apparently bringing a special cask conditioned IPA!

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Some brotherly love and plenty of hard work among three brothers in Harrisonburg means some standout beers for the rest of us.  Three Brothers Brewing, based in an renovated soda bottling plant right on Main Street in the Shenandoah Valley city, began with three to four core brews late last year and has now grown to ten well developed beers.  For Adam, Jason, and Tyler Shifflett, who grew up near Harrisonburg, the growth seems to have come quickly, with a beautiful tasting room now in operation in the same building and the recent signing of a distribution contract for the greater Roanoke area.  A recent trip to the brewery and tasting room, where those ten brews are on tap routinely every weekend, revealed the beer has certainly not suffered from any growth spurts – every one of them is well developed and flavorful, from the Amber Ale, with its slight bend towards a more malty side, to the Admiral Imperial IPA, an unfiltered, citrusy hop cannon of a beer.

One interesting observation is that many of Three Brothers’ beers hover near sessionable levels of alcohol content.  The Oatmeal Stout (4.9%), Tri Brathair Scottish Ale (4.0%), Amber (5.5%), Great Outdoors Pale Ale (4.8%), and the Coffee Breath Brown Ale with local coffee added (3.8%) are all solid beers that you could keep in the fridge regularly and enjoy with friends without one completely wiping out your evening.  While specific goals based upon abv% levels might not have been the primary motivation behind these beers, being able to offer these types of tasty, go to beers was certainly a goal for the brewery.  After tasting many of them in the tasting room, none of them sacrifices flavor for anything else.

The brewery has already gained some attention from mainstream media, as Southern Living featured them in their “Daily South” column in March.  But no matter how much growth or recognition Adam and his brothers gain, it is doubtful they will forget their roots – they fully embrace where they are from, and give back to the community whenever possible.  The brewery holds a monthly “Cask For A Cause” event, with proceeds going to a different local charity each month.

Tomorrow, on August 1^st – #IPAday no less – the craft beer curious in Roanoke will get a chance to try out a few of the brothers’ beer at a Tap Takeover event at Jack Brown’s downtown.  This will be just the first of two appearances coming up in Roanoke for Three Brothers – they will also make their Microfestivus debut this year when the festival rolls around on August 10.  Come out to both and support this growing local brewery, and taste some of their delicious beer!  Cheers!

Please visit the brewery’s website here.

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Beer hunting trips for me and my fiancée to stores located in either Northern Virginia or North Carolina can mean bringing back to Roanoke a variety of beers from all sorts of breweries.  Typically, we are tracking down limited or rare releases that can often only be found in bigger cities, or more likely, we are itching to taste out beers being produced locally in those areas.  But there are also a few more commonly found – in those cities at least – beers from larger, nationally known breweries which always seem make their way onto our sales receipts which somehow, somehow, grow to be as long as my arm.  These annual or even year round brews simply aren’t distributed in Roanoke.  Can you imagine our surprise, and delight, that one of those breweries announced at the end of May they will begin distributing to the rest of Virginia, including Roanoke.  Perhaps those receipts won’t be quite as long next time (but I seriously doubt it).  It also seems that this year’s Microfestivus is serving as an unofficial launch party for Boulevard Brewing.

Boulevard, based in Kansas City,  finds itself listed somewhere in the top five of the largest craft breweries in the Unites States, production wise, year after year.  Sandwiched in between the more limited and rarer releases and a handful of slightly more common year round releases is their “Smokestack Series” of beers, a “bigger, bolder” series, available also on a more limited availability or in year round format.  Among others, these brews include their very approachable Tank 7 Saison and solid Long Strange Tripel, but what will apparently be available at Microfestivus will be their delicious Double Wide Double IPA.  Where so many bigger ipas can eventually swing a little too sweet, or are perhaps a bit too bitter for some, whenever I taste Double Wide, I can’t help but think how – forgive the overused term here – balanced it is.  Don’t get me wrong, of course there’s a fair amount of bitterness, but it’s an undercurrent beneath the more citrusy flavors and aromas taking center stage, wrapped in a thin outer covering of malt sweetness.  A fuller medium body carries grapefruit or even apricot like flavors, along with a little pine or as the brewery points out, a bit of mint.  Like the saison, I also always think that it’s as approachable as most any double ipa might be, without sacrificing any aroma and/or flavor.

Also available will be one of Boulevard’s more year round non Smokestack Series beers, their 80 Acre Hoppy Wheat beer.  It’s a very good, easy to drink warm weather quencher, with a nice layer of hop citrus and bitterness as well.

Either way, these are two beers to seek out at Microfest, and then in stores soon (if they haven’t hit already)!  Microfestivus, a coming out party for one of the nation’s most well known, widely distributed, and respected craft breweries, Boulevard Brewing!  Cheers!

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Get ready to toast Virginia craft beer – many, many times over.  August is, of course, Virginia Craft Beer month, and there are quite a few events marking the statewide celebration.  Begun last year by the Virginia Tourism Commission and the Virginia Craft Brewer’s Guild, the month gives everyone involved – from craft beer fans to the breweries themselves –  an official chance to blow their own horns while hoping the noise will help spread the word about the growing interest in craft beer within the state.  Numbers wise, Virginia currently ranks 28^th in the nation in total production, but from 2011 to 2012, growth in that very statistic grew nearly 37%, the 12^th highest rate in the country.  Virginia also ranks 15^th in the United States in total number of craft breweries, a number which is expected to grow exponentially.*  There are close to fifty new breweries currently in planning, which would help bring the total number to near one hundred within the next five years – that’s quite a few glasses of locally produced beer here in Virginia.  Of course, August also gives us a reason to simply sit back and enjoy one of those pints being currently produced in the Old Dominion.  So no matter if we’re celebrating our growing success or just enjoying a favorite beer, or likely both, the events coming up will give plenty of opportunities to do so.  What follows is a list of a few of those events that I know of, which doesn’t include the dozens of smaller cask tappings, beer dinners and the like that individual breweries will likely have throughout the month.  The list does favor events happening in my own town of Roanoke for those who follow the blog and live in the Star City as well, as the first week or so of the month nearly looks like an unofficial Roanoke Craft Beer Week.  Cheers!  Go visit some of the fine Virginia craft breweries around the state, and taste some locally produced beer!

August 1 – Three Brothers Brewing from Harrisonburg will be featured at an event at Jack Brown’s Burger & Beer Joint in downtown Roanoke, likely a steal the pint style event.  Don’t forget, this is also this year’s social media based, craft-beer-culture created IPAday!

August 2 – Several Virginia breweries will be at a new event/beer festival called VA Beer Live!, which organizers are calling the official kick off to Virginia Craft Beer Month, being held at the Richmond Coliseum.

August 3 – Creek Bottom Brewing is helping host the Galax Rhythm & Brews Fest, complete with live music and beers from six to seven breweries, including the West Coast and nationally known yet recently expanded to Virginia Beach brewery Green Flash.

August 5 – Jack Brown’s in Roanoke is having a steal the pint event featuring Fox Barrel and Crispin.

August 6 – Apocalypse Ale Works will be featured at Local Roots Restaurant in Roanoke, likely a steal the pint event, one of a few in the Star City this month for them.  Also, Jack Brown’s in downtown Roanoke is having a steal the pint night featuring Smuttynose Brewing of New Hampshire.

August 7 – Devils Backbone will be featured at Local Roots Restaurant, AND Jack Brown’s Roanoke is having a steal the pint night for Apocalypse Ale Works.

August 8 – Richmond’s Legend Brewing will be featured at Local Roots Restaurant as well, leading up to…

August 10 – Of course, it needs no introduction…the 16^th year of Microfestivus, Roanoke’s annual craft beer festival and celebration.  Also, look for plenty of interesting “pre-Microfestivus” events the evening before at spots such as Blue 5, Jack Brown’s, and Local Roots.

August 14 – Apocalypse Ale Works will be featured at Blues BBQ in downtown Roanoke.

August 24 – The second annual Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, held on the grounds at Devils Backbone brewpub (“basecamp”) in Nelson County.  Music, a long list of Virginia breweries, camping, and the unofficial culmination of Virginia Craft Beer Month.

August 29 – Wild Wolf Brewing in Nelson County will be releasing a new Double IPA called Exquisitely Evil, at their brewpub location

August 30 – Starr Hill will likely be featured at an event at Martin’s in downtown Roanoke.  This is an interesting event, as regional band Dangermuffin will be playing at Martin’s that night, and downtown store and source of so much local music news Ripple will be involved as well, possibly for a pre-Martins event of some kind, although details are yet to be confirmed.

Of course, all events are subject to last minute changes, but this is what I have for now.  If you know of any other events worth a shout out, don’t hesitate the use the comment option above and I’ll try to get them up.  Also, don’t forget that DC Beer Week is also happening from August 11 to 18!  Information on some of the events can be found here.

*Check out more interesting craft beer numbers and statistics with this great interactive map, published on the New Yorker’s website recently, and based off of information from the Brewer’s Association.

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