Want to get a bit closer to good beer and the beer making process, but don’t have your own brewery? It seems you might be in luck. In one of the most interesting brewery related events that I’ve heard of, Blue Mountain brewery in Afton, Va is inviting anyone interested in helping pick hops to come by and do just that on August 2nd. The hops picked on this day will be used in a special release beer, “Cascade Tribute”, as well as in Blue Mountain’s Full Nelson Pale Ale. In addition to helping the team at Blue Mountain produce beer, the event features at least two more satisfying experiences to round out the day, and these are completely sensory. Since the email that I received from Blue Mountain said that while ABC laws restrict them from giving you beer for picking hops, it would be available to buy and have during and/or after the picking. So as you start to come closer to good beer by actually picking hops, your taste buds will be savoring Blue Mountains’ flavorful beers, while off in the distance, a gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge Mountains that surround the brewery will most certainly be taking your breath away. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. August 2nd.
Check out Blue Mountain’s Website
It has been several months now since a couple of Roanoke area restaurants added Baltimore based Heavy Seas’ Loose Cannon IPA to their draft selection. It continues to be one of the areas best “finds” in terms of craft beer on tap, hands down. When Microfestivus rolls around in August, Roanoke area beer lovers will have a chance to sample more of the brewery’s offerings as they are the latest to be added to the guest list for the city’s annual beer festival.
With any luck, something a bit out of the ordinary will be available to sample as well – at the World Beer Festival in Richmond in June, I had a chance to taste their Smoke On The Water Smoked Porter. Honestly, I’m not an enormous fan of either smoked beers or porters, but the deep, rich, but velvety smooth beer with the faintest suggestion of smoke I can still taste in the back of my mind as well as if it were yesterday. It was definitely one of my better take away tastes of the festival. To tell the truth, I have not tasted one of Heavy Seas’ beers that I have not cared for.
I’m working on trying to get a confirmation of which beers specifically will be available for sampling at Microfestivus, and definitely will post them here when I do. Either way, make sure you make it by their booth when the festival gets here on August 14th! Until then, if you’re curious about their highly hopped up Loose Cannon India Pale Ale, it is available at Fork In The Alley and at Grace’s Pizza currently. According to the website, Loose Cannon uses a ton of hops in the brewing process – in the kettle, in the hop back, and is dry hopped as well. Look for a bunch of grapefruit and some pine like flavors, plus a bit of rough hop oils flavors as well with a slightly bitter finish – very crisp and refreshing. Almost eight hundred reader reviews on beeradvocate.com have Loose Cannon currently rated an A-. It’s a solid example of a very good, somewhat bitter IPA, and a good one to try your tastebuds on if you’re making your way into the world of hopped up beers.
The Beer Road 