virginia brews

   

   

   

Don't you love it when I lie inadvertently about my blog posting?  I feel so scarce on here that I always think I won't have any more content for a few days, but as soon as I say something about it (post earlier today of course) I go and find something to post.
Evin and I went Virginia beer tasting last Saturday and I brought my camera along, intending to shoot stock-ish images for Flavor, but didn't really dig into or edit them for a few days.  I'd assumed there wouldn't be many I could post, but I picked out the best for the stock folder and there were a few left over that I'm sharing here!
We intended to visit two breweries and a cidery, but after the second brewery we were tired and it was getting late and all that.  First we stopped at Blue Mountain Brewery, where we sat outside for lunch and sampler flights.  I usually prefer a flight to a big glass of one thing, especially when it's local craft beer (even though inevitably there's a beer or two I'm not so fond of...like the dark, rich stuff usually), but we both ended up with a pint after the tasting anyway.  For lunch, I had fish tacos, the fish battered in the brewery's Full Nelson IPA and topped with a delicious black bean and corn salsa.  Evin had a bratwurst sandwich, the bratwurst made at a farm not far from the brewery, which was also very tasty (of course I had to try a bite!).  We enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountains and managed to get a little sunburned too.  Evin wants to start making beer (and I, probably over-ambitiously, want to grow the hops for it) so we checked out the baby hops plants growing on the property.  I want to visit again later in the year when the vines get tall!
From there we went to Starr Hill brewery, where we've been before and regularly drink their beer.  In fact, we had to replace the empty keg in Dad's kegerator (of their winter seasonal The Gift) with a warm-weather option (or, as it turns out, two warm-weather options) so we did their tasting and chose the Amber Ale and limited edition Monticello Reserve Ale, which we actually enjoyed last summer too.    If I had my way, we'd have gotten a keg of The Love, which is their wheat beer (and my faaavorite) but the guys don't love it quite like I do.  Evin did buy me a beer glass, the kind pictured in the last photo, so I'm pretty happy with that :)
I love to check out the people creating local & unique things.  I'd much rather spend a dollar or two more on a pint of local beer than order a glass of Bud Light!