Holy Grail of Virginia Brewery Tours

Chuck Triplett & Friends complete quest to visit all of Virginia’s breweries in a single year

By Chuck Triplett with Jefferson Evans

 

What seemed like a fun challenge amongst a group of fellow craft beer drinkers and travelers at the end of 2013 ended up being a substantial and difficult, yet certainly rewarding and enjoyable quest.

Rayner Johnson, Robert Fondren, Erik Benedict and Chuck Triplett were discussing and comparing their yearly brewery visits and Chuck made the boast that he would visit every open brewery in Virginia during 2014. Chuck, having visited every brewery in the state previously, with the exception of Damascus and Miller Coors, thought it wouldn’t be that hard to do them all in a single year.

This group, who routinely travels the country and the world visiting breweries every year, was up for the challenge.  After all, they were veteran beer travelers who visit more than 300 breweries a year each. In fact, Rayner holds the record of 615 in one year.

The group has long been breweriana collectors, and most of them began touring breweries back in the 1970s.  Chuck has visited breweries in 45 states and 28 countries. The others have similar histories.

The challenge began near the first day of January 2014 with the group visiting Forge Brewery in Lorton and ended in late December with Rayner and Chuck visiting the newly opened Belly Love in Purcelleville.

Completing the challenge was much harder than they had expected; mostly because there were not complete listings of the breweries in Virginia, and due to the sheer number of new breweries that were popping up over the course of the year.  Raynor and Chuck now maintain what they believe is the most current list of VA breweries that is out there.  It includes not only open breweries but those that are rumored, are in planning, are in build-out and permitting or that are very close to actually opening.  They also share the list with others and accept tips and contributions from anyone that has any information on new breweries in the state.

Many trips were made to regions where the brewery count was high and they could knock out clusters of open breweries in a day or weekend, but other breweries were remote and spread out.  Plus, many of the newer breweries were opening at a time after they had visited an area so they had to schedule return visits. This was complicated by the fact that most breweries have limited visiting or tap room hours when they are open.  If they couldn’t get inside a brewery it did not count as a visit. Just pulling into the parking lot did not count.  They found out just how geographically large the state of Virginia is as there are now breweries in every corner it seems.  One of the breweries, Seven Arrows, actually had their official opening on December 31, the last day of the year. However, Chuck and Ray were able to get in a little early so they could check it off the list. The quest was exhaustive, but rewarding.

Rayner and Chuck managed to hit 101 breweries missing only one – Anheuser Busch in Williamsburg. Erik and Robert got very close with brewery counts in the low 90s.  The current open brewery count in Virginia is 97.  The reason Chuck and Rayner were able to exceed that number is because several of the breweries moved and changed locations this year so they actually visited both the old and new locations. Also, a couple of the breweries are no longer brewing. Chuck and Rayner often travelled together and sometimes Robert and /or Erik joined them. Robert and Erik, though, often travelled solo and at times different members were ahead for awhile which made for good natured razzing and bragging but also served as inspiration to those who were behind.  The end of year rush to completion was challenging to say the least.

All and all, it was a great time and adventure that took the group all over the state and back again. They saw and tasted just how great Virginia beer is and how interesting, diverse and different the breweries can be.  They visited the giant Miller Coors Brewery in Elkton down to a few one barrel nanos. They were able to enjoy all of the different areas of our beautiful state from the Atlantic Ocean to the lovely western mountains.  But just as important as the beer for them was the meeting the folks who actually brew it and those who had the love and gumption to open the breweries in the first place. They met many new friends along the way and visited many old friends as well and that is actually the most rewarding part of the quest. The brewing community is awesome.

None of the group will try for a repeat in 2015, however. It was daunting and much harder than they all had anticipated but they all intend to revisit favorites and, of course, any new ones that will open in our fair state this year. There are no regrets and the group would love to challenge others to try and do the same this year.  They know you would find it interesting, rewarding and tasty. Are you up for it?

 

Chuck Triplett & Friends 2014 Brewery Tour

1	Abingdon	Wolf Hills BC
2	Afton	Blue Mountain Brewery
3	Alexandria	Hops Grill & Brewery
4	Alexandria	Port City BC
5	Arlington	Capitol City BC
6	Arlington	Rock Bottom Restaurant-Brewery
7	Arrington	Blue Mountain Barrel House
8	Ashburn	Lost Rhino BC
9	Ashburn	Old Ox BC
10	Ashland	Center of the Universe BC
11	Barboursville	Beer Hound Brewery       Old location
12	Blacksburg	Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill
13	Callaway	Callaway BC
14	Callaway	Chaos Mountain BC
15	Centreville	Sweetwater Tavern
16	Charlottesville	Champion BC
17	Charlottesville	Champion BC  Production
18	Charlottesville	C’vill-ian BC
19	Charlottesville	South Street Brewery
20	Charlottesville	South Street Brewery/ Blue Mtn
21	Charlottesville	Three Notch’d BC
22	Crozet	Starr Hill BC
23	Culpeper	Beer Hound Brewery       New location
24	Damascus	Damascus Brewery
25	Danville	2 Witches Winery & Brewery
26	Edinburg	Swover Creek BC
27	Elkton	Coors/Miller BC
28	Falls Church	Mad Fox BC
29	Falls Church	Sweetwater Tavern
30	Forest	Apocalypse Ale Works
31	Fredericksburg	Battlefield BC at The Pub
32	Fredericksburg	Blue & Gray BC
33	Gainesville	Tin Cannon BC
34	Galax	Creek Bottom BC
35	Glade Spring	Old Glade BC
36	Goochland	Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery
37	Hampton	St George BC
38	Hardy	Sunken City BC
39	Harrisonburg	Three Brothers BC
40	Harrisonburg	Three Notch’d BC
41	Ladysmith	Rusty Beaver Brewery
42	Leesburg	Barnhouse Brewery
43	Leesburg	Beer Joint Brewery (New Name)
44	Leesburg	Crooked Run BC
45	Leesburg	Mud Hound BC
46	Leesburg	Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brewery
47	Lexington	Blue Lab BC
48	Lexington	Devils Backbone BC
49	Lorton	Forge Brew Works
50	Lovettsville	Mad Horse Brewpub
51	Lynchburg	Jefferson Street Brewery
52	Manassas	Bad Wolf BC
53	Manassas	Heritage BC
54	McLean	Gordon Biersch Restaurant Brewery
55	Middletown	Backroom Brewery
56	Midlothian	Extra Billy’s Smokehouse & Brewery
57	Nellysford	Wild Wolf BC
58	Norfolk	O’Connor BC       Old  location
59	Norfolk	O’Connor BC       New  location
60	Norfolk	Smartmouth BC
61	Purcellville	Adroit Theory BC
62	Purcellville	Belly Love
63	Purcellville	Corcoran BC
64	Purcellville	Old 690 BC
65	Radford	River Company
66	Richmond	Ardent Craft Ales
67	Richmond	Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
68	Richmond	Isley BC
69	Richmond	Legend BC
70	Richmond	Rock Bottom Restaurant-Brewery
71	Richmond	Strangeways BC
72	Richmond	Triple Crossing BC
73	Roanoke	Big Lick BC
74	Roanoke	Roanoke Railhouse Brewery
75	Roanoke	Soaring Ridge Brewers
76	Rockville	Midnight Brewery       Old   location
77	Rockville	Midnight Brewery       New  location
78	Roseland	Devils Backbone BC
79	Salem	Parkway BC
80	Scottsville	James River BC
81	Sperryville	Hopkins Ordinary Ale Works
82	Stafford	Adventure BC
83	Stafford	Wild Run BC
84	Staunton	Queen City BC
85	Staunton	Redbeard BC
86	Staunton	Shenandoah Valley BC
87	Sterling	Beltway BC
88	Sterling	Sweetwater Tavern
89	Toano BC	Brass Cannon BC
90	Troutville	Flying Mouse BC
91	Vienna	Caboose BC
92	Vint Hill	Old Busthead BC
93	Virginia Beach	Back Bay BC
94	Virginia Beach	Beach BC
95	Virginia Beach	Gordon Biersch Restaurant Brewery
96	Virginia Beach	Home Republic BC
97	Virginia Beach	Pleasure House BC
98	Virginia Beach	Young Veterans BC
99	Williamsburg	Aleworks BC
100	Winchester	Picadilly’s Public House