By Jeff Maisey Rocket Frog Brewing Company — Loudoun County’s newest brewery — leap into orbit on May 19, debuting with five beers on tap: Angry Alice IPA, Minotaur American Golden Ale, Wallops Island American Brown Ale, Double IPA and Dry Saison. The brewery is owned by twin brothers David and Richard Hartogs along…
2 Silos Elevates Brewery Experience
By Jefferson Evans and Jeff Maisey If you’ve ever been to a traditional family farm you might have noticed a number of buildings and spaces, each designated with a specific purpose. There’d be the main farm house serving as the family living quarters, an exterior chicken coop, pig pin, fields for crops and maybe a…
Solace Zone
By Jefferson Evans and Chuck Triplett There is a feeling you get when you walk into a place and in relatively short order you realize the place is nice, well-designed and cared for. You notice the people working there are enthusiastic, genuinely like each other and are creating a product they enjoy and take…
Views and Brews High Above Bluemont at Dirt Farm Brewing
By Jefferson Evans and Chuck Triplett Travel out to the far western edge of Loudoun County and you will find yourself in a region that knows the name Zurschemeide well. That is what happens when you run three popular businesses – a farm, a winery, and now a brewery – in a manner that seems…
Going Big in Petersburg with Trapezium Brewing Company
Words by Steve Deason & Jeff Maisey. Photo by Kathy Keeney When asked why the first beer he brewed at Trapezium was a Czech Pilsner when he had never brewed a lager before, Brewmaster James Frazer answered, “You gotta go big. This whole project has gone big. It was a calculated risk and that’s the process…
GRAND OPENING: The Veil Brewing Company
By Steve Deason The Veil Brewing Company will be the first brewery in Richmond to include a koelschip or coolship when it opens Saturday, April 16. Brewer and co-founder Matt Tarpey explained that wort will be pumped into this broad open pan on their Roseneath Road location “roof” where it will cool overnight. (Wort is the sugary…
Richmond Brewery Round Up
The Richmond region boasts sixteen craft breweries – everything from rural farm breweries to hip, urban destinations and everything in between. Below we’ve put together a list so that you can plan your next beer adventure and explore all that the Richmond brewery scene has to offer. It would be ambitious to try to visit…
The Call of the Commonwealth, The Bond of the Brew at The Virginia Beer Co.
By Annie Tobey Williamsburg’s historic college, William & Mary, introduced Robby Willey and Chris Smith. They became fast friends, their bond cemented in part by a shared appreciation for craft beer. Their craft explorations began at Green Leafe Café in Williamsburg and continued post-graduation, as together they visited breweries throughout the U.S. Their…
Steam Bell Beer Works: Another first for Chesterfield County
Story and Photos by Steve Deason Brewer Brad Cooper is proud of his name but not for the reason you are probably guessing. A cooper is a person who makes wooden vessels bound together by hoops such as casks or barrels. Cooper named his new brewery Steam Bell Beer Works after a device used by…
Explore a Pour along the Blue Ridge Beer Way
By Jeff Maisey Taking a cue from their neighbors just to the north in Nelson County (Brew Ridge Beer Trail), the eight breweries in the Roanoke Valley region have developed an official trail of their own. Dubbed Virginia’s Blue Ridge Beer Way with the catchy tagline “explore-a-pour,” you don’t have to venture far off…