Drinksgiving 10 - Days 4 & 5: That's a wrap!

We had a few random places left to hit on Sunday, which was our last full day in VA. On Monday, we'd be traveling back to good ol' PA. But for today, we were off to the town of Chesapeake, about 25 miles SW of VA Beach proper, to visit yet another brewery. Since he lived in Chesapeake, Kelly's friend Dave would be meeting us (if you've been keeping score, you may remember him from the other night as they guy who bought us a round at the piano bar). The brewery in question, Big Ugly, definitely gets an "A" for atmosphere. This place was colorful and fun, with friendly staff and a variety of interesting seating options. I mean, where else can you actually sit inside a full-size vintage VW Bus and enjoy a beer? Lookie here...

If you take that bus, you get there.

Sadly, the bus was occupied by three children doing whatever kids do these days (i.e. faces buried in their iPhones, oblivious to the outside world while mommy and daddy get drunk). And I would have sat in there if it wasn't for those meddling kids! Yes indeed, folks... once again, kids ruin everything. Man, it seems as though this blog deals as much with my disdain for children as much as it deals with beer. Hey, I'm middle-aged now, so it's only natural to be cranky about shit like this, right?

Now, on to the beer. The people here were friendly and talkative. I perused the chalkboard and opted for an IPA with an intriguing name - Leaf Peepers. Say it out loud, kids. LEAF PEEPERS. It's fun to say, isn't it? I thought so. This was yet another hazy, dry-hopped NE-style IPA with plenty of dry-citrus aroma. It was enjoyable but not mind-blowing, which seems to be the norm with the haze craze: a few winners, a few losers, and lots of "C" students in the middle. (That's my clever way of calling it "average.")

Inside Big Ugly Brewing Co.

I was really excited about my second choice, Goat Hanger. Anyone who knows me or follows me on Facebook is fully aware of my infatuation with goats. This imperial breakfast stout is a blend of Goat Locker by Young Veterans Brewing and Big Ugly's own Ape Hanger. To be honest, I never got the story straight about this beer. Is it a collaboration between the two breweries, or an actual blend of two finished beers? Either way, it was tasty but nothing special (save for the name, that is). Any beer with the word "goat" in it automatically gets bonus points. However, just like Whose Line is it Anyway?, points don't matter.

Pleeps hiding behind the haze.

While I wasn't really wowed by either of my selections, both were enjoyable and served their purpose. Dave's a friendly, talkative guy, and we enjoyed chatting with him about beer, Virginia, music, and what not. We sent him off with a few choice Tröegs offerings for he and his family to enjoy.

After an hour or so at Big Ugly, we headed to stop number two: Reaver Beach. Inside, I immediately detected a pirate theme. Its logo is a skull and crossbones with mash paddles as bones and an inverted hop as part of the skull's head. Beers with names such as Jolly Roger and Fire at Sea occupied the beer menu. I also was intrigued by the name of the brewery. Perhaps "Reaver Beach" was a nickname for Virginia Beach. After checking out the brewery's web site, I learned that a "reaver" is a plungering forager and one who takes by force (i.e. a pillager or plunderer). So that definitely fits with the pirate theme. With plenty of interesting selections on the board, we decided on a sampler flight of eight different, quite disparate beers. See?

Tower of Bones - DIPA with all Mosaic hops. Tropical and citrus notes.
Hoptopus - DIPA with 8 hop additions and tons of dry-hops.
Jolly Roger Pumpkin Porter - robust porter brewed with roasted sugar pumpkins, cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, and clove.
Fire at Sea - smoked coffee porter. 'Nuff said!
Navalis - Gose brewed with pink sea salt and lime zest.
Under the Black - brownie stout brewed with lactose, vanilla bean, and cocoa nibs.
Reaver En Noir - sour ale aged in oak barrels with Pinot Noir grapes.
On the Account - oak-fermented sour red ale aged in Madeira barrels for 16 months.

Of course Pleeps is honing in on the dark beers.

The sours seemed to stand out here again, with the two barrel-aged beers and gose at the forefront. The smoked coffee porter was also nicely done. With that said, it's probably one of those breweries that I'll forget about in a year or so. That's not a bad thing; it's just reality, especially when you visit as many breweries as we do. But the place was cool and the presentation was thoughtful, so it was definitely worth a stop. But, off to the next brewery.

Next on the agenda was Young Veterans. As you might be inclined to guess, this place had an obvious military vibe, from the names of its beers down to the beer label artwork, decor, and web site design. As someone who works in marketing at a brewery, I always appreciate when a brewery ties everything together. Young Veterans seemed to "get it." (Although, what happens when the guys get a little older; do they change the name to Middle Aged Veterans?) All kidding aside, it was time to belly up to the bar and order some beer.

Enter another (shared) sampler flight, consisting of the following six beers:

Semper Fi.PA - single hop Citra IPA.
Jet Noise DIPA - brewed with lots of hops, apparently (couldn't find any additional details).
Private Plum - sour ale brewed with plums and hibiscus. Part of its new Pucker Factory series.
Tower Buzz - another Pucker Factory release; this one's a passionfruit sour ale.
MOPP4 - more Pucker Factory business... a sour IPA brewed with Falconer's Flight and El Dorado.
The Objector - yet even more Pucker Factory in the form of a sour IPA brewed with hibiscus.

Pleeps has taken flight!

It seems as though this brewery has found its niche brewing sours. I didn't really get to talk to anyone about their process, but I'll be the majority of these (if not all) were kettle soured. I didn't really have issue with any of the sours here. They were well-done and pretty tasty for the most part. I also dig the name of the sour series: Pucker Factory. Kudos on these beers. I'd like to see them begin a barrel-aging program if they haven't already.

The IPAs, however, were another story. Brewing sour ales on the same brewing system as other beers requires Anal Retentive Chef-like cleanliness and sanitation efforts, and I felt these two hoppy beers suffered from some kind of airborne bacteria or other souring agents. Semper Fi.PA and Jet Noise were not intended to be sour, but they definitely displayed characteristics of sour beers. With that said, based on the quality of the sour beers we sampled, I'd wager that these two IPAs would have tasted fine had they not been compromised by bacteria.

Inside Young Veterans' tasting room.

Brewslut and I are no strangers to Green Flash, our final stop of the day. I figure we'd end on a high note, given the reputation of this brewery and numerous past visits to both its San Diego facility as well as the experimental Cellar 3, just outside San Diego. I'd forgotten that Green Flash opened this East Coast brewing facility to accommodate growth in the Mid-Atlantic region. This seems to be a big trend lately with bigger West Coast breweries such as Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues, Stone, etc. all of which now have East Coast facilities. Hey, if it means fresher beer for us folks on this side of the mighty Mississippi, then I'm all for it!

Green Flash... buildin' a wall!

But back to Green Flash. Outside, the courtyard was brimming with visitors drinking beer and eating grub from the food truck we were also about to hit up. It was another unseasonably warm day for November, and although it was just a tad chilly, the nearby fire pits helped take the edge off. We sat outside for a bit after getting our first round, then headed inside after we'd eaten. I forget what we got, but it was good. That I remember!

Inside, the tasting room and merch shop echoed those of the Green Flash brewery HQ in San Diego. The board was rife with Green Flash classics, selections from its sister brewery, Alpine, and a few choice nuggets from both the Cellar 3 and Genius Lab small-batch series. After immensely enjoying Cellar 3 on our last two trips to San Diego, I was glad to see a few of these limited elixirs made their way to the east coast. We dipped our toes into the selection in typical fashion - with hops. Brewslut liked the Spanish Trampoline, an IPA brewed for National IPA day (Aug. 3). This one boasted a tropical flair with notes of passionfruit and mango in the nose. I dug into a pour of Hard Count IPA, a collaboration with Nick Hardwick. Do you know who that is? Me either. It was OK, but not what I'd call a resume builder.

Inside Green Flash's right coast digs.

After dabbling in hops for our first beers, we did a complete 180 and dove headfirst into the Cellar 3 tanks. Brewslut enjoyed her Ideal Sauvage, a Belgian-style dark ale aged in red wine barrels with Brettanomyces. Pretty tasty, I thought. However, once I put my glass of Sepia Frumento to my lips, I knew I'd made a sound decision. This cask-conditioned bourbon barrel-aged barleywine brewed with orange zest and cherry was everything I anticipated... and more! I feel sorry for beer lovers who simply can't get into the nuanced layers of a nicely executed barleywine. Sure, they're challenging to manage when planning an all-day drinking excursion. But... DD, baby! Kelly to the rescue. Not only was I able to savor this liquid gold, but I also decided it was in my best interest to order a pour of something I'd overlooked on the board the first two times around. This would be Cosmic Ristretto, a Baltic porter with espresso from the Genius Lab series. While not as mind-blowing as my previous beer, this was well worth the addition of a mere 8.2% ABV thrown on top of the 13.5% of the barleywine. Not gonna lie to you, but I was feeling pretty mellow after that one-two punch. While all of the beers were enjoyable, I could have bathed in the Sepia Frumento. Seems like barleywines won big time on this trip (thinking back to Gorgon, the amazing barleywine from Coelacanth as a top-tier beer as well). And with that, folks, we ended our trip on a high note.

However, there's always a fun postscript to the majority of our trips, which often comes with the car ride back to PA. I'd been wanting to visit Strangeways Brewing in Richmond for the last several years, which honed into my radar range back when Mike Hiller (proprietor and brewer of the now-defunct Bavarian Barbarian in Williamsport, PA) started brewing there. I was glad to see Mike continue on with brewing. To be honest, I never quite understood why BB never got much love. I know Bullfrog was right down the street and already had a decade under its belt, but this was several years before the recent craft boom where towns even smaller than Billtown can accommodate multiple breweries. I always thought that BB's marketing was amazing (for example, its labels resembled Soviet propaganda posters, while its tap handles were forearms gripping huge battle axes). I know, right? Awesome! Sadly, Mike closed the brewery's doors back in 2012 or thereabouts, and Bullfrog has since occupied the brewing space in an effort to expand its sour beer program.

But more on Strangeways in a bit. First, a slight detour.

When we were heading home on Monday through Richmond, I managed to guilt Brewslut into a quick visit to a local record store. When we parked the car, we noticed a Mellow Mushroom across the street. We'd been to a few locations before (it's a well-established chain largely found in VA and neighboring states to the south), and we knew they always featured a nice, well-curated craft beer selection with a focus on local breweries. So, we made an executive decision to stop in for lunch and a beer.

Musical montage at Mellow Mushroom (nice alliteration, eh?)

After reviewing the vast beer selection, I opted for a flight (a rarity for me at such an establishment). But with a great selection of local beers, my curiosity to try a few beers from unknown breweries prevailed. Here's the low-down on my flight:

• Zombie Killin' from Three Notch'd Brewing Company - supposed to be an imperial black IPA, but I got some sour ale instead. They had two Three Notch'd beers on tap, and I'm pretty sure the bartender poured me the wrong beer. The one I received wasn't very enjoyable. 
• Red Army from Trapezium Brewing Company - a red IPA
• Rum Pumpkin from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery - imperial pumpkin ale matured Caribbean dark rum barrels. This sucker was so God damned boozy!
• Mochaccino Shake from Kindred Spirit Brewing - golden ale brewed with lactose sugar, coffee and vanilla beans, and cacao nibs.

Unfortunately, nothing really jumped out at me in this flight. The most enjoyable one of the bunch was the Mochaccino Shake. The Red Army was non-descript, the Rum Pumpkin was way too hot, and the [INSERT BEER HERE] from Three Notch'd simply wasn't good. I should have just had a Victory and have been done with it. But I like trying new local breweries when we're traveling, so no harm, no foul. Food for thought: Our salads for lunch were killer, though. Anywho, onward and upward.

Finally got to Strangeways!

Since Strangeways was our only brewery visit of the day (well, there would be one other quick stop), we decided to split a huge sampler flight. There were close to 30 beers available on tap, and after all, it did take us a few years to get here. Who knew when we'd be back? So we decided to go big, then go home. Check out this flight of epic proportions:

• Palooza - NE IPA brewed with a pilsner/wheat malt base, loads of oats, Azacca, Cascade and Pacifica hops for notes of mango, passionfruit and pear
• It Gose... - notes of lemon, dewy grass, hay and coriander. 
• Wake Me Up Before You Gose - Gose with lacto, Brett, fleur de sel (French sea salt), coriander, and ginger 
• Überlin - tart Berliner Weisse featuring a dry, fruity funkiness thanks to wild Brett claussenii yeast fermentation
• Red Sangria - sour Berliner Weisse brewed to mimic sangria wine
• Turning Torso - farmhouse ale fermented with a variety of yeast and brett. Galaxy and Huell Melon hops lend a fruity, floral nose with a funky finish.
• Virginia Peanut Butter Cup - chocolate peanut butter stout
• Reindeer Fuel - coffee & vanilla imperial stout conditioned it on 10 pounds of Counter Culture coffee and rich bourbon-soaked Madagascar vanilla beans 
• Ape Armageddon  - Brandy barrel-aged imperial stout
• Thistle Killya Scotch Quad - Scotch Ale/Belgian Quad hybrid aged for a year in Macallan Scotch barrels
• Hop Howler - flagship IPA brewed with Citra, El Dorado, Jarrylo and Pacific Gem hops. I decided to add this after the fact because I really wanted to buy a shirt with this label. I tried it. I liked it. I made the purchase. 

All the dark beers are front and center... where they should be.

OK, that was a lot. And you know what? Not a bad beer in the lot! The Palooza was quite enjoyable, as were the various stouts, especially Reindeer Fuel and Virginia Peanut Butter Cup. The tart beers were also really well-done. To be honest, this place exceeded my expectations. Mike has definitely honed his skills over the years, and overall I was super impressed with Strangeways. 

Self portrait of me tasting beers at Strangeways.

The staff were extremely friendly and talkative, which we always appreciate. Mike was also kind enough to leave us a few bottles, one of which was unlabeled and the other was an imperial-something-or-other. I can't wait to dig into these with some friends. We, of course, reciprocated with a selection of Tröegs, which we always have in tow. Pleeps was obviously a big fan of this place, what with the monkey mascot and all. They became fast friends, and Pleeps is already asking if we can go back. We just might be back later in January... you never know!

Pleeps LOVES this place!

It's customary for us to end a trip at Pizza Boy when we travel homeward via I-81 N. This time was no different. I got to try a new version of Hazelton Native, a dank, hazy - dare I say NE-style - IPA, which was tasty. I also had to get a pour of the newest batch of Magic... Under Where?, originally brewed for my annual Ffej of July extravaganza. You can never go wrong with that beer. I mean, after all... it's a solid beer with a dumb name.

There you have it, folks. Another Drinksgiving in the bag. We've got lots of beer traveling to do in 2018, so stay tuned to your friendly neighborhood Pour Travelers blog to see where we're headed next. Until then...

When's the next trip?!