"Give me breweries or give me death!" or Richmond, VA: Part II - The Conclusion

Welcome back to our episode, which is already in progress. Let's continue where we left off... in Richmond, VA, of course! With a penchant for creativity and a strong desire to explore, Garden Grove (our next stop after Three Notch'd) focuses on brewing small-batch beers with unusual ingredients, many of which are local, organic, and even foraged for by the brewery. They also have a pretty extensive barrel-aging program for a small brewery, and utilize French and American oak wine barrels exclusively (sorry, no bourbon or rye whiskey barrels, folks).

With that said, I opted for perhaps the most intriguing beer on the list, the aptly named Native Ale. This wine barrel-aged Belgian-style ale features organic malt, wildflower honey, and foraged spicebush leaves and lemon verbena grown by Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens of Richmond. Sweet with a hint of mild oak and white grape, this beer finished with a floral bouquet and a hint of spicy Belgian yeast.

Aside from that particular beer, I'm struggling to remember anything specific about Garden Grove, unfortunately. Perhaps a quick Google image search will help shake up the beans in my noggin.

Break for station identification. You're reading The Pour Travelers blog, a blog about the craft beer travels of Ffej, Brewslut and their simian drinking companion, Pleeleus (or Pleeps for short). 

OK we're back. Oh yeah, that place.

The colors...

Sometimes my mind gets a bit fuzzy round about midday when we're hitting a different brewery every two hours or so. Hey, it happens to the best of us. Following the enjoyable Native Ale, we shared a pour of The Empress, a robust porter infused with cold brew Café Femenino Colombian organic coffee. A collaboration with Bright Spot Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster based in Richmond, this beer is medium bodied with a dominant coffee aroma and a touch of roasty bitterness in the finish. I like my coffee porters to have a bit more oomph to them, but this one was pretty solid overall.

Impressed with what we tried initially, we decided to share one last beer. Enter Mammoth, a classic West Coast IPA loaded with Simcoe hops for a wash of mango and creamsicle and a moderate bitter finish. This one was quite enjoyable as well, especially amid the sea of haze we'd been experiencing. Simcoe is a pretty diverse hop. Sometimes it can come across as quite fruity; other times, you get an almost peppery, spicy pine-like flavor. Gotta love Simcoe for its chameleon-like range of flavors.

One of our favorite pastimes is identifying brewery stickers.

And with that, it was off to the next stop. Surprisingly, Triple Crossing was lightly attended when we arrived. Apparently, we were both craving hops this time, because we each ordered IPAs. I'd heard a few positive rumblings from folks adjacent to my beer circle, so the brewery was on my short-term radar. Aside from The Answer and The Veil, it was the brewery I was most looking forward to checking out on this little excursion. My bronze medalist, if you will.

Curious about the name, I checked out Triple Crossing's web site only to come up empty handed with details pertaining to the impetus of its namesake. So I took to old reliable Google and found the following:

Triple Crossing in Richmond, Virginia is believed to be the only place in North America where three Class I railroads cross at different levels at the same spot.

And suddenly it all made sense. Let's get that up on your "About Us" page, eh?

Who here likes trains?!

With hops on our minds, we decided to go with a pair of IPAs. Firsts up was Dawn Chorus, a DIPA hopped with Citra, Galaxy and Vic Secret for tons of bright pineapple and peach. This one had a soft, supple mouthfeel and virtually no bitterness despite its juicy, hop-forward flavor. Meanwhile, Brewslut was working  on a glass of Mosaic Triangles, a soft, full-bodied IPA hopped assertively with (as the name implies) Mosaic featuring low alcohol and bitterness. Mosaic hops lend a juicy flavor that comes across as part citrusy, part tropical fruit, and part summer melon. Both of these beers were quite enjoyable. And so it goes with my love/hate relationship with hazy IPAs.

We also needed a snack, so we split a small pizza, which hit the spot and added a bit of fuel in the tank to get us through to dinner. These two beers certainly good enough to coax us into staying for a second round, but for whatever reason we decided to move along to the next place.

Pleeps enjoying my Kool-Aid.

It was already pretty dark outside by the time we rolled into Champion, which was supposed to be our final stop of the day. Inside, the space reminded me of an old theater with a very high ceiling and open floor plan. There was a large stage to the back of the room, and they were projecting Scream 3 onto the wall above the stage; after all, it was Halloween season. Perhaps that's why it reminded me of a theater. Brewslut grabbed a table near the stage and I got in line for beer. I decided on a sampler flight of the following four beers:

• The Pils are Alive with Citra - rotating series of dry-hopped pilsners to showcase specific hops. Each batch features the same base beer; only the hop profile changes. This one featured a crisp pilsner backbone with a wash of citrus fruit. 
• Missile IPA - IPA dry-hopped with Cascade, Simcoe, and Summit with firm bitterness and intense citrusy aroma. 
• Amarillo by Morning - big juicy DIPA bittered with Apollo hops and dry-hopped with Summit and Amarillo for a dank, heady nose.
• Five Armies - white wine barrel-aged golden sour ale.

The beers all seemed good enough albeit not overly memorable, with the Amarillo by Morning taking the cake as far as my preference goes. But let's backtrack a bit. While I was waiting for our beers, I noticed a group of patrons off to the side debating on what beer to order. As they uttered a series of ridiculous questions, I came to the obvious conclusion that these people clearly didn't know anything about beer. I chuckled to myself and reveled in the moment of yet another clueless group of people attempting to find something that essentially tasted like macro-produced light beer. One of the younger women (who was apparently dressed in a soccer uniform), was the biggest culprit. Clearly the bartender was annoyed as well, but you know what they say: "the customer is always right." Brewslut happened to find a table directly behind these people, and I politely called out to her something like the following: "Are we sitting over there?" The clueless soccer girl tersely replied, "Um, no!" Of course, I had just the right amount of beer in my system to not let her off the hook so easily. I replied, "Actually, I was talking to my wife, but let me know if you need help picking out a beer, because clearly you don't know what you're doing." I was, of course, met with no response. Sometimes it's little victories like these that make me most proud. Brewslut probably just would have punched her in the solar plexus.

In case you forgot where we were...

Anyway, let's get back to the beer. While we were working on our sampler flight, the bartender (coincidentally a young twenty-something female) came over to our table with a complimentary pour of Black Me Stout. She then added, "I loved the way you handled that girl in line. I have to deal with people like her all the time but can't say anything because I work here." Needless to say, this was gratifying to hear and it kind of made my night, to be honest.

As for the beer, this one was brewed for a Florida-based band called Against Me!. Not being familiar with them, I checked out their web site. Based on photographs of the band, they appeared to be some hybrid of punk and metal, although Wiki calls them an American punk band, so I probably wouldn't like them. (Editor's note: I watched the video for the song that shares its namesake with the beer. Not my thing. It's music for depressed 15-year-old girls trying to find their identity.) The beer wasn't bad; perhaps a bit too thin and one dimensional for the style (kind of like punk rock, I guess). Looks like the name of the beer was inspired by the band's song "Black Me Out" from its 2014 album Transgender Dysphoria Blues. A punk musician dissatisfied with life? Maybe they should actually learn how to play their instruments. Just sayin'. However, the title of their 2002 debut album is pretty amusing: Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose. Poor Axl. Not really. Of course, I'd rather listen to GNR any day of the week over any punk band. Plus I'll always take the opportunity to diss punk rock when I can (although there are a few bands I appreciate, such as Ramones).

Pleeps is a champion!

After our quick visit to Champion, we decided we still had one more in us, so we headed back to The Answer for a second round. Following an enjoyable romp through a variety of primarily dark beers during our previous visit, we decided to try a few of its hoppy offerings this time. First on the agenda was something called So Close I Can Almost Smell Them. The beer - with its lengthy Tired Hands-esque moniker - turned out to be a pungent, fruity double dry-hopped DIPA with Columbus, El Dorado, and Galaxy. Brewslut was also feeling like hops and ordered I Know Dats Ripe, a DIPA overflowing with ripe tropical fruit aromas (hence the name). Simcoe and Mosaic comprise the kettle hops, and further heavy dry-hopping with Mosaic imparts a huge tropical nose. Ripe indeed!

We couldn't leave without trying one of The Answer's signature "Frozan" slushee concoctions. After perusing the beer list, we determined that the Frozan Hurricane sounded most interesting (and delicious) so that's what we ordered. This was basically a slushee version of the Hurricane beer we'd had the previous night featuring blood orange, passionfruit, and rum-soaked cherries. Don't you kids go trying to make these at home! While I appreciate the uniqueness of these beers, they are definitely more of a "try it once" kind of thing for me. I mean, I can't stand when someone serves me beer in a frosted mug, so I don't really feel much of a kinship to a beer Slush Puppy. Maybe if I was at Knoebel's on a hot day. Otherwise, I'll stick to the non-frozen beer. Plus I won't get brain freeze.

We finished up our second visit with a recent addition to the tap list since the previous night. Instead of big or go home, we decided to go big and then go home. I mean, where else can you go from this beer? The beer I'm talking about is Double Barrel King Kahuna, a massive 14.5% imperial stout aged in Laird's apple brandy and bourbon barrels with Kona coffee, hazelnut, macadamia nuts, and toasted coconut. Jesus! That's a lot of ingredients. For me, the stouts here are the must-try beers, although everything was delicious and well-executed.

Beer aside, the food here is pretty bangin' too. The menu is Asian-inspired, with a variety of Vietnamese pho dishes and banh mi sandwiches as well as dumplings, sliders, salads, and more. Oh yeah, and the best freakin' ice cream sandwiches ever... and I mean EVER, like of all time in the history of ice cream. The fat kid in me was in frozen dessert heaven with these delectable treats from Richmond-based Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches. The first night we were there, I inquired about them and heard they were delicious. I ordered Fat Elvis, which is made with banana ice cream and soft peanut butter cookies, then dipped in chocolate. My head was spinning! The following night, I tried one made with The Answer's own raspberry "frozan" beer, which was also as good but not quite as mind-blowing as Fat Elvis. Seriously, these were amazing! And with that, we'd discovered our favorite brewery in Richmond.

The next morning after breakfast, we programmed the GPS for Manassas, VA, which is about 100 miles north of Richmond. We got a slightly late start, but we still arrived at our first stop of the day, Heritage, at a decent time. We chose Manassas because there were two breweries in close proximity, and it allowed us to get almost two hours of travel in before we had our first beer.

Exterior of Heritage Brewing Co. in Manassas, VA.

Founded in 2013, Heritage joins the ranks of quite a few veteran-owned breweries we visited over the last several years. The two owners also happen to be brothers. The brewery offers four flagship beers as well as limited and seasonal releases (under the "Lincoln's Hat" series). It appears they also have a pretty robust barrel-aging program based on the number of wood-aged beers on its website. Overall, the place was bigger than I had anticipated. Looks like they even distribute to a few other neighboring states (MD and SC, for example).

Like so many other breweries we've visited over the years, Heritage is also situated in an industrial park amid rows of warehouses. Not the best for foot traffic, but the brewery itself boasts a pretty large production space. Unfortunately, the tap list was pretty scant during our visit. Several beers were kicked (despite the fact that we were the only two visitors all day, and they'd already been open for about an hour and a half). We opted for pints of two of its flagship beers: Freedom Isn't Free and Force Multiplier.

You can't have freedom for free... but Pleeps can!

Both beers were solid, no-frills offerings that would fit nicely in any brewery's year-round line-up. Freedom Isn't Free, an American IPA brewed with Cascade, Centennial, Citra and Simcoe, offers notes of wildflowers and citrus fruit backed by a crisp malt character. Not bad at all. Force Multiplier, a DIPA, is named after an old military saying whereby if you provide troops with something to increase their effectiveness, it's known as a Force Multiplier. Kind of an apt name for a DIPA produced by a veteran-owned brewery, I'd say. This one had more of a West Coast vibe with a good bit of pine resin and citrus rind. I preferred the house IPA a bit more, but both were pretty solid beers overall. We were there for about an hour, but no other customers set foot into the tasting room while we were there. Perhaps folks in Manassas aren't in the mood for beer on Sunday afternoons.

Inside Heritage Brewing Co.

Just down the road in a small shopping plaza is BadWolf, a small-batch craft brewery serving up unfiltered, unpasteurized beers. The brewery was founded in 2012 by a married couple who grew up in northern Virginia, and opened its doors in June 2013. The tiny tasting room featured six house beers including not one but two grisettes as well as a variety of other styles. I opted for Tepache, a golden sour ale inspired by a traditional Mexican fermented drink featuring pineapple, ginger and habanero peppers. I usually stray from ordering a full pour of something with peppers hotter than jalapenos, but this one just sounded really tasty. Turns out it was! Brewslut went with a NE-style IPA called The Juice, which didn't jive with me at all. It just had some kind of funky yeast I'm not used to, I guess. I had one sip and that was enough for me.

Beer selection at BadWolf Brewing Co. during our visit.

While we were at BadWolf, we enjoyed talking to two locals and muggers, Dene and Angie, about beer, or travels and the yada yada. They were familiar with Troegs but hadn't made it to the brewery yet, so I gave them a couple bottles of our latest Scratch Fest Lager, which they appreciated. (If you guys are reading this: "Hi!")

We were really looking forward to getting back to Vanish. You may recall that they made my Top 10 New Breweries Visited in 2017 list. When we arrived, the parking lot seemed pretty full, so I was certain they were going to be busy. That's an understatement. Turns out they were having some kind of community event for a charity organization involving dogs. Fine with me, as we absolutely love dogs. However, with dogs come families, and with families, well... you know where this is going.

As we walked up to the main entrance, we decided it was too windy and chilly to sit outside. I noticed they'd just released a brand new Milkshake IPA called Frostnite that sounded tasty. Once we entered the main tasting room, my suspicions were verified. They were, indeed, packed (or Pi-DACKED as Brewslut would say). Surprisingly, the line for beer was pretty non-existent, so we were able to get served quickly. As a result of the massive crowd of people, they were serving beers in plastic cups. Somewhat bummed, I turned around to see if we could spot somewhere to sit and enjoy our beers. No sooner did we begin walking when some untethered little miscreant ran into me at knee level and almost spilled my beer. Agitated, I looked around only to notice assorted tot-sized mongrels, many donning face painting of some sort running rampant throughout the tasting room. It was then that I realized why the beer line was short: 50% of the people there were children. We made our way through a sea of strollers and diaper bags to the back of the room where the food service stations were located. I really wanted to try the pulled chicken, as I've heard their BBQ is pretty legit. Sadly, they were sold out. Nothing else fit into our diet and we didn't feel like having a cheese pizza, so we retreated to the opposite side of the room and kept our distance from the wave of toddlers stomping about. There was a guy playing acoustic guitar who sounded pretty good (he played some Tom Petty), but we basically decided to finish our beers and head to nearby Frederick to visit Attaboy, a recent favorite of ours (and honorable mention on the aforementioned "Best of 2017" list). Last time we visited, they were hosting an awesome food truck that had amazing veggie burgers. A quick perusal of their Facebook page confirmed that, in fact, the very same food truck - Boxcar Burgers - would be there until 7 p.m. Dinner problem solved... and yet another audible called!

Behind the bar at Vanish.

But back to the beer. Both my Frostnite and Brewslut's Cabernet Stout were kind of underwhelming; not necessarily from a flavor perspective but in general. Both beers were served quite cold and were borderline flat. The Frostnite did have a pleasant orange and vanilla creamsicle flavor, but it simply didn't suck me in like the last time we visited. As for the Cab Stout, wine barrel-aged stouts are generally hit or miss for me, and while I did detect a nice woodiness and dark fruit character, the lifeless body and somewhat thin mouthfeel did little to enhance our experience. We noticed a Cherry Lime Gose on the board (which I'm surprised Brewslut didn't initially order), which was also available in pre-filled crowlers to go, so we ordered a sample pour to see if we should get one to take home. It didn't really wow us, so we passed.

By this time hunger was calling, so we bowed out of Vanish earlier than expected to head to Attaboy for what would be our final brewery of the weekend. But first thing's first: food! As soon as we arrived, we ordered two black bean burgers with some tasty fixins and a large size of fries to share. We mentioned that we really enjoyed the burgers last time we visited, and she was happy to hear we were return customers. Our food came up quickly, but unfortunately she forgot to ring in the fries. However, she was kind enough to comp an order for us, which was unnecessary but nevertheless much appreciated. 

Our view from the bar at Attaboy.

We started off with a regular pour and decided on a flight of three samples later. First up was Tarts McGee Peach, a low ABV "tart ale" brewed with peach and apricot. Think slightly tart with hints of dried apricots and hard peach candy. This beer was nice and refreshing, and I couldn't help but think of Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone exchanging insults while I sipped on this tasty beer. Brewslut went with Darlin Clementine, a hazy pale ale with notes of orange juice and pine. She enjoyed it quite a bit. I had a few nips and it was, indeed, tasty. However, I was in the zone with my pour of Tarts McGee, and I unfortunately bogarted most of it.  

Attaboy, Pleeps!

We decided to end with a flight since there were a few remaining beers that we wanted to try. The one to pique my interest was something called Lunch Break, referred to on the beer board as a "patersbier." Weighing in at only 4.8% ABV, its flavor notes suggested a dry, biscuity flavor with hints of cherry. I must admit I'd never heard of the "patersbier" style before. Upon investigating its origins, I found its name is Dutch for "father's beer" and it's a light ale that sometimes is referred to as "lawnmower beer for Trappist monks." (Funny, because I'm pretty sure monks don't cut the grass... although I wonder if the gardener also has to take a vow of silence.) To perpetuate the Dutch references, the beer style is sometimes known as "enkel," which translates to “single” in Dutch. Most beer drinkers know their dubbels and tripels, but singles, I find, are few and far between. Most breweries refer to a light Belgian ale as a "Belgian blonde" or "golden ale." The style is thought to have first emerged when brewing monks performed additional sparges of mash to extract leftover sugars. The monks then used this to create a low ABV, sessionable beer (aka "lawnmower beer"). Interesting story. Sadly, I wasn't too jazzed about the beer.

The second beer in our flight, however, was probably the best beer we had all day. Guava No Guava is a New England IPA (I know, I know!) with juicy notes of citrus fruit and (duh) guava. A tropical fruit popular in Mexico and Central America, the guava is rarely used as an ingredient in brewing. Occasionally, I'll come across a beer brewed with guava. I'm not sure why it isn't more prominently featured in beers (especially IPAs and sours) because this beer was pretty damn delicious! With a flavor ranging from sweet and juicy to slightly tart, it is a versatile fruit that displays a big smack of tropical fruit punch-like flavor.

The third and final beer of the flight was a NE-style DIPA called Juicemaster 5000, which kind of sounds like some type of industrial strength smoothie blender. I had to chuckle at the flavor notes for this one: "Tangerine, Papaya, Mayhem." I've tasted mayhem before, and sadly it didn't taste as good as this. With that said, I felt Guava No Guava was far superior to this DIPA. This one was indeed fairly heavy on the tropical fruit, but it just didn't have the same gusto as GNG.

We debated making one final stop of the day, but ultimately we decided to head home, unpack, and chillax on the couch with some good old fashioned TV. Besides, we've got the 10th anniversary of our Drinksgiving trip coming up, so there's plenty more to come from the Pour Travelers in 2018. Unil next time...