Best beer in Virginia?

My brother and family are coming to visit us in Indiana in a month or so. I would like him to bring me something I cannot get here. What do you suggest for a great Virginia beer?
Thanks!

Depends on where he is at in Virginia. I think o'connors great dismal swamp is really tasty. I also enjoy devils backbone eight point ipa. Some good beer in va now a days. The northern va people might have more suggestions for you.

I would definitely put these ones on the list:

Williamsburg AleWerks
Legend Brewing Co.
St. George Brewing Company
Starr Hill

As Vellum mentioned O'Connor is a Norfolk brewery, and you could also try getting Beach Brewing Co. which is local to VA Beach. I don't know how widely spread those ones are, but I know the other ones I listed get pretty good distribution in VA. If I had to pick one, I'd go with Williamsburg AleWerks because they have some really good beers. Legend is also really good.

Hardywood Brewery
Center of the Universe

Right now with my friends the biggest deal in beer is Devils Backbone Vienna Lager. Mighty tasty. I also enjoy Hardywood Single along with O'Connors Dismal Swamp.

Blue Mountain Brewery out of Afton, VA has one of the best tasting APA's I've ever had. The cool thing about it is it is hopped with Cascade hops they grow right in the backyard of the brewery!


Other good ones to write home about would be Dominion Oak Barrel Stout


and Star Hill's Northern Lights IPA.

I'll just list some breweries and my favorite beer there. Some are distributed on a wider geographical region than others. Your beer tastes most likely vary from mine but each brewery should have something to take care of you.
Hardywood - single, and Irish stout
Williamsburg aleworks - George Washington porter
O'cinnors - great dismal swamp (cascadian dark ale)
Beach brewing - hoptopus (double ipa)
Devil's backbone - all (I have never had a bad beer here) my favorite is the belgo Congo ipa though (it is a seasonal)
St. George - English ipa
Smartmouth brewing - hardy porter
Legend - I usually pass on their beer (not sure why) but I enjoy their brown ale
Starhill - the gift (winter seasonal) wonderful helles bock

That is my list for VA. I haven't been to them all and I didn't really get into the good beer they make near DC. I live down in Norfolk but travel to Charlottesville often so I get to hit the breweries on the way. My next planned stop is center of the world. Also Charlottesville has some good small breweries (Growler fill only). I'm sure I left some out but others will chime in to fill I'm the gaps. Others might have favorites more along your tastes too in case mine are far left field in comparison. Cheers and happy drinking!

I'll go ahead and repeat Williamsburg alewerks drakes tail IPA is great. Also legend brown ale is mighty tasty..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/charlottesville-breweries-390301/


Here's a few that you may find helpful.

Jayhem said:

Other good ones to write home about would be Dominion Oak Barrel Stout

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Dominion is brewed in Deleware, not Virginia and ABInBev has a significant minority ownership and exclusive distribution.

As far as "package" breweries, Northern virginia only has Port City and Lost Rhino. Lost Rhino is currently bomber only and very limited distribution leaving Port City as your only real option unless you're visiting the actual breweries. (This is excluding brewpubs) The Port City Optimal Wit is a very decent wheat beer. I really like a lot of Lost Rhino, but it's hard to get outside of going to the actual brewery.

Only other Virginia brewery I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet is St. Georges. Of all of them, Williamsburg Alewerks might be the most impressive.

Teromous said:

I would definitely put these ones on the list:

Williamsburg AleWerks
Legend Brewing Co.
St. George Brewing Company
Starr Hill

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If you are around Charlottesville, skip Starr Hill, its widely considered the worst brewery in the area by the locals. Blue Mountain Brewery and Devils Backbone are far superior in beer taste as well as brewery experience. (Starr hill=warehouse)

Barnesie said:

Dominion is brewed in Deleware, not Virginia and ABInBev has a significant minority ownership and exclusive distribution.

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Up until a few years ago it was brewed in Loudoun County, Virginia.

I have not tried it since it moved to DE but I'm sure they still use the same recipe as it was a well loved beer in northern VA...what a shame it was my favorite VA stout.

I just tried Williamsburg Alewerks Coffeehouse Stout recently, I'd suggest it's a very decent candidate to be your new favorite VA stout:

http://williamsburgalewerks.com/Beers-Ales/williamsburg-alewerks-coffeehouse-stout-ale-winter.aspx

Edit: it is seasonal however, neglected to add that.

It is, of course, a shame that Old Dominion sold out but Jerry wasn't getting any younger (Old Dominion was his second career) and the commute down to Ashburn from Md every day must have been a big PITA for him. Anyway, that was great stout esp. when he added that touch of liquorice. Don't know if Fordham still uses that. In such cases it is usually the brand that is being bought, not necessarily the recipe.

atomicskiracer said:

If you are around Charlottesville, skip Starr Hill, its widely considered the worst brewery in the area by the locals. Blue Mountain Brewery and Devils Backbone are far superior in beer taste as well as brewery experience. (Starr hill=warehouse)

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I generally agree with this other than the fact that Starr Hill is the second oldest brewery in the area next to South Street, they have plenty of brewery experience. I mean, yes, Jason and Taylor probably have more combined experience than Mark but SH is one of the pioneers of craft beer in the area. When they got big, the quality of most of their main line dropped but I think the Dark Starr Stout is a fine beer as is the Platinum Double IPA. That being said, they were very good the last time I had them which has been a couple years. I don't know if they have changed the recipe on those or not.

Blue Mountain is my favorite around here and the Full Nelson is the go-to beer with them. If you like stouts, their Dark Hollow bourbon barrel stout is fantastic and probably their best beer overall. I just had a Steel Wheels ESB the other day at the brewery and it was mighty tasty. Both of those are packaged in 750ml bottles. Oh, and the Mandolin is a very fine belgian style tripel, also packaged in 750s. Their Evil 8* is another belgian style that's great and I believe they can that one, it's a dubbel. They also have a very interesting barrel-aged belgo-american beer called Local Species that I wouldn't have thought would have been good but is really a fantastic beer. They also bottle that one, again in 750ml bottles.

I would beware of the packaged stuff from Devil's Backbone. I really like their 8 point IPA when I have it on tap but I bought a 6 pack once and it was friggin' disgusting. I dumped it, it was so bad. This was fairly soon after they opened their production brewery so maybe it was a growing pain but I know that I'm not going to buy their stuff in the bottle again.

I like Starr Hill and it's more readily available. If I recall correctly, Old Dominion left Virginia and Lost Rhino took their space in Ashburn. I like Lost Rhino, but they are local to me and I occasionally swing by for a Growler fill. Other than that, they have Bombers, but I don't think they have much of a distribution chain.

abandonhope16 said:

I like Starr Hill and it's more readily available. If I recall correctly, Old Dominion left Virginia and Lost Rhino took their space in Ashburn. I like Lost Rhino, but they are local to me and I occasionally swing by for a Growler fill. Other than that, they have Bombers, but I don't think they have much of a distribution chain.

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If it's brewed commercially in VA...it's available at VA Total Wine stores!

abandonhope16 said:

I like Starr Hill and it's more readily available. If I recall correctly, Old Dominion left Virginia and Lost Rhino took their space in Ashburn. I like Lost Rhino, but they are local to me and I occasionally swing by for a Growler fill. Other than that, they have Bombers, but I don't think they have much of a distribution chain.

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Actually they are across the street but close enough.

As has been said, the Charlottesville area alone has six breweries:
Starr Hill
Blue Mountain
Wild Wolf
Devils backbone
South Street
Champion

Starr Hill is pretty awful. I worked there for quite some time but will only drink there double IPA. But all there other beers are crap, IMO. Especially northern lights and dark star.

Blue mountain is a great brewery to visit. They grow there own hops, make great pizza and have a great set up outside with a wonderful view of the mountains. There APA is quite tasty but I have never been impressed with much of their other brews except the local species, a barrel aged belgian.

Wild wolf is pretty knew but they have a really great brewery site with a hot sauce bar, playground for the kids, separate buildings for the bar/restaurant and brewery with a few little shops on premises including a home brew shop. Their honey blonde is on tap everywhere and is pretty good; my favorite from them. I was disappointed with their DIPA but their APA is decent. They also make their own root beer.

Devils backbone is probably the biggest out of all of them and has won a bunch of awards. Personally I don't really like there Vienna but people seem to rave about it. They did a special release of a double IPA called 16 point (their pale is called 8 point). The DIPA was awesome but disappeared very quickly.

South street has been around for a long time and are still holding it true with what is basically a brewpub. Unfortunately I haven't had too much of their stuff but they did do a braggot last summer that was really good. Almost in mead territory yet pretty hoppy.

Champion only opened about three months ago but already have quite the following in the area. Everything I have had from them has been good; especially their Berliner Weiss and porter. still need to try their RIS and DIPA. They do alooot of collaborations with virginia breweries which is good for all involved.

Outside of Charlottesville, Legand and Breckenridge are solid breweries. Legend does a barley wine that is out of this world. Had the 2010 release straight from the fermentor; blew my mind away.

Hope this helps.

If your family hasn't come to visit yet you should have them grab some Port City as well. As others have said Devil's Backbone makes some amazing beer! These are two of my favorite breweries in VA.