As I mentioned here, a great benefit of an out-of-state vacation is the opportunity to find some beers you just can’t get back home. That’s especially true when your trip takes you back near a place like the Vintage Cellar. Here’s a short rundown of a few of the beers I had a chance to try while enjoying my vacation back to the New River Valley of Virginia.
Right off the bat I spotted a couple bottles of Weyerbacher Brewing’s Old Heathen Imperial Stout hanging out in the spare fridge of the folks’ house. If memory serves it was left over from a six pack I’d picked up on a previous trip a year prior. A year in the fridge? Yep. Did not seem to phase this 8% abv deliciously decadent imperial stout. It is very dark brown to black with a tan head with aromas of dark chocolate. Flavor is slightly sweet with a mixture of dark chocolate, a bit of roasted malt and even a hint of smoke. It is smooth and medium to full bodied.
A lunch with friends took us to Bull and Bones Brewhaus and Grille on south main street in Blacksburg, VA, a year old brew pub with a nice selection of hand crafted brews. Blacksburg is home to Virginia Tech, my alma mater, and Bull and Bones brews up a brown ale called, paradoxically, Maroon Effect, named after one of the university colors. They’ve played with the malts a bit to give the beer a slight maroon color. There’s a slight nuttiness to the beer with classic brown ale undertones. There’s more sweet malt in the finish than many brown ales, but that suits me just fine. I rather enjoyed it.
On tap at Oddfella’s Cantina in Floyd, VA, I had a pint of Oatmeal Porter from Highland Brewing in Asheville, NC. The color was very black with a thick tan head. It was a robust style porter with lots of roasted malt flavor. A bit of bitterness comes through in the second half of the flavor profile. It was smooth with a full mouth feel and some coffee and toffee flavors. I found it to be very good, although I did not get any of the creaminess usually associated with adding oatmeal to a porter or stout.
An afternoon with a few relatives took us to the River Company Restaurant and Brewery outside Radford, VA. I grabbed a Southwest V IPA which paired well with the warm evening. It was light gold with a good white head and floral hop aroma. This crystal-clear beer had the prominent hop flavor and bitterness you’d expect for an IPA, though the Chinook and Amarillo hops certainly create a different flavor profile. It has a crisp aftertaste and moderate bitterness in the finish. The IPA was good, but the River Company really shined with their Dumpster Dog Porter. Named after the brewer’s late dog who was rescued from a dumpster, this is a robust porter that pours very black with an off white head. There is a coffee and roasted malt aroma. It is smooth with a touch of creaminess, though the moderately high roasted malt flavors dominate.
I’ve got a few more vacation brews to post later including two from one of my favorite breweries, Troegs.
