RVA Beer Explorer: Weekly Picks

GO DO THIS

COTU Oktoberfest – Center of the Universe, All weekend

This weekend Center of the Universe Brewing Company will be transformed into a German festhalle for a two-day Oktoberfest celebration. German music, German food, German beer, and plenty of fun awaits! It’s also the return of Das Bier Run, a 4×1 mile relay race complete with prizes.

Day 1: Friday, October 6th 4:00pm – 10:00pm

Friday October 6th, the taproom will be transformed into a traditional German festhalle! Grab a stein of COTU’s malty, refreshing Oktoberfest beer, throw on your lederhosen and dance the polka with the ACCA (Shrine) Temple Sauerkrauts German Band, who will be taking the biergarten stage from 4pm-9pm.

Day 2: Saturday, October 7th 12:00pm – 10:00pm

On Saturday, October 7th, the celebration continues with 2 different traditional German bands – the ACCA Sauerkrauts and the Low’n’Brows – who will be taking the biergarten stage for a day of nonstop German music, food and beer. Be sure to raise a glass to everyone participating in the 3rd annual Das Bier Run, put on by Happy Hour Races. There will be prizes awarded to the winners in 4 different categories, including best costume.

DAS BIER RUN
Das Bier run is a 4 x 1-mile beer, food, and oompa themed relay. The race features a fast and flat 1-mile loop course starting and ending at Center of the Universe Brewing Company. Each team member will run 1 One-Mile Loop for a total of 4 Miles for each team. The race will be chipped, and each member will be able to get their split times at the end of the race. Click here for online registration and details.

THE FOOD
LB Concessions will be serving up delicious German food both days of the festival. Their menu includes German Schnitzel Sandwiches, Bratwurst Subs, Curry Wurst, Bavarian Hamburgers, Doner Kebabs, Beer Battered Onion Rings, and Berliner Fries.

Barktoberfest returns to Strangeways Brewing to support Richmond Animal Care and Control this Saturday

Richmond Record Fair, VG Minus Volume 5 – Hardywood, Sunday

A ton of vinyl sellers combines with a ton of dj’s to provide music to buy and hear. The event is free, open, to all and The Dog Wagon will be providing the eats. The link in the title will give you the full list of vendors and dj’s.

Nate’s Bagels PopUp – Three Notch’d RVA Collab House, Sunday

If you haven’t had Nate’s Bagels you don’t know what you’re missing. These are what bagels are supposed to be. Don’t be a fool, get the everything bagel because it has everything. Finish off your weekend with a bagel beer brunch.

NEWS

Triple Crossing and The Veil Brewing Co. Best Double IPAS in the Country – Paste Magazine

Breweries submitted 176 of their Doubble and Imperial IPAs to Paste magazine for a bind taste test to determine who was the best of the best. Four Richmond beers made the list. The two by Triple Crossing came in at #2 and #4.

• #31. The Veil Brewing Co. –  IdonteverwanttoBU
• #15. The Veil Brewing Co. –  Weekend at Broznies
• #4. Triple Crossing – Ivory Tower
• #2. Triple Crossing – Interstellar Burst

Go to the article, linked in the title, for the reasoning behind their selections but I feel the need to highlight this comment on Ivory Tower:

Theory: Richmond, Virginia is secretly the best IPA city in the United States—and thus the world. Evidence: The Veil. Hardywood Park. The Answer Brewpub. And last, but certainly not least, Triple Crossing. These guys are Richmond’s secret weapon, and it’s not a new development—they’ve been a great brewery for quite a while, and one that hasn’t received the praise and national attention that was due to them.

New Ardent Hours

Legend Issues

Legend Brewing has had a few complaints about their beers in the six packs and issued the following statement on Facebook:

A message concerning our 12 oz. bottles:

As of September 26th, we became aware of a random quality issue possibly affecting as much as 1 in 30 bottles. Since September 26th, we have been reviewing lab results dating back to August. All lab results are clean, and there have been no issues with any draft beer. Therefore, we have concluded the issue to be directly related to our 12 oz. bottling line, in particular, the capper. We are working with the manufacturer to resolve this problem, and with our distributors to contain the product already in the market. This will not affect any future batches.

DRINK THIS

Cinnamon Streusel Hornswoggler – Veil Brewing Co.,Tuesday

October 3rd will be the debut of Cinnamon Streusel Hornswoggler! 🤤

For this Hornswoggler(our house 7% robust chocolate milk stout) variant, we conditioned the base Stout on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds of Cinnamon Streusel Crunch. What is Cinnamon Streusel Crunch you ask? You know those sugary, crunchy, cinnamon packed crumbles on top of a coffee cake? That’s what it is! 🤤 We also put a small amount of vanilla/cinnamon flavored coffee in there for good measure. It tastes like if you put a whole coffee cake and a ton of Hershey’s chocolate syrup into a blender. So tasty! 🤤 Shooting for 125-150x cases. $17.50+tax/4-pack. 3-6x 4-packs per person. *LIMITS SUBJECT TO CHANGE*

Altbier – Ardent, Thursday

Altbier is a traditional german pub ale made famous in Dusseldorf, Germany. Our brewer Chris learned about this beer at Zum Uerige, and he’s excited to bring the style to Ardent. Dark copper in color, our classic Altbier balances a malty base and clean hop finish, featuring all German malt and hops in an easy-drinking beer that’s perfect for any occasion.

5% ABV
35 IBU

Calypso Double IPA – Final Gravity, Friday

Enjoy the aromas of crisp tropical fruit and the flavors of passionfruit and citrus as Calypso and Galaxy hops come together in Final Gravity’s newest 8% DIPA. Crowlers available.

Run The Gauntlet Pale Ale Series Challenge #6 – Castleberg Brewing, Friday

6th in a series of 12 Pale Ales that are single malt, single hopped. This one is brewed with Falconer’s Flight Hops, which is actually a blend of Citra, Simcoe and Sorachi Ace Hops. Named after a homebrewer from Oregon, Glen Hay Falconer, this blend was created to support his non-profit organization. The flavor is full of citrus, grapefruit, fruity and spicy, with earthy aromas.

BEERSTAGRAM