Speaking about the legislation, Governor McDonnell said, “This legislation positions Virginia’s craft brewers to grow and create more jobs in the Commonwealth. From Arlington to Abingdon, entrepreneurial Virginians are innovating and brewing critically acclaimed beers. The legislation signed today will make it easier for our breweries to serve as destinations for potential customers and allow some of our talented small-scale brewers to lease space from established brewers and overcome some of the significant start-up costs. I would like to thank Senator Jeff McWaters and Delegate Jennifer McClellan for their leadership as patrons in the House and Senate in passing these important bills. Growing Virginia’s craft breweries will grow Virginia manufacturing, agriculture and tourism jobs.”

New Virginia Craft Beer Logo at: 

“Virginia is for ^craft beer Lovers”

From Devil’s Backbone: “Of our core lineup of our year round craft brands, the Vienna Lager is one of our most popular beer styles and it was a silver medalist at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival. The Vienna Lager is a very approachable session beer in which both new and experienced craft beer lovers appreciate and enjoy its refreshing and pleasing taste.  This award at the World Beer Cup continues our endorsement, by our peers, as one of the most highly recognized craft breweries in the world. While we are happy with our achievements we owe our success to our highly talented staff and by no small measure the many supporters and fans of Devils Backbone over the last three years”, says owner Steve Crandall. “Thank you for supporting our vision”.

Blue Mountain Brewery’s Brewmaster Taylor Smack said “After receiving the Silver at the 2011 Great Ameican Beer Festival for this particular beer, it’s rewarding to see the judges consistently recognize Blue Reserve as one of the best.  It means even more that this medal came through stiff internatonal competition with 48 entries in the category, and that Blue Reserve is made with a high proportion of the hops we grow onsite at our brewery.”

 World Beer Cup winners were selected by an international panel of 218 beer judges from 29 countries. The competition—referred to as the “Olympics of Beer Competition”—saw an impressive field of nearly 4,000 entries from 828 breweries in 56 countries. The 2012 competition drew the largest, most international field of entrants in the history of the World Beer Cup.

Three other Virginia breweries took home medals in the competition.

Blue Mountain Brewery, Devils Backbone Brewing Company and Wild Wolf Brewing Company have collaborated together to craft a special honey pear wit beer, to be released during American Craft Beer Week in May.  The beer will be on tap at all three breweries as well as some Charlottesville restaurants, and is the third collaborative craft beer done by the breweries. Also see:  http://www.craftbeer.com/ pages/news-and-events/ american-craft-beer-week/ acbw-events   About the beer: It’s an Imperial Wit with local honey and pear.  It has nice fruity/spicy flavors produced by the yeast and spices with notes of honey and pear.  Nelson Sauvin hops were used, which gives the beer a ‘wine like’ character – paying homage to Nelson County, linking it to area wineries and adding to the whole collaboration theme. (7.2 abv; 25 ibu)

Among the breweries that earned Charlottesville a spot on the list are Starr Hill Brewery, South Street Brewery and Blue Mountain Brewery.  Starr Hill Brewery features a half a dozen seasonal and reserve beers and offer tastings on site. South Street Brewery is located in a former hay and grain warehouse and offers half a dozen seasonal and reserve beers  made on site  along with food and live music.  Blue Mountain Brewery, about 20 miles west of Charlottesville, in Afton, was opened by a former South Street brewer in 2007. Here, they craft about 20 draft beers annually and a few brews that are bottled.

Topping off the list of cities is Albuquerque, NM. That is followed by:

2) Burlington, VT
3) Akron, OH
4) Kalamazoo, MI
5) Missoula, MT
6) Lincoln, NE
7) Boise, ID
9) Louisville, KY
10) Chattanooga, TN

This special version of Wild Wolf’s Smoked Scottish Ale is a session beer and will be dry hopped with calypso and several other hops. Brewer Danny Wolf collaborated with the owners of Capital Ale House on the special brew. The new ale is named Three Legged Scotsman and will only be available at the five Capital Ale House locations and on premise at Wild Wolf – both in February. 

Danny Wolf draws a sample of the new ale prior to starting the dry hopping process. Photo by Tommy Stafford (Nelson County Life)

It’s been busy around here.  The Outpost production brewery is being installed and will be on-line shortly.  The Eight Point IPA and Vienna Lager are being scaled up for the new facility, and the original DB brew pub (Base Camp) is brewing a wide variety like always, and about to brew even a wider variety once the Outpost brewery goes on-line.  This winter will see the return of some old favorites as well as some new beers.  Double award winning “Danzig” Baltic Porter will return late November with it’s award winning coffee counterpart “Baltic Coffee” hitting the tap around Christmas.  “Kilt Flasher” Wee Heavy will return early December to help keep the chill off.  Several batches of “Kilt Flasher” will be brewed this year to satisfy demand.  The award winning Kollaborator Dopplebock will return in January and the ever popular & dangerous “Dead Bear” Imperial Stout will be unleashed in February.  Expect to see wood aged versions of the “Kilt Flasher” and “Dead Bear” late this winter.

Some of the new beers will be “Cru Noir”, a black Belgian inspired wit beer (oxymoron I know) that brewer Aaron Reilly designed.  It’s a light black colored wheat beer that’s lightly spiced with coriander, orange peel, and pink peppercorns.  ‘”Cru Noir” will be on tap early December.  Another new beer that will grace the taps is “Baracus”, a Bad Attitude Big Brown Ale!  This Imperial Brown Ale will be big, complex, and supper hoppy.  Expect to see “Baracus” in mid to late December, I pity the fool who doesn’t check it out.  We are experimenting with our first bacteria and the rare sour beer style of Berliner Weiss. Expect to see the first batch of this very light bodied tart beer in late November / early December.  As Berliner Weiss is ofter served with shot of raspberry or woodruff syrup, our kitchen staff are designing unique syrups to add to it if requested.  Expect to see some imaginative syrups like blood orange, lemon grass, and rosemary among others. DBBC will also be brewing it’s very first smoked lager this winter in the Bamburg Rauchbier style. 

Anyway, this is just a quick update, expect to see other new beers throughout the winter as well.  Great things are happening with DB. It’s going to be a busy winter season with the DB Outpost production brewery being fired up, but at least we have refreshments ready at hand.

From a Devils Backbone BLOG by dbmanager Tuesday, November 8, 2011 @ 21:58 PM