Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our 5th
wedding anniversary. Since we both
possess an affinity for beer, the weekend was destined to feature its fair
share of fancy and delicious brews. The
plan was to head west into the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains to stay at a
friend’s cabin, take in the fall colors, and flat out relax. Our road was going to take us through one of
the pockets of breweries around the Charlottesville area, so we decided to stop
for lunch at Blue Mountain Brewery. With
a huge patio, lovely view, and respectable food and beer offerings, this was a
great start to the weekend.
The patio was a bit crowded when we arrived, in part due to
the perfect weather no doubt, so we grabbed a beer inside at the bar to start
out. I opted for a Wallonia saison,
which was refreshing and complex, perfect for a sunny fall day. We got our table, ordered our food, and I
grabbed an Original Nitro Porter to nurse while we waited for lunch. All in all it was a lovely experience. They were perhaps a bit understaffed, but we
were in no hurry, so the wait times weren’t too big of a deal. It being a special occasion, I also grabbed a
bottle of their Dark Hollow Bourbon Stout aged on chocolate and coffee to go.
We arrived at the cabin with plenty of time to unload the
car and enjoy the setting sun. As we
sorted through all of the food and drink we had brought, I realized we were
more than set beer-wise for the weekend.
The lineup included 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA,
Victory V Twelve that I had been saving for a while, Stone Collective
Distortion IPA, the Dark Hollow I picked up at the brewery, and a six pack of
Foothills Hoppyum that my parents had sent up.
Oh snap. Into the fridge with all
of them!
One of the beer-related highlights was drinking a couple of
Brew Free or Die IPAs on top of a mountain during our hike. There are many reasons canned craft beer is
awesome, but this is one of the big ones for me. Who wants to lug bottles clinking together
anywhere? Especially after they’re
empty! Despite some lingering protest in
the community, I think the stigma of beer in a can is steadily fading. Certainly nothing wrong with bottles, but
there is a certain freedom with a can and I for one am glad more and more craft
breweries are moving in that direction.
At any rate, I didn’t have a single subpar beer all
weekend. Talk about spoiled. Since the drive back home promised to be so
long and daunting, we had agreed to break it up with one more quick brewery
stop. Our road took us straight up I-81,
and thus right through Salem, VA, home of Parkway Brewing Co. Once we got to the highway and cell service,
I plugged the brewery in and we were on our way. A couple hours later, we’re driving through a
Salem neighborhood and I wondered for the first time whether the brewery would
be open. Sure enough, we pull up to an
intersection, see the brewery and its empty parking lot, and Google confirms
they’re closed on Sundays. Sad face.
As I sulked back to the highway, Colby hopped right on the
smartphone and found us another brewery nearby.
In contrast to Parkway, we had never heard of this one, but decided to
give it a shot. Off to Flying Mouse
Brewery!
Following the all-knowing Google, we were instructed to turn
onto what looked like a residential gravel road. The small Flying Mouse sign above the
mailboxes was only slightly comforting, but we proceeded nonetheless. A quarter mile or so down the road, we
finally saw a sign and a building, but not much else. There were only two cars in the parking lot,
and we looked at each other thinking “are we really doing this?” But we’d come this far and we’re always in
for a good adventure, so out of the car and into the large bay door we went.
As it turned out, it wasn't sketchy at all, just fairly early
on a Sunday so there weren't many folks there yet. They've been open for a little over a year
and have a really big, cool space with fermentors and brewing equipment out in
the open for all to see, and a large bay door that opened out to an outdoor seating
area. We split a flight, and I had a
pint of their IPA to prepare for the rest of the ride home.
Flying Mouse was definitely a pleasant surprise and one that
adds credence to the theory that visiting breweries takes you to really cool
places and lets you meet really cool people you might never have known
about. You also get to drink beer, so
it’s a win-win!
It would have been a phenomenal weekend hanging out and
celebrating our 5 years of marriage together even if there was no beer to be
found. But the fact that we were able to
experience such quality drink at the same time was just icing on the cake. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to
have a wife who loves so many of the things I do and I can’t wait to see what
the future will bring.
Cheers,
Jacob
No comments:
Post a Comment