Wine descriptions to come...

Brown Ale with 100% Virginia, Murphy & Rude malt, local cherry bark and a wild yeast captured locally  

Wine descriptions to come...

Harrison, 8.5% ABV - A single varietal cider, Harrison is known worldwide as a fantastic cider apple. Russet and fruity, this cider boasts ample tannins with a zippy finish.

1581 Orchard Blend 2022, 6.9% ABV - From their 2022 harvest comes this sublime, natural cider. A blend of roughly 24 varieties of cider apples, organically and sustainably grown at their orchard in Maidens, Virginia. They follow minimal intervention, natural cider making methods.  This orchard blend is no different–it is the product of a natural/ambient yeast fermentation, no sulfites or any other additions added, no filtering or fining done, aged in neutral oak barrels for roughly 6 months, and bottle conditioned.  Earthy, mature fruit notes, and tannic–perfect with wild game and turkey.

Schwarzbier using local malts

Persica, 6.0% ABV - Golden sour w/peaches. Made with 100% Virginia malt, fermented in barrels and then conditioned on VA grown peaches.

EARTH TO BEER MAIBOCK w. SWEET POTATO & YARROW
Our Earth to Beer Maibock is part of a national Earth Day beer campaign that raises funds for environmental organizations across the country. We worked with Shalom Farms, a nonprofit farm and food justice organization, to brew a lager with sweet potatoes and yarrow. We deeply admired their dedication to equitable and healthy food systems, and this project will help promote and raise funds for their mission and their work.

One of their two farms is located less than 10 miles down the road from our brewery, which is where we sourced the sweet potatoes and yarrow for this project. We roasted those sweet potatoes and mashed them with Murphy & Rude malts and organic raw wheat, from Greater Richmond Grains. The yarrow we dried, before adding it to the whirlpool along with Greenmont Mother hops from Greenmont Hopworks.

Sourcing in this way helps us to reduce our carbon footprint, both reducing the costs and environmental impact of shipping.  It also allows us to have a more direct relationship with the quality of the ingredients we work with, and allows us to support the community and businesses that call our region home. Beyond that, focusing on local and sustainable sourcing ensures that our beers are rooted deeply in a sense of place, and that they are a reflection of the farms and forests that surround our brewery.

The yarrow and sweet potatoes contribute rustic notes to their otherwise traditional Maibock, transforming this spring lager into an herbal and earthy expression of both ingredients. The aroma leads with yarrow derived notes of fresh sage and baked apples alongside malt tones of dried grass and graham cracker. The flavor of the beer is spicier, with upfront notes of allspice and ceylon cinnamon that fade into a rich sweet potato like earthiness. On the palate this beer is sweet at first, with a pleasant roundness, but restrained bitterness and natural carbonation combine to produce a refreshing dry finish. 

This beer is released as part of a national campaign called Earth To Beer. More than 35 breweries in over 20 states are participating by making specially packaged beer with environmentally responsible ingredients and by giving back to local environmental organizations that make Earth Day their every day.

PAW PAW MIXED FERMENTATION SAISON

We are very fortunate that the creek that gives our brewery its name also happens to be an amazing habitat for pawpaw trees. During the peak of pawpaw season, you can actually smell the fruit before you see them, parts of the forests around our creek develop a heady aroma of overripe tropical fruit, notes of brown bananas and funky mango linger in the summer air. Despite an abundance of trees, individual seasons can be fickle, but recently we were lucky enough to get our biggest harvest ever: 370 pounds of pawpaws. To compliment them, we conditioned them on a blend of Saison and Belgian Tripel.

The blend was conditioned on pawpaws for 3 months. In addition to imbuing the beer with much of their unique character, this also introduced the wild culture of microbes living on the pawpaws. This culture produced acidity, and many of the characteristics you might expect from some of our Wild Ales. Finally, we conditioned this beer in bottles and kegs for 6 months with one of our favorite isolates of Brettanomyces.   

The aroma is funky and tropical with a nose that is reminiscent of cherimoya, green mango, and caramelized pineapple. The flavor is tart up front, and leads with tropical flavors of papaya and pineapple, that give way to fresh lemon and melon rind. The body is light and accompanied by a pleasant rounding carbonation that accents its dry finish.

Feisty Bull Marzen, 5.8% ABV - Their classic amber lager is available year round and is the finest and most complex expression of their farm grown barley. The delicate malt driven aroma introduces a smooth, balanced flavor profile with notes of toast and caramel. A clean, dry finish invites another sample...

Local Fabric - Rye, 5.3% ABV - A single-decocted Virginia Landbier (rye lager), brewed with all Virginia ingredients. All malts are from Murphy & Rude. Hopped with Greenmont Mother & Crystal from Greenmont Hopworks and fermented it with yeast from Jasper Yeast.

Cider descriptions to come...

Carbonically macerated blueberry foeder beer made with Virginia grown Agriberry blueberries

Harvest Wind, 6.3% ABV - Harvest Wind is a relatively strong pale lager with Nelson Sauvin hops that was co-fermented with Sauvignon Blanc grape must from their friends at Slater Run Vineyards in Upperville, Virginia. The beer also features Virginia grown and malted barley from Murphy and Rude Malting Company in Charlottesville. Harvest Wind presents with bright notes of grapefruit and passionfruit in the aroma and flavor with a characteristic Sauvignon Blanc finish.