Fidelis Beer Company Launch Party!

Last Saturday Clay and I checked out the Fidelis Beer Company launch party. The brewing company is brand new to the market and has an interesting business model. Similar to Toms Shoe Company, Fidelis will be benefiting a cause with each of its beer labels. Fidelis is part of a relatively new wave of companies that aim high, not just to make the best product possible, but also to help affect positive change in the world.

We got a taste of the first brew Brian, the founder, is ready to ship. The beer is a farmhouse ale and is a delicious, simple brew, wholesome and fruity in aroma and rustic in taste. It's yeasty and has a grassy barnyard taste but carries more body than I was expecting -a very good thing. It's terrific to see this style gaining so much popularity in recent years.

Apart from sampling the beer, we met Brian, the founder and owner of Fidelis. He's a humble, interested guy who doesn't seem to do things half way. Apart from being an attorney in the US Marines, he's a husband, father, and brewer! He seems passionate about the beer and the causes, which will hopefully drive excellence in both. He's not the only heavy hitter on the team: Fidelis also has a fighter pilot, and a PhD in their ranks. From the surface it seems as if they have a driven and experienced crew. This is a brewery to watch.

Keep up to date on their new releases and info on their website. Let them know you'd like to see their beer on tap near you on their twitter!

Check out this interview of Brian at Bible, Beer, and Babies.

Cheers!

The Answer Brewpub!

The Answer Brewpub- Building an Empire of beer!

If you drink beer in Richmond/ Central Virginia you (should) have heard of Mekong. Mekong has some great offerings when it comes to food- authentic Vietnamese cuisine at affordable prices! YAY! What makes Mekong truly great is their selection of beers; there are so many beers I'm not even going to begin to list them all, but there are enough to warrant Mekong receiving Craftbeer.com's Great American Beer Bar for both 2012 and 2013! This led to some astounding beer specials both years, and when they win again this year there will be more! Mekong is one of my favorite restaurants in Richmond and definitely my favorite beer spot in the city. 

All of that being said, An Bui- the genius mind behind Mekong, has been working on The Answer Brewpub. The Answer will be located next door to Mekong (seriously, right next door!) and will have a different list of beers from Mekong plus some collaborative beers from An and other local brewers. The Answer Brewpub opens tomorrow, the 2nd, at 4 pm and I know that I plan on being there! Earlier today the facebook page for Mekong and The Answer Brewpub filled people in on what their offerings are tomorrow...it is as follows:

P.S: Go vote for Mekong!

3rd Annual RVABrewBQ!

I know this post is a little late, but I figured I would make it so I could add in the pictures I took...

So Sam, Clay, and I decided to go check out the 3rd Annual RVABrewBQ (Ercell couldn't make it- he was invited!) so we could taste samplings from the ELEVEN (11) different breweries in Richmond!

Each brewery had a couple of different beers, as I said a sampling and the customers/ tasters were killing it. Within a couple of hours of arriving around 1:30 or 2 there were a number of breweries who were down to only one offering, and Bold Rock was completely out by 3:30. Does this mean that ciders are more popular than beers or do cider drinkers just drink more than beer drinkers? I don't know, nor do I care to find out. I'll keep drinking beers, and the occasional cider, and enjoying them all.

Train of thought- back to beer- the whole ticketing system was alright; tickets were a dollar, two tickets got you a sample pour and six tickets got you a full pour. All in all not a bad deal as most places around Richmond charge around $5 or $6 for a full pour of any local beer, but you usually don't get to talk to the brewer while you drink it. I'm not going to go into detail about the specific beers as a) I drank a bunch of them b) like I said, I waited too long to write this, and c) my taste in beers isn't on par with current beer drinking trends and I don't want this blog to crash because I rail against IPAs.

Overall, it was a great time with a lot of great food (lots of really good bbq- we ate at both Alamo BBQ and Boardwalk), a lot of great beer, and what seemed to be a lot of happy beer-drinkers getting to enjoy the summer weather and drinking outside! My only hope for next year is that Richmond has more breweries so there are even more options. It'd be great if breweries could figure out a cost-effective and efficient way to bring a larger sampling of their brews.

Anyway, look at the photos- I took them, and tell me what you thought of the festival if you went. If you didn't go, why not? What would entice you to go?
What do you think of my photos? Are they any good?
Does the Virginia Beer Blog need to find a new official photographer?
Are there more questions I should be asking?
Less?
Questions?

Google Trends: Beer vs. Wine vs. Distilled Spirits

I was checking out the fantastic Virginia craft beer site vabeertrail.net, and the aggregation functions of the site got me thinking about the overall growth of interest in craft beer in the state. As far as I know, beer has always been a challenger to wine's popularity in Virginia. I figured that with the explosion of interest in craft beer, maybe beer was catching up to wine.

I turned to a nifty site Google put up a while ago called Google Trends. It's important to note that this data is from Google web searches, so it really only reflects the interest of users searching the internet with Google.com.

As you can see in the Google Trends chart, interest in beer and wine ebb and flow in a similar pattern. Wine does have peaks during the holidays that beer doesn't always share.

I don't want to assume too much from this data, it's just interesting to look at and consider how far beer has come in this state. Beer is closer to wine as of June 2014 than it has been since 2004.

Google Trends Report

Dog Street Pub Craft Beer Festival

If you didn't get your fix at last week's National Beer Expo, make sure you get down to Merchant's Square in Williamsburg for the Dog Street Craft Beer Festival! There, you will be able to choose from a long list of participating breweries from around the commonwealth. Virginia Craft Beer, delicious food, and all for a good cause? Count us in!