Event Recap | 2017 SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience

SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience is one of the most premier craft beer events on the East Coast. The Brewers Association, in partnership with the historic National Building Museum, brings forth this incredible event to give beer lovers a chance to meet brewers, find rare delicacies and experience unbelievable combinations that bring new meaning to taste and smell. In our long history of covering this event, PorchDrinking gave me the opportunity to savor a beer festival unlike any other.

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Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery | Beans Deep Coffee Stout

ABV: 4.6% | IBU: 41

If you’ve had a fever for a drinkable coffee stout in the summertime, Pro Re Nata Beans Deep will cure what ails ya. It’s a soothing beer at a bucolic brewery.

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Trade Flagships, Not Whales

Beer is a luxury. An accessible luxury like a movie ticket or restaurant visits, but a luxury nonetheless. It’s really difficult for me to splurge up to fifteen dollars on a 22 oz. bomber of beer unless I’m sure of the brewery’s quality or the style makes the price worth it (imperial stout or gueuze). I much prefer making a decorative mix-six for the same cost, giving me more beers to experience all at once. The love of finding new beers is what led me to beer trading in the first place.

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Three Notch’d Brewing Company | Minute Man New England Style IPA

ABV: 7% | IBU: 20

Have you ever had an incredible taproom-only beer and wondered if it’ll ever come back? Three Notch’d Brewing Company out of Charlottesville, Virgina is all about producing exciting, innovative new beers on a weekly basis. The brewery has even expanded this philosophy at their satellite taprooms in Harrisonburg and Richmond thanks to dedicated small batch managers. And the greatest success to come from this the yearning to create, is the New England Style IPA, Minute Man.

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Starr Hill Brewery | Vernal Equinox English IPA

ABV: 6.1 | IBU: 40

For any serious homebrewer, the ultimate dream is for one of their recipes to ultimately reach out to audiences beyond their immediate reach. Starr Hill Brewing, located in Crozet, Virginia, has made that dream a reality when recreating the Vernal Equinox English IPA.

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Homebrewing Recipe | Emerald Splash Cucumber Lime Saison

 ABV: 6.1 | IBU: 28 | OG: 1.057

When I was a greenhorn to the craft beer scene; I became the guy at beer shares who would bring accouterments in the form of fancy cheeses and cucumber/lime water. The flavored water ultimately served as the ultimate palate cleanser for event guests seeking to brush their weary tongues after too many barleywines and imperial stouts. Some people would even tell me they would come to a beer share or my homebrew club hearing cucumber/lime water would be there. Emerald Splash Cucumber Lime Saison is the result of people asking me to elevate that beverage to the next level.

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Homebrewing Recipe | House Porter

Everybody needs a smooth, quenchable beer for any occasion no matter what time of year. Winter is a time for heavy, sweet bombs but not everyone can sit down next to the fireplace with a chalice every day of the week. Yet the temperature outside never slows down the innovation of the homebrewer. So as we trade in our lawnmower beers for snow-shoveling stouts, here’s drinkable porter that will warm you up in no time.
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Ultimate 6er | Donald J. Trump

Our 45th President of the United States has been officially declared to be the one and only Donald J. Trump. As we all know, Trump is a man of great class putting his seal of approval on everything from casinos, buildings, steaks and water bottles. But what kind of beer do you get for the man who has everything? Remember everyone, George W. Bush appealed to people as “a president you could sit down and have a beer with.” So what would come in the cabinet of America’s Blue-Collar Billionaire?

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The Veil Brewing Company | Child Support

ABV: 4.5% | IBU: 25

In my experience, there has been no brewery to grow faster from its amazing quality and devoted fanbase than The Veil Brewing Company. Thirsty audiences would flock across the state to Richmond every Tuesday to get their hands on The Veil’s collection of canned jewels. Those of us familiar with the East Coast trading scene would see The Veil’s collection of juicy, New England-style IPAs to give them a breakthrough of success on the level of Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Vermont or Tree House Brewing Company in Massachusetts.

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Event Preview | Lickinghole Creek 3rd Year Anniversary Party and Magnificent Pagan Beast Release

Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery is the definitive example of farmhouse brewing on a breathtaking scale one has to see to believe. This 290-acre vibrant farmland nestled in Goochland, Virginia grows hops, fruits, barley and herbs to create a fantastic catalog of beers ranging from IPAs to Russian imperial stouts. Most Virginians love their reputation for creating barrel-aged behemoths contained in gorgeous 750 mL bottles that feature stunning label art and memorable liquid. So how fitting is it that the largest farmhouse brewery in the Commonwealth of Virginia creates the biggest beer in the state’s history?

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Devils Backbone Brewing Company | The Family Beer Project

Devils Backbone Brewing Company may be best known for its Germanic, lager-centric catalog, but the brewery also takes time to put unique beers into the market. Nearly every season, Devils Backbone releases up to four new beers ranging from common styles to experimental fusions, and the Family Beer Project is an example of that. So it’s safe to say that whether I’m heading to my favorite bottle shop or Costco, I’ll be able to satisfy the intrepid beer fan within.

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Judging and Understanding Award-Winning Beers as a Homebrewer

Picture this, fellow beer lovers: you are at a brewery and one of the beers is touted as a medal winner from the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) or World Beer Cup (WBC). You order the beer; anticipated to fill it up in a growler to share with your buddies. After a lengthy sniff and thorough gulp, you realize that it’s good, maybe great, but not something you’d quite define as “award-winner.” Then you pull out your phone to cross-reference ratings and opinions through RateBeer, Beer Advocate, Untappd, etc… Read More

Daytrip to Winchester | 2 Days, 2 Nights in D.C.

If you want to experience the beauty of Virginia without going to far from D.C., check out the new Winchester Brew Works in Old Town Winchester. Winchester Brew Works is the first female majority-owned brewing establishment in Virginia, channeling the homebrewing spirit of Martha Jefferson in Monticello. It is a brewery built from great ingenuity and a supportive community that acquired the location thanks to a successful Kickstarter. Read More

Ultimate 6er | The 2016 Evolution Fighting Game Championship Series

The world of eSports is vast and glorious; on the brink of mainstream acceptance through the understanding and mutual respect put into the time and skill of learning video games. There are games with underground followings like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and genres such as MOBAs that have reached the zenith of national sport. But today’s Ultimate 6er is centered around a breed settled when the quarters were slammed on the arcade cabinet in the days of yore: Fighting Games.

The Fighting Game Community or “FGC” has had a vigorous history through years of rigorous reinvention and a fervent, dedicated fanbase of thrill-seeking gamers. Beyond the coordination and strategy of other gaming tournaments, Fighting Games have an unmistakably thematic flair. The ups-and-downs of comeback, the mind game of predicting your opponent and the study of position create a viewing experience unlike any other. It’s just two players, two controllers, two characters drowning out the thousands of passionate fans to play the best match possible. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Netflix Original Programming

Netflix is the little technology business that could, going from movies-through-the-mail to one of the largest streaming services in the world. Available on every smart device and video game console available, Netflix has a reported total of 81 million people – with 46 million being in the US alone. It’s replaced cable for most of us, opening up a treasure chest of hidden gems and old classics in the most digestible manner possible. Netflix is now a powerhouse in the audio/visual world after acquiring exclusivity rights with Disney, but also through releasing their own original content.

For this week’s Ultimate 6er, we’ll be looking at several of the heavy hitters in the Netflix Original Lineup. Don’t fret if you don’t see any of your favorites here, but these have some of the best beer combinations you could hope to ever watch with your favorite show. So let’s Netflix and Chill (more like cooler) for some summer streaming! Read More

5 Things You Appreciate About Craft Breweries From Homebrewing

Homebrewing isn’t just a hobby; it’s an art form defined by our country’s do-it-yourself spirit through combining dedicated scientific research and passionate culinary engineering. According to the American Homebrewers Association, there are approximately 1.2 million homebrewers in the United States after every state had legalized the act in 2013. Just as craft beer opens you up to whole new world of flavors, there’s infinite number of possibilities when you realize what you can make with your first homebrewing kit. And as you ignite this new exciting hobby, you really start to appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into the industry as a whole. Read More

Ultimate 6er | Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. is one of the finest video game studios on American soil, mounted in the halls of pop culture for creating some of the most significant video game franchises in the world. From their humble beginning creating Super Nintendo titles such as Blackthorne, The Lost Vikings and Rock & Roll Racing, Blizzard is a name loved by gamers for their legacy of rich stories and diverse content. When this crew makes a new game, the video game landscape changes.

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BREAKING | Ballast Point Brewing Announces Virginia Location

Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits, the 11th largest craft brewer in the United States in 2015, will invest approximately $48 million to establish an East Coast Brewing operation in Botetourt County, Virginia. This is fourth major brewery to expand towards the Old Dominion state. The most recent of which, Oregan-based Deschutes Brewery, recently announced plans to move into Roanoke around 2019. With the two locations being a mere 20 minutes away, Virginia is looking to bring craft beer tourism to new heights. Read More

Event Preview | Science on Tap

Science is the cornerstone to brewing beer. Although many of our craft beer events are centered around performers or special beer releases, it’s nice to see these gatherings celebrating the study of our favorite beverages. That’s the goal of “Science on Tap,” an outdoor festival for educating beer novices and aficionados alike on beer chemistry. And there’s no better place to have this event than at the heart of Virginia’s largest craft beer community, our capital Richmond. Read More

Event Preview | Rocktown Beer & Music Festival Spring 2016 Edition

Going to a beer festival is a major step for most craft beer fans who are looking to fully immerse themselves into the culture. Where the booze is flowing and the music … Read More