This past evening, September 20th, the Blue
Ridge Brewers Association (BRBA) was invited to participate in “Love Your
Downtown” a Luray Downtown Initiative (LDI) fundraiser hosted at the Warehouse
Art Gallery. The goals were to introduce
our organization to the town, educate attendees to the art of home brewing and
the craft beer revolution, offer tastings of home brewed beer and help the LDI
with its fund raising effort. All of the
goals were met with the exception of one; offer tastings of home brewed beer.
Since our last meeting all members with one exception
were “tapped out” of their favorite home crafted offerings - members get busy! Working with LDI a backup plan was concocted
to offer several styles across the flavor spectrum to include:
Sierra Nevada - Hellerweise HefeWeisen
Devils Backbone - Vienna Lager
Legend - Pale Ale
Dominion - Hop Mountain Pale Ale
Starr Hill - Pumpkin Porter
Dominion -Oak Barrel Stout
and….
Dan Fause and Mary Balderson’s very own Wicked Cat Ale
The format for each tasting included a brief introduction
to the style; describing its flavor profile as a blend of grains, hops and
yeast each contributing to the overall character of the beer. This was followed with an offering to smell
and taste the freshly milled grains, bury their nose in this year’s hop harvest
from BRBA’s very own Beaver Run Brewery’s hop garden and, depending on the
style, catch a brief whiff from jars of honey and whole clove. These “hands on” sensory guides enabled
tasters to really detect nuances present in each style being offered.
Sidebar discussions evolved around the beer making
process, grain malting, commercial brewing in Luray, English Bitters (who’s
brewing it), growing local, pooling resources, underground irrigation, geology
along the Stanley Fault, future BRBA events, yeast survival temperatures, beer/food
pairing, and growing and harvesting hops at the local scale versus at the
commercial scale. Four tasters signed up and are interested in future Blue
Ridge Brewers Association meetings and events.
