The Ancient Art of Brewing in Charlottesville
*Part 2 of Charlottesville 2019
The most important part of Charlottesville is the history. In addition to the history, however, Charlottesville has a reputation as a center of craft brewing (Monticello had a separate beer cellar). Naturally, since I was there anyways, I had to check out a few of the breweries. My overall impressions was that it was very hit or miss. Some places were great, some not so much. Charlottesville isn’t really a beer city like Boulder, or the two Portlands, or even Honolulu. But if you like beer, and are heading there anyways, here are some pointers for your trip.
Draft Taphouse
My favorite place in Charlottesville for beer wasn’t even a brewery – it was a self-service brewpub. Here’s how it works: you give people at the cash register your credit card and then give you one for their taps. You grab a glass, put the beer card in the slot, and pour. The card keeps track of how much you poured, and keeps a running tab. It also has a little graphic showing how much you’ve had. Each card only lets you buy two pints total. But you can try a lot with that. I had, in a total of two pints, 10 beers, a cider, and a sake. The downside – this place is really expensive. A pint can easily cost $10-12. But they also played my favorite Jimi Hendrix song, along with a lot of classic rock so I forgive them.
60 taps, all self-serve.
South Street Brewery
South Street was the furthest on the restaurant side of the brewpub spectrum. It was also one of my favorites. Part of that was the beer selection – they had plenty of non-IPA options. I had a sampler of their lighter beers, which included actual middle of the road options in the form of ambers and brown ales! They have seemed to be endangered forms of beer these days, so seeing them makes me extra happy. Score one for the hobbits. My favorite was the Amber Ale called Satan’s Pony. In addition to the beer I had a great time talking to the people near me at the bar. Hard to beat a good ale and good company.
Hardywood
Hardywood is a more of a Virginia-wide beer, so I see a couple of their beers in my neighborhood. They were fine, but not much. But when my train back to DC was delayed almost two hours, and their taproom was all of a block from the station, I figured I’d check it out. Hardywood had a number of Belgian-style beers, which I had as a flight. They were delicious, and the place was very chill. It was an excellent place to wait out the train delay.
Random Row
I try not to be mean, but this place was just so basic. It was designed to look like a legit local bar, a bit out of the way and with the brewing equipment right behind the bar, but it was also almost entirely empty. On a Saturday night. It had the smallest and least interesting beer list, had hard seltzer, and even served its gose as a slushie. I know I’m a snob, but that’s just wrong on so many levels. I had a perfectly decent Hefeweizen and chatted with the bartender about beer and the industry, but this place is not worth visiting.
Three Notch’d
Three Notch’d is one of the those places where it’s all perfectly enjoyable. Big, a bunch of communal tables and a concrete bar, and a ton of people. It felt like an upscale brewpub trying to pretend it was a lowkey, working brewery. The beer was good, perfectly enjoyable. And they did have a very vegetarian-friendly menu, and the food was really good. It was all quite enjoyable. And all quite forgettable.
All perfectly enjoyable
