Various items of an Oktoberfest nature to ruminate on.

First up, Kevin McCloskey submitted this a couple of weeks ago:

I've never heard of this combination before so I gave it a try. Sam Adams Octoberfest with Guiness. Like a black and tan but changing out the Bass with Octoberfest. These two brews are perfect together in my opinion. I call it simply a "Black October". Give a try, I think you will be hooked like I am.

Sounds intriguing, for sure. Of course, there's no reason you couldn't use any other combination of Oktoberfest and stout (though Guinness is traditional).  read more »

The Shooting Creek Farm Brewery in Virginia might never open if a group of Baptist ministers and some neighbors get their way.

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control held a hearing this week to listen to complaints about granting a license for the Floyd County brewery to start production. The brewery is located in a rural area, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway in southwestern Virginia.

Brett Nichols and Ray Jones own Shooting Creek Farm Brewery. They plan to make beer in a 1,000 square foot facility located on an organic vegetable farm. There would be a tasting room at the site and the company would sell bottled beer in the area. The opening of the facility is now delayed while the ABC considers the objections to brewing beer in the area. Four area residents and a Baptist pastor filed official objections. The people against the brewery say it will increase traffic in the area and hurt property values.  read more »

One of the best small breweries in America, Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem, N.C., plans to double its production.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Foothills will spend $250,000 to increase production to 6,000 barrels later this year.

The company makes a number of great brews, including Seeing Double IPA and Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout.  read more »

Tuesday Tasting is a regular feature of Lyke2Drink that explores some of the best beers, wines and spirits on the market. This week we taste ten brews that have crossed my path during the last month.

Over the last few weeks I've had the chance to try a number of noteworthy brews. There is plenty of new product activity in the market right now and you should be on the lookout for these brews.  read more »

The Virginia Brewing Company of Winchester, VA will be holding a beer festival May 2-4. Here are details from an email received today:

The Virginia Brewing Company (VBC) holds its Grand Opening & Beer Fest on May 2-4, 2008 at the ZeroPak complex in Winchester, Virginia. Join the festivities as the VBC taps great craft beers, hosts live music, and welcomes the public to the Shenandoah Valley's new brewhall and event space.

The VBC Beerhall is located at 580 N. Cameron Street, two blocks north of Old Town Winchester, and will be open Friday, May 2 from noon to midnight, Saturday, May 3 from noon to midnight, and Sunday, May 4 from noon to 5 p.m. Enjoy your favorite tasty beverages, savory eats, and great music from Fly featuring Phil Zuckerman, The Speakeasy Boys, Craggy Island, and more.

 read more »

Brewpub
Date and time reviewed: Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:07:08 EDT

Overall Score: 65.0
Selection: 2 | Service: 3.75 | Atmosphere: 4 | Food: 4.0

Reviewer: Festival

This brewpub is the renamed "Calhoun's." I have visited it on at least an annual basis for the past few years. This past visit, February 26th, was a great disappointment as far as the beer was concerned. Only 4 brews were on tap and one (Kolsch)was unavailable (at lunchtime) due to cleaning the tap.
I settled for a pint of the Smoking Scottish, promoted as a 2004 GABF Gold medal winner and a 2007 Virginia Beer Cup winner. It arrived icy cold with "0" head, lacking the characteristic body and smokiness I had noticed in the past. If this was the recent Beer Cup Winner, I'm glad I didn't try the others. Maybe it was a less than perfect batch, as sometimes happens with a smaller brewery, but it did not provide incentive for me to go out of my way to resample it or recommend it to others. My previous visits were much more impressive. Hopefully this isn't a trend.  read more »

The finalists will travel from Texas, Oregon and Virginia to Denver in a couple of weeks to determine who become the 2008 Wynkoop Beerdrinker of the Year. The finals begin at 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at Wynkoop Brewing and are open to the public. The three finalists are: - Richard Pedretti-Allen, a McKinney, Texas, recording producer. An avid [...]

Last Monday was the two year anniversary of North Carolina getting rid of its archaic 6 percent limit on beers, and since then we have seen a great influx of new breweries that have never distributed here before. But there are still plenty of interesting breweries that have yet to step foot in our state. Here is a trio of breweries that I think we might be seeing in the next year or so. My personal wish list would include a few more choices, but breweries like Russian River and Lost Abbey are n  read more »