St. George Brewing Company and Old Dominion Brewery
St George Brewing Company – Hampton, VA
On our vacation this week we were fortunate enough to be able to visit St. George Brewing Company here in Hampton Virginia just outside of Williamsburg. Our tour was with Andy Rathmann, the company’s Brewmaster. Andy was extremely knowledgeable, personable and left us all with a wonderful impression of this brewery. I was pleased with Andy’s attitude when I mentioned I dabbled in homebrewing, instead of disregarding me he talked with me as someone who has a bit of knowledge about the process.
Andy walked us through a sample of several of the beers they had on tap in their hospitality room, including their Brown Ale, Summer Ale, Lager, Pilsner and what was soon to become my one of my favorite beers. The Porter. The Porter’s aroma reminds me of chocolate, I find myself taking a sniff before drinking each time. It has a good strong roasted taste, but not too much. All in all, a great beer. In the end we left with a case of Porter, though I would have easily picked up any of their styles. It will be very sad when I finish that last bottle. Especially since I know it’s an 11 hour drive to get more. Though it might just be worth the weekend road trip.
Old Dominion Brewery – Ashburn, VA
While I haven’t visited the brewery I have been sampling the Old Dominion Brewery’s Oak Barrel Stout all week at the tavern here in Williamsburg. The stout is amazing. From the bottle, “We combine seven different malts and two hops to create a delicious stout, then we dry-hop with fresh vanilla beans and toasted oak to finish our little treasure.” The stout has a bourbon barrel flavor and excellent way to finish off a long day of walking around.
So our vacation wasn’t supposed to be about beer but we’ve found a few great craft brewers. Two that I’ll probably spend quite a bit of time searching for locally. Worst case I’ll have a reason to come back to Virginia.
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