Short Pump Weekend: Rock Bottom Short Pump Fire Chief Ale ESB

Date:  May 18, 2019

The Story—  In 1815 Robert Hyde Saunders built a small tavern on the Three Notched Road between Richmond and Charlottesville.   The location of the well apparently required a short handle on the pump; the name stuck.  The tavern was very popular through the 19^th century, but the automobile seems to have ensured its demise.  Thereafter “Short Pump” referred to a large plantation Saunders had established alongside the tavern.

In 2003 a shopping mall began to transform the area and now it’s a sea of stores, shops, hotels, and eateries.   The Rock Bottom Brewery is tucked into the middle of this expansive shopping empire across the “street” from a Brazilian Steak House and walking distance to the Hyatt and Hilton hotels.

We’ll have more to say about this Rock Bottom tomorrow, but for now, we’ll just offer a reminder that although it’s a chain, it’s a corporation that has celebrated the individual  talents of their skilled brewers for long before the big wave of craft hit the country.

The Beer—  Our problem with many red ales is that the Crystal malt used tends to give flavors of burned sugar and wet leather if it’s not handled very very carefully.   Here, there are no off flavors to detract.   Sweet toasted malt with lots of chocolate rolls into the finish.  Herbal and floral shows UK hops and it drinks very well.

Value — At under four bucks a glass this is almost a steal, but certainly a bargain.  Our records don’t show if we were there for happy hour, but Rock Bottoms usually have ones with very good value.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

May and early June are some of the best times to take a weekend and go brewery hunting.  Most rates haven’t reached their out-of-school peak, and the chances for good weather are … pretty good.  So for a few weeks, we’ll give you some Mid Atlantic suggestions for weekend excursions.

We’re including beers and breweries we’ve found in researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic.  We won’t adhere to the “must be walkable” rule here, though.  Once again we present our standard caveat: only a few of the beers we describe will be at the brewery if you go there, but they’ll probably have a beer that’s close to the style and if they do one stout well, they’ll probably do others about as well.  We hope the “story” will be at least as valuable as the actual beer review.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Roanoke, So Far, So Good: Olde Salem Jump German Pilsner, Olde Salem Brewery, Salem, Va.

Date: May 15 , 2019   (we’ll have to take a short pause from these daily installments to deal with some unexpected matters, but we’ll be back soon with more great beers and places to find them.

The Story— We srap up of Roanoke ramblings with this last gem from nearby Salem.  Salem is something of a satellite in Roanoke’s orbit.  Deschutes planned their  “Roanoke” major production facility there and the minor league baseball team couldn’t fill seats without people from the bigger town down the road.  But the old town has a charm that’s hard to find in more commercial and more fully developed Roanoke.  Amain street holds a number of businesses, some very good restaurants and a fine brewery.   There are plan s in the works to turn a former movie theater into a boutique hotel.  We hope they come to fruition in time to be included in our Brews, Snooze and a Good Pair of Shoes guide to Mid-Atlantic breweries and inns.  The chains off the interstate are comfortable and with some planning almost walkable (we don’t recommend it), so we’re hoping for an old town base to explore.

Olde Salem brewery is a storefront brewery and taproom on the main drag.  It’s big enough to hold a crowd, but small enough so that one of the owners is usually available to talk about his passion for producing good beer.  they brew a big range and like most good small craft breweries they produce most of them well, but give you at least one that hits it out of the park.  Here, it’s one of the rarest of the categories in which to find a great beer — a German Style Pils.  We know a bit about producing a good German Pils, having taken home both a gold and a bronze medal from the Great American Beer Festival– in different categories –with our Tuppers’ Keller Pils and what we mostly know is that it isn’t one bit easy to brew a great one.   Theirs blew us away.

The Beer—  Although there’s a lavender quality to the hops that would be unknown in earlier years of German Pils brewing it’s not that far out of place here and the rest of the flavor profile is remarkably authentic.  It picks up some gentle spicing as it drinks and finishes with a remarkable balance between the malt and the hops.  All of it’s clean.  I’d be happy to find this at a small brewery in Germany.

Value —  Good to very good.  We paid three bucks for a quarter liter, you’d pay less by the liter for larger sizes. But even in Germany you’d be hard pressed to find a pilsner this good for any less than their $12 a liter.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

We’re kicking off May with some of the best beers we found on a recent trip to Roanoke, Virginia.  Roanoke is a haul from any of the population centers of the Mid Atlantic.  But Roanoke is a wonderful railroad center that still vibrates from rattling freights passing through all hours of the day and night, an d arich music  scene makes its own music.  National brewers are aware of its charms– Deschutes almost built a brewery here (and might still) and Deschutes as well as Virginia brewers Three Notch’d and Starr Hill have opened tap rooms.  The real charm of the city, however, lies in the trio of truly local breweries.   Combined, though, you can visit a half dozen breweries and brewery taps.  Most of them walkable and none are quite the same as any other; this city is a gift than the vast majority of Germans can only dream about anymore.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Roanoke, So Far, So Good: Parkway Get Bent Mountain IPA, Salem, Virginia

Date: May 14 , 2019

The Story—  Salem is just a few minutes drive out of town from Roanoke.  It has a cute old town (more on that tomorrow) but lots of it is off ramp interstate and industrial complexes.   Parkway is down a road with numerous small unromantic business, but it’s found a spot with some grass and views and enough space at the end of the industrial row to have a fire pit and space for the kids to play.  There’s plenty of space inside for the grown up s to play as well with areas of couches and easy chairs and a long taproom that serves well as a concert hall for their regular — and very good–music.

A big range of the brewery’s beers are on tap, though if you’ve aggressively hunted Parkway beers you’ll only find a few you haven’t seen elsewhere.   Beers run about five bucks for a genuine pint and that’s a good deal.   You can, with a good GPS and some initiative walk back to the hotels near the interstate, but in truth, although we’ll include Salem in our upcoming Brews Snooze and a Good Pair of Snooze, it’s one of the least walkable walkable brewery & inns in the book.  But the back roads are easy to find with a GPS.  If you can stay awake for a few minutes you probably won’t have to blow up balloons.

We’ve chosen the Get Bent because it’s a close to a flagship has you can find from small craft brewers, but Parkway excels in producing rich strong dark beers.   They distribute fairly widely, so if you’re in the DC area you might find their best one off winter Incredibles at a Mad Fox tasting or a very good beer bar such as Spacebar not far up the street from Mad Fox.

The Beer— Caramel malt and some chalky yeast make you think this very hoppy IPA might not be too much in your face, but the hops grow and then grow some more.  Fruity, spicy and eventually grassy hops with some citrus and old fashioned bitter do, with effort balance.  The result is a bit sticky but very flavorful.

Value —Very good at the brewery.  We’ve paid half again as much in good beer restaurants and not regretted the price.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

We’re kicking off May with some of the best beers we found on a recent trip to Roanoke, Virginia.  Roanoke is a haul from any of the population centers of the Mid Atlantic.  But Roanoke is a wonderful railroad center that still vibrates from rattling freights passing through all hours of the day and night, an d arich music  scene makes its own music.  National brewers are aware of its charms– Deschutes almost built a brewery here (and might still) and Deschutes as well as Virginia brewers Three Notch’d and Starr Hill have opened tap rooms.  The real charm of the city, however, lies in the trio of truly local breweries.   Combined, though, you can visit a half dozen breweries and brewery taps.  Most of them walkable and none are quite the same as any other; this city is a gift than the vast majority of Germans can only dream about anymore.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Roanoke, So Far, So Good:  Deschutes Carvin’s Cove XPA with Cashmere from Bend Oregon @ Deschutes Tasting Room, Roanoke, Va.

Date: May 13 , 2019

The Story—  Deschutes’s Roanoke location our third satellite brewery in as many days.   Virginia law requires brewery owned taphouses to produce at least 20% of the beer they sell on premise and it went into effect this January– with one exception,   Here’s the exception:

“The provisions of this act shall become effective on April 30, 2022, for a brewery which has entered into: 1) a Performance Agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia Development Opportunity Fund, on or about April 20, 2016; 2) a Performance Agreement entitled “Regarding Operation Period Economic Development Grant”, on or about April 20, 2016, and 3) a commercial lease agreement, on or about April 14, 2017.” 

There just happened to be exactly one brewery that met all these specific conditions — Deschutes.  Deschutes had indeed entered into an agreement with the state to build a large production brewery in the Roanoke area (specifically Salem, the location of our next two Beers of the Day).   But alarmed by shifting market conditions and, we suppose, the failure of Green Flash to successfully recreate its West Coast success on the opposite coast, Deschutes pulled back and has “delayed” its building date.  So for the next few years it can continue to operate its downtown Roanoke taphouse even though it produces far less than the 20% requirement.

In fact, although the brewery claims to brew about 6% of its beers there, we saw no evidence of house-brewed beers on our March visit.   It was a good bar in a great location, but if it brewed it certainly didn’t brag about it.   It is a nice part of a Roanoke crawl, though, even if the beer you’re drinking comes from Bend, Oregon.

We’ve had a soft spot in our hearts since one of their beers became our 15,000th beer note.   They’ve rarely disappointed us in the years since then.  We had not seen the carvin’s Cove XPA before and we happy to snag it at the Roanoke taproom no matter where it was brewed.  (It was brewed in Bend).

The Beer—  XPA often stands for “extra pale ale” which looks more or less as described.   In this case though the X stands for “experimental,” specifically the new and experimental Cashmere hop.  The beer itself was a amber ale of 6% abv with a decidedly west coast fruit accent.   It had a creamy smooth feel, but buckets of  pineapple flavor that tasted real-enough, fresh and ripe and sort of sweet.  I thought that although it was creamy rich and pleasant it was more of a fruit drink than a beer.   Ellie disagreed and found an “exquisite” balance in a “super smooth velvety” beer.   In any event, it was quite a Cashmere showcase.

Value —  Good.  $5.50 for a third of a liter is OK, but you pay for the shipping from Oregon.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

We’re kicking off May with some of the best beers we found on a recent trip to Roanoke, Virginia.  Roanoke is a haul from any of the population centers of the Mid Atlantic.  But Roanoke is a wonderful railroad center that still vibrates from rattling freights passing through all hours of the day and night, an d arich music  scene makes its own music.  National brewers are aware of its charms– Deschutes almost built a brewery here (and might still) and Deschutes as well as Virginia brewers Three Notch’d and Starr Hill have opened tap rooms.  The real charm of the city, however, lies in the trio of truly local breweries.   Combined, though, you can visit a half dozen breweries and brewery taps.  Most of them walkable and none are quite the same as any other; this city is a gift than the vast majority of Germans can only dream about anymore.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Roanoke, So Far, So Good: Three Notch’d Craft Kitchen and Brewery, Roanoke. Dave’s Golden Ale brewed in Charlottesville, Va.

Date: May 12, 2019

The Story—  On our March visit the brewery was not yet operational and the “Craft Kitchen” was serving beers brewed in Charlottesville.  The upside was an impressive range of beers that included several we had not previously tasted.  We think they are now brewing.   Virginia law requires them to brew 20% of the beer they sell in Roanoke at their Roanoke brewery.  The seven barrel system they’ve put there is large for a pilot brewery and should enable them to meet the minimum by year’s end without a problem.

The Craft Kitchen offers a modest menu of mostly pub food, but with some specials.  While a bit hit and miss, the hits on our visit were spectacularly good including a superb carrot soup — an item that does not normally thrill me.  We’ve chosen the Dave’s Golden Ale because that’s a style that I normally don’t like much, but here it was extremely good.   I would have bet plenty that the combination of carrot soup and gold ale would leave me unimpressed– and I would have lost the bet hands down.

We discussed the satellite breweries of Virginia in yesterday’s post about Starr Hill’s “side stage” project and we’ll take a look at Deschutes’s entry tomorrow.

The Beer—  We assume the Dave in Dave’s Golden Ale is Dave Warwick, the head brewer in Charlottesville; Dave has been a fine brewer for many years and the ale shows an exceptional level of professionalism.   It comes across as something of a top-fermented Helles: clean, pale and sweet, but not so much malt sweetness to make it cloying.  A kiss of late hops is enough to balance and a bit of late fruit emerges as it drinks.  The blend creates enough interest to be moreish without ganging up on the palate as it drinks.   I wish I could get this beer close to home.

Value —  Very good.   It’s six bucks — but served in a UK pint glass that’s about 20 ounces.  At 5.5% abv, it’s big for a session beer, but I could have happily spent the night with it

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

We’re kicking off May with some of the best beers we found on a recent trip to Roanoke, Virginia.  Roanoke is a haul from any of the population centers of the Mid Atlantic.  But Roanoke is a wonderful railroad center that still vibrates from rattling freights passing through all hours of the day and night, an d arich music  scene makes its own music.  National brewers are aware of its charms– Deschutes almost built a brewery here (and might still) and Deschutes as well as Virginia brewers Three Notch’d and Starr Hill have opened tap rooms.  The real charm of the city, however, lies in the trio of truly local breweries.   Combined, though, you can visit a half dozen breweries and brewery taps.  Most of them walkable and none are quite the same as any other; this city is a gift than the vast majority of Germans can only dream about anymore.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”