At Pub 27 in Pompeii
Weekend Ale Trails! Virginia Beach: Young Veterans Bravo Foxtrot (2016)
Date: April 3, 2019
The Story— From Reaver Beach it’s not difficult to walk to Young Veterans, at the other end of the industrial park. The feel is similar to Reaver Beach and while it’s not on the base, it reflects its proximity. The taproom fell is similar, though you can’t see the brewhouse and the taproom is a little bigger, with a wall of windows. Compelling WWII posters everywhere, and posters showing the beer names almost all have military names. The taproom sports picnic tables, a small sofa lounge, a couple of high-top ledges with metal badges embedded and camo netting festooned over the backbar.
We were lucky; the taproom featured a two-year-old keg of their very strong dark Belgian Ale. It was pretty close to a quad, though they didn’t call it that. If we hadn’t needed to try other beers for the sake of this book, we might have settled in with this all night. On the other hand, at 11%, it might have killed us.
The Beer— Deep ruddy wood, Dark, rich deep fruits include raisons dates, booze is evident and dark sugars and a dry mild funk add breadth Granted the 93 IBUs are far from echt, but with this much dark deep and almost greasy dark fruits they help dry and it sends the game into extra innings. An echo of Abby-like funk, however, is echt. It’s more vinous than Hardy but it could sit at the same table after a year in a (very clean) tank.
Value — Excellent. Seven bucks buys an American pint of this knee-number that isn’t quite Belgian, but it’s as good as or better than all but the top tier of Belgian brewers.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. 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.
For the next several weeks we’ll feature fun places to explore beer — and much more–a different destination each week. Our beers of the day will feature beers from this wonderfully wet destinations. For the first week of April, we’re featuring some of the gems we’ve found in Virginia Beach breweries. A caveat as always: the vast majorities of craft breweries may have a few beers that are usually available, but their most interesting beers are usual season or one-off brews that we may rave about, but you can’t find. Our specific beer descriptions, can tell you what sorts of beers the brewery does well; if you don’t find the exact beer on tap, you’ll probably find something similar.
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