CulturAle Press

Shenandoah Valley Beer Trail: Bear Chase Play Dead IPA, Bluemont, Virginia.  Classic US IPA.

Date:  May 5, 2019

The Story— We’ve known about Dirt Farm Brewery for a while, and took the opportunity while returning from Front Royal to make a detour to find it.   More about Dirt Farm tomorrow.  Driving through rural Virginia, we were brought to a halt by the small blue “attraction” sign that Virginia is so good about placing along roads in the Old Dominion indicating breweries, wineries and distilleries.   “Bear Chase Brewery” it said.   “HUH? we thought,” slammed on the breaks and veered into a small ramp up into apparently nowhere.

We try to keep up with new breweries — checking brewery maps, blogs and faithfully following the Mid Atlantic Brewing News.  Until recently, it was very rare for us to encounter a brewery we had not known about.   This trip through the Shenandoah, however, brought us two surprises.   One was the Brothers’ Rivalry in Strasburg and Bear Chase was the other.

And what a nice surprise!   The call themselves a destination brewery and if they’re boasting, they’re not exaggerating by much.   A huge expanse of open park-like land with a view over the valley for miles, a “Brew Barn” with a dual 10 bbl and  3.5 bbl systems which allows them to crank out beers for the sizeable taproom while still having fun with one-offs and one of a kind beers.   The taproom evokes a huge hunting lodge with a massive fireplace and ranks of high tables as well as a sizeable all-weather porch area.   Glass walls take full advantage of the hill top setting and the porch is perfectly perched on the edge of a ridge allowing you to watch the kids frolic and the birds fly beyond you,   Two serving lines are designated “Indecisive” and “Decisive” — don’t you wish McDonald’s did the same?  A limited menu can keep you from starving or becoming dangerously affected by the very good beers.

We’ll probably have a small section in our next book listing breweries that have limited accommodations on site.  Abolitionist in Charles Town has some Air B&B rooms upstairs, Center of the Universe’s satellite brewery in Ashland, Va. has some apartments above and Blue Mountain has the original brewer’s house steps away from the original brewery.   Like Blue Mountain, though, the Bear Chase Manor is a great place for a friendly group, but can’t be booked for couples or individuals looking for a room.   Bear Chase offers six rooms that can sleep 16, five baths, two kitchens and a pool.  And the same incredible view as the brewery next door.   We have fantasies of a retirement party here — with a keg from the brewery as a centerpiece.

We try to refrain from focusing on IPAs in this blog — everyone does them and they’re hard to brew poorly.  But Bear Chase brews a very nice one and offers it in the perfect place to sip and enjoy the location.  Best to have a designated driver, though, unless you’re rich enough or lucky enough to be staying next door.

The Beer—  Only 56 IBUs for a 7.2% beer (still way above most New Englanders these days), but with resin and oils that suggest more.  A firm pale malt supports the hops well, which is fortunate since the end offers a long sticky bitter.  It’s a relatively rare (these days) classic US fruity IPA whose long bitter drives you back for more of the clean malt.

Value —  Good.  four bucks for a quarter liter is short of a bargain, but you get your money’s worth in this unusually moreish IPA.

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.

This week we’re featuring some beers and breweries we’ve found in researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic, this time on a weekend in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.   Once again we present our standard caveat: only some 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’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.”