Monday, February 21, 2011

6 Beers, 18 Phrases - Blue and Gray Brewing Company

On Saturday, my good friend Mark Stewart and I went to Fredericksburg, about 90 minutes away from Charlottesville. The purpose of the trip was twofold, visit the Brew Gray Breweriana show and then tour the local brewpubs and take in a couple of pubs. I will discuss my thoughts on the breweriana stuff at some point in the future, this post is about the first of the brewpubs we went to, Blue and Gray Brewing Company.


I had been to Blue and Gray once before, when they were still in the process of building the Lee's Retreat brewpub, which is now finished and I think is a nice venue for sitting and enjoying several pints. On that initial visit, in November 2009, I wasn't really all that impressed with the beer, so I was looking forward to trying them again, and so the flight came....

  • Classic Lager - gold, bready, easy drinking
  • Fred Red - dark amber, caramel sweetness, typical red ale
  • Falmouth American Pale Ale - rich amber, bitter citrus, down the line pale ale
  • Stonewall Stout - pitch black, roasted coffee and chocolate, I would give my right arm for this
  • Borman's Belgian - clear gold, very fruity, interesting but unlikely to change my view on Belgian style beers
  • Minor Dementia Imperial Stout - boozy prune juice, weird but tasty, sampler is enough
There was also a chocolate raspberry stout, which I didn't take a picture of, and to be honest I thought was a case study in why not to use fruit extracts in beer.

Generally though we left with a positive view of the place. A solid core range of beers, and in Stonewall Stout a very nice classic stout which I would happily drink all night. While we were there we ate, and the food was good, very good in fact. As ever I went for a burger, this one with gorgonzola and bacon, and it really was excellent. The service was also just right, a big thing for me is getting the balance between the service being available but not in your face every 5 minutes making sure everything is ok. Definitely a place I will visit again, and even take Mrs Velkyal!

2 comments:

  1. Beers (or anything) named after Stonewall Jackson, eh? We're not in Charlottesville anymore!

    Poor naming choice aside, it does seem like a nice place. A great burger along side good beer is really hard to beat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simple pleasures indeed. All my favourite brewpubs share that combination, sometimes I just want a feed and a drink, not an existential experience.

    ReplyDelete

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