Day Four continued. (Part one here)
There are only two more stops tonight, before we call it a day. Smartmouth and Benchtop also reside in Norfolk, VA. These two breweries are also only a block apart, so that makes everything easy for beerventuring.
Smartmouth Brewing Company (Norfolk, VA)
Hidden in the back of the Norfolk industrial district at a dead end, Smartmouth resides in a grey, nondescript building and is identified by a lonely, little sign. That sign and the several tables, chairs and beer drinking, cornhole throwing, and food truck eating locals whom just got out of work that is. Parking is a bit tight on the dead end, but there is a large lot just down the road and plenty of street parking if you have issues finding a spot.
The interior taproom isn’t as large as Coelacanth, but I’d imagine that’s due to the massive barrel system behind the glass windows. Seating wasn’t that big of an issue as there are several communal picnic tables and individual seats in front of an entire wall of retro video games. So we grabbed a flight of 8 and sat down at an N64.
Since we did have 8 brews, I’m just going to discuss our top 4. IV Chocolate Porter, Notch 9 DIPA, Rule G IPA and Cowcatcher Milk stout on Nitro. Chocolate Porter IV is in honor of the Samartmouth president, Porter Hardy. It is the 4th and last porter of the Smartmouth series and has a strong cocoa nose and medium cocoa flavor but was marred by a bitter after taste. Melissa, Kyle and I were left wanting more chocolate and less bitter; but it was still a very well rounded beer. At 9% abv, Notch 9 DIPA placed its boozy notes in the front with a clean, dry, citrus bite on the back. The style and flavor certainly won’t be for everyone, but if you enjoy DIPAs you certainly must give Notch 9 a shot.
Unsurprisingly, another IPA made our my top 4. I did a side by side flavor comparison, and believe that Rule G might be the 7% version of Notch 9. The flavor, nose and coloring were both very similar but the noticeable booze presence of the 9 wasn’t there in the G. Instead I was met by a warmer, smoother malt/hop balance. Melissa also did the comparison and agreed that yes, they were indeed both IPAs and polity nudged them my way. Lastly, Cowcatcher milk stout. If you’ve ever had a Smartmouth beer, it was more than likely this one. The jet black color holds a surprising amount of chocolaty roasted goodness. I’ve only experienced this beer in a can before, but having it served on nitro is quite the defining characteristic missing from its canned counterparts. If you find Cowcatcher is on Nitro, you should really get yourself a pour.
Smartmouth also orders pizza in bulk from a local pizzeria, and has set times for pizza delivery; which is a pretty smart idea IMO. Or you can just bring your own food if the pizza or the daily food truck doesn’t appeal to you. Smartmouth is a Smartstop and earns a solid 4 blue turtle shells out of 5.
Quote of the visit by Kyle “Kale” Miller: This place is a sausage factory.
Benchtop Brewing Company (Norfolk, VA)
sorry, no 360 here, camera died 🙁
Within walking distance to Smartmouth, Benchtop Brewing Company offers a smaller, more traditional approach to a brewery taproom. By that I mean no video games. Benchtop taproom is located in a brick building in the same industrial district as the rest of today’s breweries and has this beautiful painting of a cock on a gorgeously finished pallet wall.
Being there were only four beers available, and it was our last stop we picked up four, 3oz pours. Natural Juicy DIPA, Trial of Dmitri kvass, Midtown Squeeze sour, and Wicked Lobstrosity porter. The Natural Juicy DIPA was supposed to be heavy on the citra and nelson, so we had imaged more of a juice bomb going in. Unfortunately, this sample was extremely bitter and a tad soapy tasting. After checking the scores on untappd I think it may be safe to say that we just had a bad batch. Or maybe the south prefers a different kind of juice bomb.
The Trial of Dmitri Kvass beer was unlike anything we had previously experienced. Kvass is a Russian style beer that’s been made with wheat, rye and barley and fermented with bread; in this case sourdough. So it pretty much has the flavor and consistency of liquid bread. To make it even more unusual this kvass was also brewed with beets; giving it a beautiful color, an interesting nose a flavor that certainly resembled that of bread and earthy beet. None of us really like beets… But bonus points for trying.
Midtown Squeeze Sour and Wicked Lobstrosity porter were more to our liking. Midtown is a strong blueberry, and mosaic hopped sour that immediately went to Melissas corner. It was way too sour for my liking. The Lobstrosity is a chocolate coconut porter made a little sweeter and certainly less bitter than the IV Chocolate we had at Smartmouth no more than an hour ago.
Benchtop certainly earned the medal for most unique beer of the day, but I’m not quite sure a beet beer is up everyone’s alley. They also earned the most expensive flight of the day award too, but with the unusualness of Dmitri, the full body of the Midtown and the pure coconut and chocolate bliss that was Lobstrosity we can hardly complain. Benchtop earns 3.8 root vegetables out of 5.
If you thought day four of our trip was jam packed just wait until day five; a 10 brewery day in Richmond.
