Virginia Beach. Breweries minus the beach. Part 1.

We finally made it to Virginia and now it’s time to experience the local beer! First on our agenda is checking out the breweries of Virginia Beach.

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Of course we can’t spend all week just visiting breweries. They don’t even open until noon! So one of our favorite activities other than beerventuring is visiting zoos, aquariums and other places where we can look at cute animals. On our agenda today was the Virginia Aquarium and it did not disappoint. We could spend hours looking at all the fish and learning about sharks. There’s also an awesome ropes course built in the trees between the two buildings that looked amazing (and went on for days). Definitely worth a stop!

Green Flash (Virginia Beach, VA)

Widely recognized by the beer community for its top-class Californian beer, Green Flash Brewing Co. has sneakily made its way to the East Coast and settled a small outpost in Virginia Beach, VA. And by small we mean 100,000 barrel capacity. So yeah, not that small.

This gorgeous facility is huge. It sports a massive patio, lawn sports, fire pits and according to Aliana our bartender (and new Instagram stalker) is packed wall-to-wall on nights and weekends. So go early during a weekday if possible; if you want to avoid the rush. They don’t do flights per say, but you can get small oz pours and carry as much as possible back to your table. Since we went on a weekday afternoon we had the pleasure of standing at the bar and discussing beer with Aliana; there were 34 taps. Seven of which were Cellar 3’s plus a cask, so we had much to discuss at the bar.

The Beer from least to most favorite:

Dia De Los Serranos – There was serrano in the nose and some flavor but zero heat; which was disappointing.
Fresco Sauvage – The red wine and brett flavor was certainly present. It worked really well in saison form.
Ideal Belgique – Smooth, dark and malty. It was a very hearty, full bodied beer. Probably couldn’t drink much more than a few oz at a time.
Nouveau Tarte – A very tart sour aged in bourbon barrels. I really enjoyed the bourbon part, but it was too sour for my liking.
Jugosa – This is a remarkable IPA from the Green Flash R&D lab. There was tons of hop flavor but only 30 IBU and almost no bitter in the back end. We’re not sure how they did it, but its impressive.
Oculus Sauvage with Black Currant – Great color and nose. The flavor and body more closely matched a carbonated wine, rather than a beer.
Lustrous Frumento – The oak and vanilla are very strong with only a hint of cherry. I would love to age a few of these and see how the cherry flavor expresses itself over the years.

Green Flash is also home to Alpine Beer Co. A label that they acquired sometime in late 2014. We didn’t get a chance to try these beers because of all the Cellar 3’s on draft, but we’re sure they’re no less impressive than the O.G.G.F. brews.

Green Flash has a ton of extracurricular activities, a massive and gorgeous facility and plenty of food trucks weekly to keep your appetite satisfied. As Alana pointed out, if you’re beerventuring through you must hit this place during an off hour because after work lets out, this place is a mad house with lines of people, dozens deep, waiting impatiently for beer. It’s not surprising that Green Flash earns a must hit rating of 4.7 out of 5.

Young Veterans Brewing Company (Virginia Beach, VA)

Just 10 minutes down the road from Green Flash, Young Veterans of Virginia Beach should be your next stop. This 20 barrel brewery founded in 2012 not only serves up some good beer, but supports various veteran related charities while doing so.

They had 15 brews on draft including two sours (of course we got the sours). From least to most favorite we had The Bends Pale Ale, Jet Noise DIPA, Goat Locker Breakfast stout, Shore Leave herb beer, MOPP4 sour ale, and Private Plum sour ale. The Bends and Jet Noise we’re average. The DIPA was a little light in both the hop and the ABV. The Goat Locker Breakfast Stout is classic chocolate, coffee, milk stout but this batch tasted a tad off. It had a pepper taste, but apparently there were no peppers in the beer; perhaps it was infected or the beans were roasted too high?

Shore Leave is where we get interesting. This was a light ale brewed with lemon, basil and cucumbers making for a pleasant and refreshing beer. Something you could drink while mowing the law on a hot day. On untappd it gets mixed reviews, but it comes as advertised. The MOPP4 is a sour IPA, but it wasn’t too terribly sour so I liked it. Sitting at 5% at 63 IBU, YVBC struck a really good balance with this one. Private Plum on the other hand was certainly more tart and it was brewed with plums and hibiscus making for an interesting flavor and delightful color and nose. This of course immediately went to Melissas side of the table.

YVBC cans some of their flagships, bottles their sours and has some plump couches to chill out on while you drink beer and pet the 2 massive brew dogs. While we can’t label this brewery as a must it, it’s proximity to Green Flash and Reaver Beach (below) is super convenient if you would like to try a well-balanced and reasonably priced flight. YVBC wins 3.75 battles out of 5.

Reaver Beach Brewing Company (Virginia Beach, VA)

Literally one minute down the road from Young Veterans is Reaver Beach Brewing Company, also of Virginia Beach, VA. Now this brewery does serve flights, but the bartender wearing a batman t-shirt (owner? Brewer?) clearly hates serving them. When asked if they serve flights, we were met with a big grin and a “get the f*ck out.” To which my prompt response was threatening to key the car with the batman plates. He begrudgingly agreed to pour us a flight of the four top sellers they had on draft; 20 taps in total including a nitro line.

Bridge of Bones IPA, Reaver’s Prayer Sour Blend #2, Within the Flood Marks Sour ale, and Hoptopus DIPA. Two sours, two IPAs. There was a clear divide in teams this round and Melissa and I were happy to split a flight 50/50 for once. Bridge of Bones is a hazy New England style IPA that was juicy; but not juicy as we know and love up North. Overall, it was well constructed and satisfying; I scored it 4/5 on Untappd. The other IPA, Hoptopus, is a true DIPA sitting firm at 8.8% and 108 IBU. Named after the 8-legged sea creature for its 8 additions of hops, this DIPA will be a hopheads delight but the bane of everyone who detests such a flavor. Naturally this was my highest scoring beer here.

Reaver’s Prayer Sour Blend #2 is an apricot flavored ale that was “woah, tart” according to Melissa’s tasting notes. She later noted, as her pallet softened up from the initial shock, that the apricot flavor was there. It was just behind the sour patch styled liquid and a shocking 8.6% abv. The beer was too tart in my opinion, but Melissa scored it a 4/5. Prayer was good, but it was merely average next to Within the Flood Marks Sour Ale. Scoring a 4.5/5 from both of us, Flood Marks was a weaker 8.1% abv sour aged in oak barrels on blueberries. Blueberry beers are usually hit or miss as the flavor of blueberry dissipates quickly so flesh is key; as is true for most fruit beers unless specifically designed for aging. This sour ale hit all the right notes on the pallet. In Melissas opinion, there needed to be more blueberry flavor. In my opinion it needed to be less abv and slightly less tart. You can’t please everyone, but this one is certainly on track to.

Reaver Beach is clearly a locals bar. Everyone at the counter knew each other and clearly visit during their workday for a round before headed back to the office. The flagship Hoptopus, and Within the Flood Marks are your two must get beers. While I’m sure everything is just as delicious, the 4 beers on our flight we’re an excellent representation of their respective styles and we look forward to Kyle sending us back some more bottles out of this brewery. Reaver Beach earns 4.25 Batarangs out of 5.