Virginia Beer Tour 2012-Part 2- Blue Mountain Brewing

Nestled nicely into the Shenandoah Valley (or just on the other side of the mountain, as I like to say) is a new building housing Blue Mountain Brewing, which offers a good selection of popular brews and good food. It is a brewpub that also sells beer to go, in bottles and one of its most popular in cans too, on site. I really didn't see their beer elsewhere in bars and restaurants in that part of Virginia, but I wonder if it is because it is so new. This is a little different than most of the others in that stretch of road. That stretch would be route 151, which you can access from rt 250 if you are coming from Waynesboro or Stuarts Draft, like I was. It is really different for me to be traveling enough that I can just leave work, take a leisurely drive through some beautiful land and go to a such a relaxing place. It is hard to find a place that is not so pretty around there, with the mountains right on front of the building.

This one is easiest to find on that stretch of road, in a town called Afton. I highlight that stretch of road because there are actually 3 separate breweries in a ten mile section, with Wild Wolf and Devil's Backbone being the other two further along.


While at Blue Mountain I first tried the sampler glasses, seen here.  It was a popular choice, as I looked around the bar, but I got the feeling, after talking to my mostly non-committal bartender, that he was most interested in pushing wine and other things instead.

The beer menu was well written, though, broken down into different categories, and surprisingly, they had almost everything on it. The only difference was an exchange of a Belgian with another one.


For example, a category was "Refreshing" where they had listed their Kolsch. Other headings included "Wheat",  "Belgian", "Hoppy", etc. The beers were all good, I must say, but only a couple that I thought were more than just a little imaginative. They had a Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout that was really tasty, called Dark Hollow, and an American PA called Full Nelson that I liked and it reminded me of Two Brothers Outlaw too. Unfortuantely I thought the others were predictable and soft edged, and I thought they could have done more with them. Especially the Kolsch, which I really usually like but wasn't very inspired.


Overall my impressions were that it was awesomely beautiful, the views outside of the BR mountains, a big hop farm next door, good location, rather good food (the bar hot pretzel with killer mustard and salad I had were well put together), and good enough beer. I would return for the atmosphere and maybe play some cornhole out front too.

I also took back with me a six pack of Full Nelson in cans.I find it is a little easier transporting cans when you cram them into your checked luggage for the return flight home.