Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
---|---|
Founded | October 2007 |
Headquarters | Afton, Virginia, USA |
Products | Beer |
Production output | 2012 capacity, 2,800 barrels/year |
Owner | Taylor and Mandi Smack, Matt Nucci, 31 other shareholders |
The Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton, Virginia is a brewery that is part of Virginia's Brew Ridge Trail along with Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Starr Hill Brewery, and others in the area. [1] Blue Mountain was the first microbrewery to open in Nelson County. [2] They cultivate 1/3 acre of mainly Cascade-variety hops [3] and have had a focus on the industry's agricultural traditions since they opened. [4] [5] One of their seasonal beers, Blue Reserve, took home the first-ever medal (Silver) for a beer hopped solely with Virginia hops at the world's largest beer competition, the Great American Beer Festival, in 2011 for the American-Belgo Ale category. [6] [7]
The Blue Ridge Tunnel is a historic railroad tunnel built during the construction of the Blue Ridge Railroad in the 1850s. The tunnel was the westernmost and longest of four tunnels engineered by Claudius Crozet to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains at Rockfish Gap in central Virginia.
Dogfish Head Brewery is a brewing company based in Milton, Delaware founded by Sam and Mariah Calagione and, as of 2019, owned by the Boston Beer Company. It opened in 1995 and produces 262,000 barrels of beer annually.
Stone Brewing is a brewery headquartered in Escondido, California, USA. Founded in 1996 in San Marcos, California, it is the largest brewery in Southern California. Based on 2020 sales volume it is the ninth largest craft brewery in the United States.
Mountain Goat Beer is a brewery in Richmond, Victoria, Australia. The brewery was founded in 1997 by Cam Hines and Dave Bonighton. The company's first commercial brew, 'Hightale Ale' amber ale, was released in October 1997. Mountain Goat Beer was purchased by Asahi in September 2015.
Oskar Blues Brewery is a craft brewery with locations in Longmont, Colorado, Brevard, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. The company began as a brewpub in Lyons, Colorado in 1997 and began brewing beer in the basement in 1999. In 2002, they became one of the first to put their own craft beer in cans. In 2012, they began marketing some of their craft beer in resealable aluminum containers, and in 2012, they expanded and established another brewery in Brevard, North Carolina.
State Route 151 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs 35.22 miles (56.68 km) from U.S. Route 29 at Buffalo Hill north to US 250 at Critzers Shop. SR 151 traverses the Blue Ridge foothills of western Nelson County, where the highway provides access to the Wintergreen Resort.
Afton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Albemarle and Nelson counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is newly listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 313.
Starr Hill Brewery was founded in 1999 in the town of Charlottesville, Virginia, by Mark Thompson and Kristin Dolan. The brewery takes its name from the neighborhood where it was originally located. In 2005, the brewery moved to nearby Crozet, Virginia. After Thompson retired in early 2015, brand and recipe development leader Robbie O'Cain was tapped as Brewmaster. In September 2017, Starr Hill opened the Pilot Brewery & Side Stage in Roanoke, Virginia.
The Devils Backbone Brewing Company is a brewpub located in Roseland, Virginia, owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. It was established in 2008 by Steven Crandall. In 2012, a 15,000 square foot production facility and tap room, referred to as "The Outpost", was established near Lexington, Virginia. In 2016, the company was purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev, meaning that Devils Backbone Brewing Company would no longer meet the Brewers Association definition of a "craft brewery", since ownership by Anheuser-Busch InBev exceeds the definition's 25% maximum ownership by a non-craft brewery.
San Diego County, California, has been called "the Craft Beer Capital of America". As of 2018, the county was home to 155 licensed craft breweries – the most of any county in the United States. Based on 2016 sales volume, three San Diego County breweries – Stone, Green Flash, and Karl Strauss – rank among the 50 largest craft brewers in the United States. San Diego County brewers pioneered the specialty beer style known as Double India Pale Ale, sometimes called San Diego Pale Ale. Its beer culture is a draw for tourism, particularly during major festivals such as San Diego Beer Week and the San Diego International Beer Competition. San Diego County breweries including Stone Brewing Co., AleSmith Brewing Company and Ballast Point Brewing Company are consistently rated among the top breweries in the world.