Beer of the Week! 08/10/21

Virginia Beer Co. Deadbolt

Regularly $14.99 / Now on Sale for $13.96
Double New England Style IPA

It’s time for another release of one of Williamsburg’s Virginia Beer Company’s favored beers, the Deadbolt. Made in collaboration with Williamsburg jam band Blind and Dirty, the Deadbolt manages to hit both juicy and dank notes.

Virginia Beer Co. starts with just about everything you can ferment to make beer — 2-Row barley, flaked oats, rice hulls, and wheat malt. They then bitter this mixture with Azacca hops for their tropical fruit notes and Simcoe hops for their classic citrus goodness. They then dry-hop the mixture with Citra, Simcoe, Strata, and Zappa hops for a complex, juicy aroma.

What you get from the Deadbolt is a juicy blast of tropical fruit notes corralled in a sheathe of citrus and pine. “Juicy and Dank” — those aren’t two characteristics that want to play well together, but somehow VBC makes them (and thus us) happy.

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause choice adds spice to life.)

Brouwerij Cornelissen Herkenrode Vesper Abbey Tripel

Regularly $15.99 / Now on Sale for $14.96
Abbey Tripel

Herkenrode Abbey was a monastery of Cistercian nuns in the province of Limburg, Belgium, where Brouwerij Cornelissen now brews. Though the monastery was forcibly dissolved centuries ago, remnants of the buildings still stand are being renovated by a Catholic women’s order that purchased the property in the early 1970s. However, pieces of buildings are not the only things that remain of the sisters’ lives.

Robert Putnam (formerly of Cristal-Alken) and Patrick Gerits of Cornelissen joined forces to track down all of Herkenrode’s brewing recipes. They got them and the license for Cornelissen to brew beers based on those recipes. Enter the Herkenrode Vesper Abbey Tripel!

The Vesper Tripel is dry and complex with an unexpected bite coming from its use of English hops (as opposed to the noble hops traditionally used in Abbey brewing). Cornelissen suggests that the spirit of the former sisters gathering for vespers makes this beer best sipped in the evening. We haven’t had it in the morning, but it was tasty enough when we had it that we’re down for repeating that recommendation.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!