Thursday, March 6, 2014

Despot Day! (Lickinghole Creek Brewing)

It was my birthday weekend and damn it, I was going to a brewery. I know I sound like a broken record, but it has occurred to me the older I get the less likely I am to have adventure buddies. No one can ever do an over night camping trip, or a quick day trip to a brewery in Virginia. My good pal, and craft beer distributor rival, James Rohr stepped up to the plate. We first had to make the drive all the way to the brewery in Goochland to buy bottles. Then we had to stop at Dover Hall on the way back into Richmond. The despot is a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, those barrels came from pappy van winkle distillery. Pappy barrels have become very sough after for this process of aging. Rarity of barrel hopefully won't translate into expense with time.

The deer can't let go.
Lickinghole Creek craft brewery was a long anticipated brewery, that finally opened their doors on October first 2013. I was unable to attend the opening (first local opening I have missed) because of my anniversary party. The brewery had a few hiccups in construction that delayed opening, then the matter of road use. It appears that despite all of the legal paper work and mumbo jumbo required to open a brewery, there was still a legal matter to be considered. Apparently, despite having 221 acres of environmentally conscious brewery, brewery traffic on the nearly 1 mile shared road was an issue. I was even told that the first contractor, whose house you can see from the brewery, now has lost all love for the brewery that he helped build? This matter has even gone so far that I am hearing the side of the resistance at the dentist office. My dental assistant, a local gooch, gave me her two sense on the issue at last cleaning.

Here is to new old looking brick mansions.
The weather was fantastic, the rain never came. Come to find out, the rain met with some cold and shit snow all over us that Monday but whatever. The venue of Dover Hall is a great place for an event like this. Naturally we were early, but the parking was adequate. The interior and exterior space had lots of areas for pouring, and was broken up so that you only felt crowded if you wanted to. We fell in love with the horse shoe bar in the upstairs west wing. I also really enjoyed the two story 8 car garage, but was quickly escorted out. The beer was big boozy treat, and the mouth feel was that of a good sipping whiskey. Need I say more? The french fries were also out of this work, see below. 

french fry credit to station 2
I wish the best of luck to Sean and his team. I like the more remote breweries, as they make for great destinations for moderatemotorcycle rides out of RVA. Please look them up on Facebook, or visit their website at www.lickingholecreek.com.