"Hoppy" Birthday Brewery Tour

This past weekend was an extravaganza of hops and malts and delicious brewskies! For my 27th birthday (which is exactly one week from today) Mr. Handsome took me on a romantic getaway to Charlottesville, VA for a tour of Virginia's finest breweries/cideries. Over the course of 6 hours we traveled to 5 breweries/cideries and tasted 46 different alcoholic beverages. (These were 2-3 ounce pours, folks. We didn't fall off any bar stools!)

The 5 establishments we visited were Devil's Backbone, Bold Rock (Cidery), Wild Wolf, Blue Mountain and Starr Hill. Because we're educated nerds, we carefully rated each beer/cider we tried and ranked our top 3 favorites at every location. Rankings were based on color, aroma, taste, after taste and name creativity. Here was the breakdown of beers by brewery...

N = Mr. Handsome Rating
H = Hilary Rating

Devil's Backbone
Spider Bite
Pumpkin Hunter (N#3)
Chengdu Weizenbock (H#2)
Pilot Brau Pilsner
Bravo Four Point IPA
Vienna Lager (H#3)
Gold Leaf Lager (N#1)
Schwartz Bier (N - Honorable Mention)
Striped Bass Pale Ale
Pear Lager (N#2)
Eight Point IPA (H#1)

Bold Rock
Virginia Apple
Virginia Draft (H#1) (N#1)
Crimson Ridge Volume #1
Crimson Ridge Vintage Dry

Wild Wolf
American Pilsner
Blonde Hunny Ale
Wee Heavy (H#2)
Alpha Ale
Dry Stout (N#2)
Folktoberfest
Primal Instinct
Howling Pumpkin Ale (H#3) (N#3)
Strawberry Schwarzcake
Kick It Hunny (N#1)
Area 151 (H#1)

Blue Mountain
Classic Lager (N#3) (H#3)
Kolsch 151
South Street 365 Shandy
Wallonia (H - Honorable Mention)
The Steel Wheel ESB
Hibernator (H#2) (N#2)
Full Nelson
South Street Bar Hopper
Local Species (H#1)
Original Nitro Porter (N#1)

Starr Hill
Starr Pils (N#2)
The Love (H#2)
Boxcarr Pumpkin Porter
Northern Lights IPA
Grateful Pale Ale (N#3) (H#1)
Monticello Reserve
Double Platinum (H#3)
Snow Blind
Sabbath (N#1)
Shakedown Imperial Chocolate Cherry Stout