Craft beer has us buzzing here in “RVA” as we call our dear home of Richmond, VA (still space on the post-con excursion!). We look forward to meeting you at the Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference in August and hope you’ll end your conference experience with an excursion just a hop, skip and jump south to Virginia’s Capital. Why? See what the beer lovers below have to say about RVA. Then book your spot, book your room, and get psyched to taste for yourself why VinePair.com named Richmond the #1 beer destination in the world.

VinePair.com, The World’s Top 10 Beer Destinations for 2018 (January 2018)

Beer has blossomed in Richmond, and it’s time we all take notice. As the recently revamped Richmond Beer Trail will tell you, this Southern city is now rich with breweries. First there was Legend; then there was Hardywood; and now, more than 20 breweries have opened in the city itself, and 32 are in the area.

Hop Culture, The Top 5 American Beer Cities We’re Excited for in 2018 (January 2018)

If this is the first time you’re hearing about how dope Richmond’s beer scene is, then you’ve been missing out. The beer is both delicious and diverse. Breweries like The Answer, The Veil (rated “Exceptional” on BeerAdvocate), and Triple Crossing are pumping out some of the juiciest, tastiest IPAs on the East Coast. Hardywood’s Kentucky Christmas Morning is one of the best beers I had this year. Vasen, a brewery which launched without a single IPA, boasts a cozy Sweden-by-way-of-Colorado aesthetic and produces unique styles like American pale saisons and their “Walrus” series. Head to Richmond, get some Pho ga at Mekong, tell An Bui we said hi, and enjoy some juicy brews. We’ll be saying, “I told you so.”

Imbibe, America’s Best Under-the-Radar Beer Destinations (October 2017)
About three Fridays a month, Triple Crossing Brewing releases canned Berliner-style beers and IPAs like resinous Falcon Smash and berry-scented Clever Girl, the parking lot packed with plates from North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Maryland and even Pennsylvania. “Richmond has become the beer destination we always hoped it would be,” says co-founder Adam Worcester. Stone’s arrival may seem like the tipping point, but the artsy, outdoorsy city—the James River whitewater rapids course through downtown—has been on a beer path since An Bui first served Belgian ales at strip-mall Vietnamese restaurant Mekong in 1997. Nearly two decades later, Bui turned a neighboring nightclub into The Answer Brewpub, unleashing Brandon Tobert to brew lavishly hopped, hardly bitter IPAs like Hard in the Paint while Bui tackles popsicle-inspired sours. At The Veil, hazy and hop-loaded IPAs such as Master Shredder wheat IPA and Crucial Taunt double IPA are canned fresh and sold fast to huge crowds. (Given head brewer Matt Tarpey’s apprenticeship at cult-lambic brewer Cantillon, you’ll want to keep tabs on his ripening spontaneous ferments.) The Veil sits in Scott’s Addition, a burgeoning brewing district featuring Ardent Craft Ales’ lightly spicy saisons and gently roasty schwarzbier, ideally enjoyed in the garden with slow-smoked brisket from Saturday pop-up ZZQ. Richmond’s biggest homegrown success is Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, where gingerbread-inspired imperial milk stouts rub shoulders with cream ales and IPAs made with Virginia-grown hops. The city’s breweries punch far above its population count. “Richmond itself has this big-city feel, but it’s not at all a big city,” Worcester says.