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Hardywood Brewery Cream Ale - Richmond, VA


PappyVanWise

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Pardon my first selfish post of the VBT, but I have to rave somewhere about this local product. For those of you who aren't familiar with Hardywood Park, it is one of the breweries that have started to put Richmond on the beer scene map. They gained some notoriety with a 100 point rating from the Beer Advocate boys for their Gingerbread Stout. Along with Strangeways, Center of the Universe, Lickinghole Creek, Extra Billy's, and the grandfather of them all Legend, Richmond has started to make a name for itself in beer.

Cream Ale is a personal weakness of mine. Back in the days of the good Brickskellar, I drank through their entire stock of Pelican Kiwanda Cream Ale. They never got any more, and I had to have a friend from Portland bring some to me when he visited the East Coast. I've never found a cream ale that quite hit me the same way, until I picked up a six pack of these cans ($10 at Total Wine Richmond). According to the Hardywood PR team (who are very good btw), "in 1935, Richmond, Virginia made beer history as the first place ever to sell canned beer, a cream ale from Krueger Brewing Company". This brew is supposedly a tribute to that. It doesn't redefine any style or stake new ground, but it is an excellent cream ale. The alcohol content is a low 4.4%, and the color is a light pilsner. Regardless of what I said about Back in Black, this is my new go to canned beer for this summer. It's light, it's crisp, and it's smooth, and I imagine it pairs with any meal you care to eat outside.

I don't think Hardywood cans and bottles make their way to DC, but keep an eye on the Churchkey Twitter feed or have someone you know from Richmond bring some to you. This is a brewery that is doing some really exciting things and should become a national player, or at least national name, within a few years.

-Eric

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Pardon my first selfish post of the VBT, but I have to rave somewhere about this local product. For those of you who aren't familiar with Hardywood Park, it is one of the breweries that have started to put Richmond on the beer scene map. They gained some notoriety with a 100 point rating from the Beer Advocate boys for their Gingerbread Stout. Along with Strangeways, Center of the Universe, Lickinghole Creek, Extra Billy's, and the grandfather of them all Legend, Richmond has started to make a name for itself in beer.

Cream Ale is a personal weakness of mine. Back in the days of the good Brickskellar, I drank through their entire stock of Pelican Kiwanda Cream Ale. They never got any more, and I had to have a friend from Portland bring some to me when he visited the East Coast. I've never found a cream ale that quite hit me the same way, until I picked up a six pack of these cans ($10 at Total Wine Richmond). According to the Hardywood PR team (who are very good btw), "in 1935, Richmond, Virginia made beer history as the first place ever to sell canned beer, a cream ale from Krueger Brewing Company". This brew is supposedly a tribute to that. It doesn't redefine any style or stake new ground, but it is an excellent cream ale. The alcohol content is a low 4.4%, and the color is a light pilsner. Regardless of what I said about Back in Black, this is my new go to canned beer for this summer. It's light, it's crisp, and it's smooth, and I imagine it pairs with any meal you care to eat outside.

I don't think Hardywood cans and bottles make their way to DC, but keep an eye on the Churchkey Twitter feed or have someone you know from Richmond bring some to you. This is a brewery that is doing some really exciting things and should become a national player, or at least national name, within a few years.

-Eric

I'm going to delete this (my post) in a day or two, but I just wanted to say that I loved your post. Please keep writing about beers in Richmond and don't worry about DC distribution too much - Richmond is part of the DC forum, and we'll get some other forum hosts to help you at some point.

Cheers,

Rocks

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