Taste Virginia at OktoberForest Craft Beer Festival
Taste Virginia at OktoberForest Craft Beer Festival
Local Beer | Foraging VA Ingredients | Support Nature Conservation
SPECIAL SPONSORED EDITION
Save the date for OktoberForest Fest on September 15 at Fine Creek Brewing!
OktoberForest Fest is Sunday, September 15, from 12-6 PM at Fine Creek Brewing Company located at 2425 Robert E Lee Road, Powhatan, Virginia 23139.
Celebrating Virginia’s lands and waters, OktoberForest Fest is a collaboration that pairs four local breweries with four Virginia landscape conservation programs spanning from the Atlantic to the Appalachians. One special local ingredient, carefully collected by hand from each conservation area, offers an expression of Virginia’s wild landscapes that you can literally taste.
The idea for OktoberForest Fest evolved several years ago from efforts by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Virginia brewers to celebrate the connections between the commonwealth’s iconic landscapes and the main ingredient in beer: clean water. Specifically, Upweller Beer Company brewer Josh Chapman approached TNC about brewing beer with longleaf pine, which TNC and its partners are restoring across the Virginia Pinelands.
The collaboration continued to grow as Chapman invited additional Virginia brewers to participate and experiment with new ingredients. Today, the nature-inspired beer collection features four one-of-a-kind brews, each one made with an ingredient foraged from lands and waters that TNC protects or restores in Virginia.
This year, TNC in Virginia partnered with Fine Creek Brewing Company, Sweetbay Brewing Company, Upweller Beer Company and Väsen Brewing Company to brew the 2024 Virginia Collection.
Throughout the summer, TNC and the brewers climbed high Appalachian mountaintops, traversed vast pine forests and swam in sparkling coastal waters to collect the wild ingredients spotlighted in each beer:
Spruce tips were carefully trimmed from trees high up on Clinch Mountain – a focal area for restoring the Appalachians’ iconic red spruce forest – to accent the rich Clinch Valley Amber Lager.
red spruce. Photo credit: Kyle LaFerriere Eelgrass was collected in coastal bays lapping against Virginia’s wilderness barrier islands – site of the largest seagrass restoration on Earth – to bring complex coastal flavors to the Barrier Island Gose.
Foraging eelgrass. Photo credit: Kyle LaFerriere Longleaf pine needles were gathered from Piney Grove Preserve – the northern front for initiatives to restore the South’s signature forest – to enhance the hoppy nuances of the Piney Grove IPA.
Sassafras leaves were plucked from Warm Springs Mountain Preserve – where fire is bringing diversity back to Appalachian forests – for the Allegheny Highlands Farmhouse Ale.
Foraging sassafras. Photo Credit: Daniel White “The deeply passionate people doing the work of habitat restoration in these mountain forests were kind enough to share this magnificent space with our team, and we are excited to share an element of that mountain in this beer,” says Brian Mandeville, head brewer at Fine Creek.
Toasting to all that Virginia has to offer, the festival will also feature live music and food, including fare from Toby Island Bay Oyster Farm, and eight guest Virginia/D.C. breweries: Bluejacket Brewing, Blindhouse Beer, Mieza Blendery, Lost Generation Brewing, Selvedge Brewery, Garden Grove Brewing and Urban Winery, Heliotrope Brewing, and Sojourn Fermentory.
Admission is free. Festival beer tokens will be available for purchase in the taproom.
After the festival, don’t miss the final opportunity to try these unique brews during the Taste of Virginia Tap Takeover at various locations across Virginia and in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, October 2:
Charlottesville – Beer Run
Richmond – Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
Norfolk – The Birch Bar
Alexandria – Evening Star Café
Washington, D.C. – Andy’s Pizza, NOMA
Norton – Lincoln Road Coffee Lounge
Abingdon – Sweetbay Brewing Company
By enjoying OktoberForest Fest and the Taste of Virginia Tap Takeover, participants will experience the lands and waters on which all life – and beer – depends. And TNC invites festival goers and all beer lovers to learn more at nature.org/virginia. Cheers!
