Front or is it the back door?

Last Saturday I needed to be in Berryville, Va in the morning. I decided to see where Adroit Theory Brewing was in relation to Berryville. I had been wanting to make a trip there for some time and this might be the opportunity I was waiting for. Turns out that Purcellville is only about 15 miles east of Berryville, so the trip was ON! Adroit opened at noon, so I arrived at 11:55. The entrance is around the back of the building so I pulled around back to find an empty dirt/gravel/icy lot. I could see the door, but the place looked deserted. I waited five minutes and went inside. There were actually a couple of people inside – not sure how they slipped past me – and two or three welcoming bartenders.

some of the 15 gallon barrels

The place is fairly small but has a nice cozy feel with a few tables and a bunch of barrels sitting around. I’m not sure if those barrels were full or empty, but they looked nice scattered about the room. I noticed that there were some standard 50-gallon barrels, but also some smaller ones that I believe held 15 gallons. I inquired about buying some and the barkeep said that they do indeed sell them from time to time in both sizes. WOW! I know we would love to get our hands on a few of the 15s. I have sent an email their way to inquire further.

Beer menu

Now to the beer. They had placemat menus laying on the bar of their current offerings. Twelve were listed, but the Legion – Red Wine was not available. That was a shame because I would have definitely tried that one. I started with the Ortolan Bunting which is an American Strong Ale, 9%, 54 IBUs. The beer descriptions are amusing, but not entirely helpful. The Ortolan Bunting says this:

Robust maltiness, armaganc aging accentuating treacle and chocolate notes.

An ancient pagan ritual, a feast of gluttony, and an aromatic French brandy to give it the gloss of sophistication. We offer our Strong Ale as proof that a black market delicacy need not be only for those willing to break the law.

I moved on to the LUX, 9%, 95 IBUs, which is labeled as a wheatwine although I thought it could have used more wheat. I didn’t see the details until later and was quite surprised at the tongue curling 95 IBUs. It just didn’t strike me as that hoppy. More than a barleywine, but just a little. This one would be good on wood. Beer three was the Cookie Dough Porter, 8.8%, 49 IBUs. Funny name, but a great beer. It didn’t really taste like cookie dough to me, but it had a great roasty character that gave way to a dark complexity of flavors. The final beer was the ZERO – Bourbon Barrel, 7.9%, 74 IBUs. This was also delicious. The bourbon was not over-the-top to me, just a gentle reminder of its lineage. It is listed as a Coffee IPA, but, again, I thought the coffee was subtle. Clearly by the fourth beer my tasting acuity was waning, so I would really like to try this one again. I believe there was another beer or two that were brand new and not on the menu, but I didn’t have time to try them all. I’ll just have to go back.

Bar

So here is the interesting part. I asked about which beers were regulars – things that they always make and have available – and was told that there aren’t any. They rarely make the same beer twice, they just keep evolving, barrel aging some, tweaking recipes, etc. They mentioned that there might be a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough coming out in the future. It’s frightening to think that the Date Night – Date & Fig Dubbel or The Devil Made Me smoked porter might not be there next time I visit. Ugh. But of course, there will be new additions to look forward to.

All the beers on tap were available in 3-oz samples for $3, 8-oz tulips for $8, and many (including some older batches) in 12-oz corked bottles for $12 to go. They also have most available for growler refills. 64-oz for $20, 32-oz for $11.50 as well as a 18-oz and 40-oz size. All of their beers have a Ghost number associated with them. This is the batch ID which makes sense now that I understand their methods.

I was chatting with James (a customer) at the bar and he was telling me that AT is not the only brewer in town. I thought that was amazing for little old Purcellville. I was wondering why AT decided to locate there as opposed to, say,  Leesburg. Well, it turns out that there are actually four breweries in Purcellville. WOW! Who knew Purcellville was a craft beer mecca. James said that one was just OK, but the other two  were very good. The first one, BellyLove, is right in town and has a small but interesting selection of beer, and the other, Old690 is a few miles north of town and is a farm brewery with a nice selection of styles. Clearly, another trip to Purcellville is in order.