Devils Backbone Brewery

I had the opportunity of visiting Devils Blackbone Brewery in Wintergreen, Virginia a week ago.  The brewery is located in a beautiful valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains miles away from the Wintergreen Resort in Nelson County. Usually, I would prefer visiting a winery any day to a brewery, but boredom at Wintergreen led me to Devils Backbone Brewery.  This brewery specializes in original craft beer paired with a traditional southwest menu.  From the outside infrastructure to the inside decorations of stuffed animals and vintage trinkets, the brewery offers a fun ad enjoyable atmosphere for all ages. I went to the brewery with some of my close friends and had an enjoyable afternoon learning about craft beer and enjoying it also!

Thank god I'm legal!

I ordered a Devils Backbone Brewery seasonal sampler to experience their seasonal craft beers and taste the different types the brewery had to offer.  The sampler platter consisted of 6 4oz pours of the brewery’s seasonal reserve beer. The beers ranged from amber colored to dark and hazy shades each demonstrating the uniqueness and vast selection that Devils Backbone had to offer.  

Devil’s Backbone Brewery seasonal sampler

I first sampled the Schwartz Bier (11% ABV, 22 IBUs), which was a mahogany colored beer topped with a white head. The aroma was overwhelmingly wheat and grains.   I tasted a lot of wheat/bread with a little sweetness.

The second beer I sampled was a Wood-aged Kilt Flasher (7.0% ABV, 20 IBUs).  This beer was a Scottish style ale that was a dark chocolate color.  It had a light to medium body and was very smooth.  It smelled like a combination of coffee and chocolate and tasted pretty similar as well.  I definitely could not drink a whole pint of this beer, but it was delicious to taste. 

The third beer I sampled was Old Virginia Dark Lager (4.0% ABV, 19 IBUs).  This was a Dortmund style export lager from Germany.  It had a deep golden color and medium body.   The lager was stronger than most lagers I have tried and had a malty finish.

The fourth beer I sampled was Summer Haze (4.4% ABV, 15 IBUs).  This beer was a golden-amber ale brewed with unmalted grains, English yeast, and coriander. I think the name ‘Summer Haze’ fits the beer well as it had a lighter, citrusy taste with light senses of an herbal tea that would be perfect for a hot summer day.

The fifth beer I sampled was a Blue Ridge Hop Revival Ale (6.00 % ABV, 20 IBUs).  This beer was a light amber color accompanied with a medium body.  It smelled of pines, caramel, and wheat.  It tasted earthy, almost like I was eating dirt mixed in water.  I was not a fan of this beer and had to let someone else at the table finish the 4 oz glass.

The last beer of the seasonal sampler I tasted was an Black Rock Ale (4.2% ABV, 30 IBUs).  This beer was American style rye ale with medium color and body. The description said that the hops and rye blended together yielded this uniquely styled ale.  The aroma gave off a sweet smell and the taste was a little harsher than I expected.  This was my least favorite beer in the sampler. 

After the sampler, I decided to go off the sampler menu and order a pint of Wintergreen Weiss.  It’s a German Hefeweizen style of beer with a hazy, light yellow tint.  The head of the beer is a white, fluffy top that seemed to stick around for a couple of minutes.  It was a cloudy, creamy, yellowish beer that brought many aromas to my nose on my first sniff.  Initially I smelled wheat, lemon, a hint of mint, and a spicy clove scent.  Upon tasting the Wintergreen Weiss it had a surprisingly underlying sweetness, clove taste is apparent, as well as citrus.  This beer had light acidity, which is what I prefer in a beer.  This beer was easy to drink and went down smoothly.  I would rate this beer a 6 out of 10. 

Wintergreen Weiss

To accompany all these beverages I was sampling and drinking I ordered a French Dip sandwich, which was average.  I would say the beer is definitely better than the food at Devils Backbone Brewery; but that is not hard to do when they offer a wide variety of quality craft beers. Overall, I had a very positive experience at Devils Backbone Brewery and would recommend it to any of my friends and family. Cheers!