Legend celebrates its 17th; announces expansion

Legend Brewing Company brewed its first beer in February of 1994. Today, the Richmond, Virginia, brewery throws a party to celebrate its 17th birthday. Beforehand, I talked with Dave Gott —Vice-President of Operations— about this milestone.

Legend —and, that is without an 's'— is both a production brewery, downstairs, and a bustling brewpub, upstairs. The brewery produces six flagship beers —Lager, Pilsner, Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Golden IPA, and Porter, and 12 seasonals. The pub serves the beers on tap —and a cask every Friday— and has a kitchen offfering casual American fare. There is live music on Friday and Sunday nights, bluegrass on Sunday. An outdoor patio overlooks the James River.

Prior to 2009, Legend had packaged its beer in kegs and 22 ounce bottles. That year, however, the brewery purchased a bottling line geared for 12 ounce bottles. In large measure because of that, Dave Gott told me, the brewery experienced 45% growth last year, recession notwithstanding, selling 9,200 barrels of beer, its greatest volume to date.



To handle that enviable growth, the brewery has ordered six additional fermentation/maturation tanks. That configuration of thirty-some tanks and a 30-barrel brewhouse will enable production to reach 15,000 barrels. Once that volume is reached, Gott revealed, the brewery will need larger digs.



And, that is indeed welcome —'breaking'— news!

Legend would prefer to stay at its W. 7th street location, but operations would need to be moved into neighboring buildings. If that weren't possible, a move elsewhere is also being considered. One possibility, would be for the existing brewery to produce draft for the brewpub, and to produce specialty beers in the 22-ounce bottles. The newer larger facility would upgrade to at least a 50 barrel brewkettle; the brewpub would keep the current 30 barrel kettle. (A barrel is the equivalent of 13.7 cases of beer.)



Whatever may happen —and Gott emphasized all this is only at the exploratory stage at present— the brewpub is NOT moving, he emphasizes. "We love it here, and our loyal customers, and we plan to stay."

Legend currently sells its beers only in Virginia, but, Gott told me, moving into larger facilites will allow the brewery to expand distribution into the neighboring states of North Carolina and Maryland.

Legend was founded in 1994 by Tom Martin, who has a Masters in Brewing Science from Berkeley. Martin's father was the Vice-President of European Brewing Operations for Anheuser-Busch, and the original brewmaster at the Budweiser plant in Williamsburg, Virginia.

John Wampler is the head brewer and Vice-President of Production; he was hired in 1995. Dave Gott joined in late 1996. Rick Uhler —Vice-President for Sales & Marketing— began working for the brewery in early 1995. The brewing staff consists of three brewers —Wampler along with Mike Killelea and Alex Coppola— assisted by three cellarman.

The current register of seasonal and specialty beers includes:

• ESB
  
• Maibock
  
• HopFest
  
• Begian White
  
• Belgian Tripel
  
• Belgian Quadrupel
  
• Hefeweizen
  
• Oktoberfest
  
• Chocolate Porter
  
• Imperial IPA
  
• Smoked Chocolate Stout
  
• Barleywine

Throughout its 17 year history, Gott concluded, Legend has striven to produce the best possible beers in their styles for its customers to enjoy. The brewery is confident that there will be many more satisfied customers in the years to come.

I'm one of them.

Photos from the celebration: here.

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Legend Brewing Company
321 West 7th Street Richmond, Virginia
Website: legendbrewing.com
Phone: 804.232.8871 / Pub: 804.232.3446
Pub hours: 11:30am - 11pm (Sunday opening at 12:30pm)

Pic(k) of the Week: Camel Smooch

After I offered this camel a cup of food pellets, he became very friendly.

At the Metro Richmond Zoo, which is actually in Moseley, Virginia, several miles outside of the city of Richmond.

19 February 2011.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.

Hugh Sisson brings 471 year old beer to northern Virginia.

Friday evening, Bilbo Baggins Restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, is hosting a tasting of 8 beers from Heavy Seas Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland.

Brewery owner Hugh Sisson will travel the 45 miles south from his brewery, across the Potomac River, to provide commentary. He is providing a beer that has been four hundred and seventy one years in the making.

In the year 1540 A.D., in an area that later came to be known as Wye, Maryland, an acorn fell to the ground. That acorn would grow to become the Wye Oak, a white oak tree measured at almost 32 feet wide, 96 feet tall, and 119 feet at its crown.

In 2002, a violent thunderstorm would finally fell the Wye Oak. The state of Maryland collected the wood, and awarded it to a number of woodworkers to produce commemorative pieces of art. Maryland craftsman John Gasparine was granted permission to create the commemorative Star-Spangled Banger, the mallet used to tap the first cask of beer for the opening ceremonies of the inaugural Baltimore Beer Week, held in 2009 aboard the wooden warship U.S.S. Constitution, in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor.



Fast forward to four weeks ago.

The Heavy Seas Brewing Company was granted permission to brew beer with a few precious fragments from the Wye Oak. Stephen Marsh —the brewery's cellarmaster— carved fragments into domino-sized blocks and toasted them.

He racked (brewery jargon for transferred through a hose) 10.8 gallons of the brewery's India Pale Ale —Loose Cannon— into three firkins —10.8 gallon casks— adding the wood chips, whole leaf hops, and a measure of high krausen Loose Cannon —that is, another batch of the beer whose yeast had just begun to vigorously ferment.

The hops added to the cask have local provenance. Citrusy varietals of Cascade, Palisade, Chinook, and Magnum whole leaf hops were grown at Still Point Farm and Blaze's Folly Farm, both located in Frederick, Maryland, as well as at Marsh's own home garden.



Several days of warm storage at the brewery allowed the freshly fermenting beer within the cask to produce gentle carbonation. 'Warm' is a relative term. Winter temperatures have been somewhat cold recently, so Marsh lifted the casks high on scaffolding to catch the warmer temperatures lofted there from the boiling brewkettle.

Marsh produced only three such firkins: two for special Maryland beer events, and the final triplet for this beer tasting. In addition, Michael Armellino —chef and owner of Bilbo Baggins— found room in his cellar to save some other beers from the brewery. So, after the introductory glass of Bilbo Baggins Lager, he'll also serve:

• a rare winter Triple, Yule Tide, aged since 2009, 10% abv.
  
• Below Decks Barleywine (10% abv), vintage 2009.
  
• Red Sky At Night Saison (7.5% abv), vintage 2010.
  
• Winter Storm Category 5 Ale (Imperial ESB style) 7.5% ab., released this winter, in 2010.
  
• Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale (9% abv), released about this time, but in 2010.

The menu for the evening consists of Bilbo Baggins's flat bread pizzas and poutine (handcut french fries topped with New York white Cheddar cheese curds, Italian sausage, and homemade gravy), served throughout the tasting, rather than formally paired with a beer. The final course, however, will be specific: chocolate-ganache truffles, coated in cocoa and coffee, served with bottles of Heavy Seas Siren Noire Imperial Chocolate Stout, released in January 2011.

Hugh Sisson is not only the owner of Heavy Seas, he is a 'craft' beer pioneer of the DC/MD/VA area. Before opening the Heavy Seas production brewery in 1995, he founded the area's first-ever brewpub —Sisson's— in Baltimore, in 1989.

His eight Heavy Seas beers at the tasting tomorrow should offer a fascinating melange of flavors, procedures, and character: several cellared beers, and one fresh and still fermenting beer, locally hopped and prepared with 471 years of oaked maturity.

From an acorn came a mighty oak —and now comes a tasty beer.

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• Photos from the dinner: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Heavy Seas.

Pic(k) of the Week: Real Bright Real Ale

Real bright real ale: a pint of cask-conditioned IronMan Pale Ale (in a 3 Lions Brown Ale pint glass), as seen at Cask Lab, taught by Steve Jones —brewmaster for Oliver Breweries of Baltimore, Maryland— at Columbia Firehouse Restaurant, in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday, 16 February.

Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.

Brewers use ingredients which are fresh and natural, resulting in a drink which tastes natural and full of flavour. It is literally living as it continues to ferment in the cask in your local pub, developing its flavour as it matures ready to be poured into your glass.

Real ale is also known as ‘cask-conditioned beer’, ‘real cask ale’, real beer’, and ‘naturally conditioned beer.’

Campaign for Real Ale

Although cask-conditioned beer is never filtered, Jones explained, a proper pint of it will never be clouded with sediment, yeast, or haze. It will be "crystal."

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• More about Cask Lab: here. More photos: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the ales of Oliver Breweries.
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.

Beer-full Mid-Atlantic Weekend

It's quite the beer-full Presidents' Day weekend, in the mid-Atlantic area.

The Blue-Gray Show —an exhibition of beer memorabilia, known as breweriana— continues through Sunday, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Blue-Gray Show, which began modestly in 1980, is now the largest such exhibition on the East Coast. There's more information (and directions) at the bluegrayshow.com and on Facebook.

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In Baltimore, Maryland, it's the 7th annual running of the Belgians ... Belgian beers, that is.

Max's TapHouse Belgian Beer Fest features ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX Belgian beers on tap, ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO bottled Belgian beers, and 6 locally-produced 'Belgian-style' casks served via beer engine handpumps. There is no entrance fee, simply the cost of any beers ordered. The fest runs today from 11am until 2am, and during the same hours on Saturday and Sunday. The pub has 102 draft lines, so not all the beers will be offered at the same time. As well, many of the rarer beers will probably sell out today or early Saturday. To replace them, Max's will add. on Sunday, Belgian-style drafts, produced in the United States.

The pub will offer a Belgian-inspired food menu, and display eight hundred images from over sixty Belgian breweries, prepared by peripatetic beer writer Chuck Cook.

Max's celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, with events throughout the year. The first will be this Saturday with a tapping of 25 to 1, a special 'Belgian-style' beer brewed for the pub by Stillwater Artisianal Ales, which celebrates its own 1 year anniversary.

For more information, go to Max's website www.maxs.com or its Facebook page. The site does not list the draft and bottle list. To peruse that, go to Sandy Mitchell's Beer in Baltimore blog.