Every once in a while, I get to leave the confines of my office and hit the road. I had to head up to Richmond, VA last week for a couple of days of meetings. Once I locked in my travel plans, I took a look at the numerous Richmond breweries and bottleshops. Richmond is quite a hotbed of craft beer these days, so there were many more places than I could visit during the little free time I would have during my time there. I mapped out the few on my must visit list that appeared to be on the way to north Richmond – Veil, Hardywood, and The Answer. On top of that, fortune was smiling upon me – Veil was releasing a new batch of Oreo Hornswoggler Chocolate Milk Stout on the Tuesday I would be driving up there. I was able to get a couple of cans of Peanut Butter Oreo Horns a few months ago and really enjoyed them. So having a release of Oreo Horns while I’m there was great news.
The drive up was uneventful and I arrived in Richmond around 5:30pm. Fighting rush hour traffic, I found Veil located on a side street just off the main drag in Richmond (Broad St.). I also found a long, long line snaking outside of the building. I expected a line, but this was a LINE. I was in no mood to wait, so disappointingly I headed to my hotel to get a good night’s sleep to be ready for my meetings.
After a solid day of productive meetings, I checked Facebook and again luck was on my side – Oreo Horns were still available! I had about 2 hours before dinner so I
headed to Veil. This time the line was about 5 people long – my kind of line! I was in 
and out of Veil in 15 minutes with my Oreo Horns. The only downside was that I didn’t get a special token to get a limited edition Hornswoggler glass! (Note to the good people at Veil – I still would like a glass…). Since the visit was so efficient, I decided to head over to Hardywood, which is about a 10 minute drive from Veil. As it was with Veil, Hardywood was busy, but I was able to walk right to the counter and get a bottle of Christmas Morning, a bottle of Rum Barrel Gingerbread Stout and a nice matching Hardwood GBS 
glass. I was hoping to find Kentucky Christmas Morning, but they sold out of bottles a day or two prior…..and although they had KCM on tap, I passed and headed back to meet my dinner commitments.
On my way back to dinner, I passed The Answer and a Total Wine….unfortunately, not enough time to stop at either. Why Total Wine? I like to visit Total Wines as they provide insight into the local craft beer market and what is available in the market they serve.
My last day in Richmond wrapped a bit earlier than expected, so as I was heading out, I took the opportunity to stop at that Total Wine. I walked around a bit and while I didn’t buy anything, the most interesting takeaway 
was the picture on the left. There you see Bell’s Black Note Stout in quantity! Here in Raleigh, Black Note was a hot commodity at release, usually with a 1 per person allocation. Here in Richmond, it sits.
Heading back to Raleigh was another uneventful drive safely wrapping up a productive couple days of meetings and visits to a couple of local breweries. Unfortunately, I didn’t visit The Answer; that will just have to wait until the next time I’m there. I also want to visit the new Stone Brewing facility….and Lickinghole Creek (although that’s a bit of a drive from Richmond)….and a few others!
Are there any other breweries, bottleshops, or restaurants in Richmond that I should check out the next time I’m there? Let me know…drop me a comment!
Until next time – have a Stoutstanding week!
Stoutwhisperer 