all the same song

Beer Run to Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, VA

Today I made a beer run, but not to my normal shop here in Winston-Salem, or another store in the area. I went a couple hours north to Vintage Cellar, located on South Main Street in Blacksburg, Virginia. I decided to go here because Virginia gets a few beers that are not distributed in North Carolina, and the ABV cap in my state is 15% — and I’ve always wanted to try and review Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA.

Luckily, Vintage Cellar had three bottles of 120 IPA sitting on the shelf. I ended up with two bottles, and several beers not available where I live:

From left to right: Sixpoint The Crisp and Righteous Ale, Victory Saison du Buff, Dogfish 120 Minute IPA, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Troegs Perpetual IPA and Java Head Stout, Birra del Borgo/Dogfish Head My Antonia, New Belgium Lips of Faith Tart Lychee, Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA, Devil’s Backbone Azrael and Vienna Lager, and Sixpoint Sweet Action, Apollo, and Resin.

A couple of notes:

-Victory is distributed in NC, but their version of the Saison du Buff never made it here. I reviewed Dogfish’s brew of it several months ago, and I was sitting on the Stone while waiting for the Victory. I will try to review the Stone/Victory back-to-back.

-Brooklyn is also distributed in NC, but I’ve never seen the Black Chocolate Stout in any of the stores I frequent. Maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.

-Although New Belgium is everywhere, I seem to have difficulty getting all of the Lips of Faith beers — for example, the Cocoa Molé was hard for me to get, even though I eventually found it…the Tart Lychee never came to Winston-Salem.

While at Vintage Cellar, they were pouring Rogue’s Voodoo Maple Bacon Ale, which contains THIRTEEN ingredients. I tasted a good-sized sample and decided not to fork over the $15.99 per bottle they were asking for it.

Overall, it was a really nice trip. The folks at Vintage Cellar were nice and their prices were low on some stuff, about right on most things, and a little high on a few items, particularly the Dogfish Head 750 ml bottles. I definitely plan to go back sometime to pick up more beers I can’t get here (they had DuClaw, and several Mikkeller offerings that I can’t get in Winston) and the city of Blacksburg is beautiful.

Check ‘em out if you’re ever in the area. I’m looking forward to reviewing all these unknown beers! Stay tuned.