![]() “Brewmaster” was the final entry in the B’s: “It was alphabetized, and I read no further after seeing it,” he says. He says that he chose his profession after reading a book called Unique Careers. The winning applicant, Oliver, came from a little closer: He was head brewer at the Gordon Biersch brewpub in Washington DC. A native of Howard County, Md., Oliver majored in history and philosophy in college and got interested in craft beer after visiting the newly opened Legend Brewing Co. When he advertised for a brewmaster, Crandall received responses from as far away as the Pacific island of Palau. It ended up over here in a pile of parts and pieces.” (He works in corn, soybeans, oats and timber no barley or hops yet-but, he says, “That’s something I’m interested in doing.”) He purchased a four-vessel, German-made system from a defunct brewpub in Tokyo. I had an epiphany as soon as it touched my lips.”Ĭrandall located his brewpub on a site three miles from his 700-acre farm. The opaque liquid poured almost like honey. He waxes poetic in recounting the incident: “I walked into a little bar serving Weihenstephan. Steve Crandall, a 57-year-old owner of a construction company, founded Devils Backbone to scratch an itch that he acquired on a skiing trip to northern Italy in 1990. “We get locals, folks coming off I-81, tons of people carrying growlers.” “It really gives you a sense of community,” says Oliver. The Outpost’s tasting room is rustic but with more of an industrial feel, sporting a tin roof, a stainless-steel bar and a copper kettle behind the bar. Seasonals are also produced in kegs and six-packs: Ichabod Crandall, a Pumpkin Ale, was on the shelves in September, and Kilt Flasher, a Wee Heavy, was mellowing in the tanks waiting a release later this fall. (“The scenery is phenomenal-I never get sick of it,” comments Oliver.) Here, production manager Nate Olewine oversees the brewing and packaging of the company’s three flagship brands: Vienna Lager (DB’s best seller), Eight Point IPA and Schwartz Bier. The Outpost is their production brewery in Lexington, a 45–60 minute drive from Basecamp along the Blue Ridge Parkway. They’ve siphoned off portions of their Baltic Porter, Danzig, for instance, to produce a wood-aged version, as well as variants spiked with coffee and cacao nibs. Why limit it to raspberry and woodruff?”īasecamp is equipped with five 75-gallon tanks for dry-hopping and blending, which allows Oliver and Reilly to multiply the number of offerings. “Serrano lime, blood orange, thyme and tangerine. “We have our kitchen make up unique syrups,” says Oliver. They like to play around with sour brews, including a Berliner Weisse. (Devils Backbone, incidentally, is a nickname for the front range of the Blue Ridge Mountains, coined by a 1720 surveying party led by Thomas Jefferson’s father.)Īt the brewpub, Oliver and pilot brewer/head cellarman Aaron Reilly use the 10-hectoliter brewhouse to craft limited-edition beers, such as Blue Ridge Hop Revival, a wet-hopped ale made with 180 pounds of Virginia-grown Cascade hops. It’s got a mountain lodge vibe, with a menagerie of animal heads, and a beer garden with what brewmaster Jason Oliver calls “a million-dollar view” of the Blue Ridge Mountains. ![]() But Devils Backbone doesn’t plan on staying small for long-this year’s $5 million expansion could be the first of several.īasecamp is the brewpub in Roseland, Nelson County. In their short life span-Basecamp opened in 2008, the Outpost in 2012-Devils Backbone’s two brewhouses have garnered 23 medals at the Great American Beer Festival and five more in the World Beer Cup competition. At October’s GABF, Devils Backbone won two golds, two silvers and two bronzes in 20, Basecamp was named Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year. Those are the two halves of Devils Backbone Brewing Co., one of Virginia’s fastest-growing beermakers.
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