![]() Spiderbite: a session black IPA and my favorite of the night, but unfortunately a limited release beer, so get it before it’s gone.Trail Angel Weiss : a classic German hefe with the obligatory banana and hints of honey.Schwartz : I love a good Schwarzbier and this one measures up.Gold Leaf Lager : a bready, light Helles lager that’s super easy drinking.Eight Point IPA : brought back good memories of a great IPA from a lonely night in a WV hotel room.Vienna Lager : a good representation of one of my favorite, but hard to find, styles.The Basecamp Favorites are the year round offering while the Trailblazers are limited release beers: I was lucky enough to attend a private kickoff event and got to sample several Devils Backbone beers. They are a GABF three-time winner of “Brewery of the Year” in several categories.ĭevils Backbone operates two breweries in central Virginia, the original Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows in Roseland and the Outpost Brewery & Tap Room in Lexington, a state-of-the-art production brewery. They opened the doors in 2008 with a German-designed Japanese-built 8.5 barrel system. Rather, Eight Point is a very well balanced IPA with a solid malt base and the big hop flavors you expect.ĭevils Backbone is Virginia’s largest craft brewery. Those are big hops, but it’s not a hop bomb. It’s a 6.2% 60 IBU IPA with Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus and Simcoe hops. My night at the Beckley Hampton Inn was looking better. Serendipitously, at a gas stop in Wytheville, VA, I found Devils Backbone Eight Point IPA. I had to drive because you can’t fly from Nashville to Beckley. ![]() Two years ago I had to visit a client in Beckley, WV, a city better known for its exhibition coal mine than craft beer. The best part of business travel is getting to taste local beers wherever I go. I rarely travel for work but enjoy it when I do. Because this beer is substantially malty and bready, almost like a red IPA.I am no road warrior. And really, the hops seem more like they’re just playing along to keep the malt bill in check, as opposed to the inverse scenario that most brewers seem to employ with their IPAs. The hops are there (DB uses a pretty standard mix of Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus and Simcoe) but come through as a layer of sticky pine and peppery spice, all of which finishes pretty dry. Eight Point is far more balanced and subtle than that, with a strong malt bill that delivers heavy biscuit notes and just a little bit of caramel sweetness. If you’re looking for another citrus bomb, move along, there’s nothing to see here. At least, not your standard modern take on the IPA. The head is thin, but sticks around long after I start digging into the beer, forming a kind of slick, almost impermeable coating. The beer pours a shiny, copper orange and smells spicy and slightly yeasty. What I found was beer that strays from any modern IPA expectations. But given DB’s lager-heavy pedigree, I didn’t know what to expect when I took my first sip of Eight Point, their year-round IPA. They also produce a Bavarian Dark Lager, a Black Lager, a Gold Leaf Lager…DB’s mastery of lagers helped earn the team Mid-Size Brewing Company of the year at GABF in 2014 (mad props). The beer even pulled gold at this year’s GABF (props), and that’s just their flagship. Their flagship is a Vienna style lager with a list of competition wins that makes Bill Russell’s ring finger look like child’s play (Russell won 11 championships with the Celtics, by the way). Devils Backbone, out of Roseland, Virginia, kicks ass at brewing lagers.
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