Tuesday 2nd of October 2012 04:26:29 PM

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Nelson County VA has a wonderful beer and wine trail following Route 151 along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge mountains. For craft beer hunters, there are four major stops including Blue Mountain Brewery, Wild Wolf Brewing, Devil's Backbone Basecamp, and Blue Mountain Barrel House. Along this 31 mile trail there is also Blue Toad Pub, Bold Rock Cidery, and several wineries. I highly recommend exploring this scenic region. The trail starts in the north at the extremely popular Blue Mountain brewpub in Afton, and ends in the south at its younger sister called the Blue Mountain Barrel House. While the original Blue Mountain is an elaborate restaurant and brewpub, the Barrel House is a larger production brewery with a simple tasting room.

To get to the Blue Mountain Barrel House follow winding hilly roads, where mountainous scenery rises up in all directions. Park in their gravel lot and take a moment to enjoy the scenic vista. Enter the large corrugated steel building and you're in their tasting room. There are several hightop tables and a walkup bar built atop six antique barrels. Past the tasting room is the brewery production floor, with six large stainless steel fermenters in the center. There are plenty of racks for storing raw materials and packaging. The tasting room's six draft beers overlap, but are not identical to, the Afton brewpub. Their flagship ale is the nicely hopped Full Nelson American Pale Ale (5.9% abv). Their offering also includes Weizen, Steel Wheels ESB, and Uberpils Imperial Pilsner (7.6% abv). My favorites are the deliciously complex Dark Hollow Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout (10.0%), and their interestingly spicy barrel aged Local Species Belgo-American Ale. Beers can be purchased by sampler flight, pint, or growler. There is also a refrigerator case with Blue Mountain and Barrel House canned and bottled beers. Friendly service, a beautiful landscape, and a variety of well crafted brews makes the trek to Barrel House a worthwhile bookend for the Blue Ridge beer trail.