Tuesday 2nd of October 2012 04:29:47 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.

Blue Toad is a spacious family friendly American pub, which aims to be a fun place for a day visit or night life. The brick and timber building has an attached deck patio. Outside there is a gravel box for games such as corn hole, and there is a small playground for the kids. Inside, they have a 10 stool wooden bar with a couple overhead televisions. The food menu consists of burgers, wings, a few specials, and a built in ice cream shop. I also appreciated the complimentary popcorn machine. The beer selection consists of 9 taps of common crafts beers, and about 70 bottles of national craft brews. They have a "Beers of the USA" club with at least one beer listed under each of the 50 states. Drink a beer from every state and win a prize! While this seems like a fun idea, it is impossible for a bar to truly offer a beer from every state, so some of the listed beer are actually brewed elsewhere. It's a little misleading, but still a fun concept. The Blue Toad doesn't seem as popular as the nearby brewpubs, but is still a respectable member of the Blue Ridge beer trail.