The Juicy Brews Invitational on June 10 focuses on hazy IPAs and fruited sours from breweries across the country. (Photo courtesy Hop Culture)
Craft beer geeks, mark your calendars: On June 10 at Triple Crossing Brewing in Fulton Hill, enthusiasts from near and far will have the opportunity to sample rare beers from more than 30 breweries nationwide spanning from Phoenix, Arizona, to Portland, Maine, at the Juicy Brews Invitational.
The festival is presented by Hop Culture, a craft beer and lifestyle magazine based in New York City that launched in 2017.
“This festival is a little bit different; it’s our biggest yet and our most carefully curated list,” says Hop Culture co-founder Kenny Gould. “There will be beers that can’t be distributed, and they may be the only keg that exists of that beer at the festival. We really try and focus on smaller producers.”
Gould, who says Hop Culture grew out of a beer club he ran at Duke University, believes Richmond’s beer scene is happening, and that’s exactly why Hop Culture chose it to host their celebration, and why Richmond made its list of Top 5 American Beer Cities for 2018.
“It’s amazing, and there’s a rich craft beer culture,” says Gould of Richmond.
Adam Worcester, co-founder of Triple Crossing, participated in Juicy Brews in Brooklyn in December 2017. He remained in contact with Gould, and when Hop Culture was looking for a new destination, Triple Crossing, which also hosted the East Coast Covenant Beer Fest in November, seemed like a perfect fit.
Worcester says the craft beer movement has evolved tremendously, and there’s a strong desire for new flavors. Juicy Brews is a way to celebrate them.
“People who are really into craft beer started out by drinking Bud Light, Miller Lite or Coors Light, and they don’t have a lot of real flavor," he says, "so what’s happened is DIPAs [double India Pale Ales] and Berliner [Weisse]s are such an extreme opposite that people’s palates are massively expanding into these styles that are so radically different — they can’t believe the flavor and aroma.”
Gould agrees.
“There’s been a shift in style in the American craft beer industry, and brewers learn the rules and break them to push boundaries and do new things,” says Gould.
The experimentation and progression of the movement has created an underlying craft beer counterculture. Worcester describes the movement as appealing to a collector’s mentality, similar to comic books or baseball cards.
“I think it’s kind of the culture of beer right now … [consumers] want to get these really difficult-to-find beers,” he says. “They hear about these breweries and want to have that experience of drinking and trying new things. It’s like the Pokémon thing; [they've] got to try 'em all.”
Gould concurs.
“There is something about the cultures that seems to embrace camaraderie and [a] general ethos of sharing and openness that doesn’t seem to exist in other places,” he says. “It’s the desire to get something rare.”
Juicy Brews is intentionally broken up into two sessions on June 10 — 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 7:30 p.m. — so that guests can have an intimate experience and chat with brewers and one another. The focus is on drinking beer with people who share the same passion. Gould attended beer festivals in the past and took what he didn’t like — lines, a lack of unique brews and people simply getting drunk — and eliminated those factors to create Juicy Brews.
“What I was seeing at the festivals didn’t speak to the part of the industry that I knew: community, culture and people who are interested in the same craft that come together. … We wanted to create an experience that spoke to that demographic of the beer drinking populace,” Gould says.
The majority of brews featured at the festival are hazy IPAs or fruited sours. Hazy IPAs are different from traditional IPAs in that hops are added later in the fermentation process, creating a citrus-fruity flavor and a hazy, clouded appearance. Fruited sours are ales fermented with fruit and often barrel-aged, leaving beer-drinkers with a tangy, flavorful, effervescent brew.
“Our festivals are kind of a crash course in what is happening around the country in IPAs and sours,” says Gould.
So how did Gould and Hop Culture curate the list and narrow it down to just 30 breweries in a sea of delicious craft beer? Gould says they've had their ears to the ground and their glasses raised high.
“We really searched the country for people we thought are doing incredible things,” he says. “We're really interested in the breweries that are moving the industry forward in really creative ways and ones that you may not have heard of but six months from now, you will have heard of. We're dedicated to providing both brewers and attendees with a really special experience.”
Tickets for the Juicy Brews Invitational are just under $75 after fees. Use code VACRAFTBEER to get 15 percent off.
