2009.01.27
New Blacksburg brew on tap
After years of anticipation and a few false starts, microbrewing has flooded Blacksburg and the New River Valley and has flowed as far northeast as Roanoke.
On New Years' Day, the long-awaited Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill opened on Blacksburg's South Main Street. Next came word that neighbors had dropped a Virginia ABC appeal and Shooting Creek Farm Brewery in Floyd County would begin brewing their original recipe ales.
Then on Friday (Jan. 23), local restaurants began serving Blacksburger Pils, a new microbrew from brewmaster and Virginia Tech Alum John Bryce and his Blacksburg Brewing Company.
Blacksburger Pils is "all-malt European style pilsner," Bryce wrote in a news release. The brew is now on tap at The Cellar, Souvlaki and Cabo Fish Taco, all in downtown Blacksburg.
Bryce brewed and distributed a half-dozen popular local-themed microbrews beginning in 2002. But inexperience and mounting debt forced the closure of the business in 2004.
Since then Bryce has worked at other breweries and recently completed the brewmaster certification program at Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin, Germany. He now works as brewmaster at the newly-opened Roanoke Railhouse Brewery.
For the foreseeable future, Blacksburger Pils will be available only in Blacksburg restaurants and bars, Bryce wrote in the release.
-- Tonia Moxley
