This weekend some friends of mine from Roanoke came up for a visit. Friday night him, myself and another Richmond friend of ours decided to go to Hardywood Park Craft Brewery (Hardywood) for happy hour. I had never even heard of it, but our friend JK said he had been there before for an event. I was up for the adventure, so we scheduled a time to meet up.
I won't say Hardywood is hard to find, because my GPS got me there fine. What I will say is that it's not where you expect it to be. It's tucked back on a street in what I will say is a warehouse district. There isn't much parking in the lot, but there is plenty of street parking. And I saw police cars drive by on 2 separate occasions which leads me to believe that the area is well patrolled. I felt no qualms parking my car and walking up the block. The other fellas agreed with me.
In the parking lot of the actual brewery was a food cart. I think they were doing hotdogs, but I didn't actually venture over to check. According to JK they always have food trucks on-site. They apparently also all converge on Hardywood every Thursday in the Fall. You can also drink in the parking lot, which is a nice added convenience.
Upon entering the brewery I immediately got the feel of a winery. There are barrels, used for conditioning and aging the beers everywhere. There are a few tables in the front room and a few in the main brewing room, but they aren't plentiful by any means. I'm ok with this as you aren't sitting down for a meal here. The front room has a bar with a few selections on tap. Today it was the Hardywood Singel and I believe the Hardywood Saison Rustica. The main brewing room had these plus the Hardywood Bourbon DIPA. They also had a tap set up for the release of their Hardywood Gingerbread Stout, but we were a day early for that.
JK and I got the Hardywood Bourbon DIPA and CB got the Hardywood Saison Rustica. We met some other friends there and they had the Hardywood Singel in pitchers plus a smattering of the other beers. I personally really like the Bourbon DIPA. I thought that the strong bourbon flavor and the bitterness of the hops played well with each other. I am a huge fan of IPA's and this did not disappoint. JK felt that the bourbon flavor was a bit much and, while he finished his beer, was not eager to join me for a second.
CB got most of the way through his Saison Rustica before deciding to switch to the Singel. I got to taste his Rustica and I enjoyed that as well. You can taste the rye and the occasional bite of the peppercorns. I would certainly get this in the future. It's a great dark beer for the Fall.
JK and CB switched over to the Singel. I tried a taste and knew it wasn't for me. I don't really enjoy blonde ales and this is certainly one. I am a dark beer guy. But both CB and JK raved about it. They truly enjoyed it enough to split a pitcher. I am glad because it means that Hardywood brews a little something for everyone.
Hardywood is nicely priced at about $6 to $8 for a glass of beer. They also do growlers in various sizes and half-glasses of beer at the bar. All of their beers that are currently out are also available at local restaurants and groceries stores. The brewery is open until 9 pm which makes this a nice spot to stop in for happy hour before going out to dinner or the bars. If you catch them on the right night they also have live music, which makes for a great addition. The crowd here seemed to be mostly the mid-20's to mid-30's working professional so it's great for after-work drinks.
Hardywood Park runs a nice operation and puts out a fantastic product. I was very pleased and plan to visit them as often as possible.
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