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Representatives from stops along the Williamsburg Tasting Trail gathered together for a drink at The Williamsburg Winery’s new 1619Wine Pavilion, which features a two-level deck overlooking the Albariño and the Petit Verdot vineyards, plus an outdoor terrace with a fire pit.
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Map courtesy of Visit Williamsburg
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Precarious Beer Hall
Photo courtesy Corey Miller Photo
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Precarious Beer Hall
Photo courtesy Corey Miller Photo
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Precarious Beer Hall
Photo courtesy Corey Miller Photo
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Silver Hand Meadery
Photo courtesy Sara Harris Photography
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Silver Hand Meadery
Photo courtesy Sara Harris Photography
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Silver Hand Meadery
Photo courtesy Sara Harris Photography
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Virginia Beer Company
Photo courtesy The Girl Tyler
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Copper Fox Distillery
Photo courtesy Copper Fox Distillery
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Copper Fox Distillery
Photo courtesy Copper Fox Distillery
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Eight Shires Distillery
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Williamsburg Winery
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Billsburg Brewery
“The aroma in here is wonderful,” Tina Groft, a tourist from Pennsylvania remarked as she settled in at the bar at Silver Hand Meadery on Monticello Avenue. Groft and a few friends stopped at the Meadery on a recent Friday afternoon for a honey and mead tasting as part of the Williamsburg Tasting Trail experience.
“I really like this,” Groft said, taking a swig of “Strawberry Swing,” one of Silver Hand Meadery’s uniquely flavored meads. “It’s different. It’s great. The honey is also as good as the mead.” It was the first time Groft tried mead, an historic alcoholic drink that is made with fermented honey and water. Mead, a popular drink in Colonial times, is seeing a resurgence thanks in part to the Williamsburg Tasting Trail.
In the last decade, the craft beverage scene has exploded in Williamsburg, leading to the establishment of The Williamsburg Tasting Trail in 2016. The Tasting Trail consists of five local breweries, two distilleries, the Williamsburg Winery and three other wineries on the outskirts of town as well as Silver Hand Meadery. Williamsburg Tasting Trail was created as an additional way to attract tourists to the area. Businesses are part of the trail that works collectively to promote knowledge of their handcrafted products as well as the art of brewing, distilling and winemaking.
The Tasting Trail “has been a great way to spread the exposure of what mead is and who we are as a meadery,” said Glenn Lavender, owner of Silver Hand Meadery. “Mead is still a drink that is new to many people. We have such a great line up of meads right now that when people come in, they can find at least one they like, if not all of them.”
A musician, Lavender prefers to name each of his meads after a song or lyrics from a song. One of Silver Hand Meadery’s best sellers is “Dream by the Fire,” a mead made with honey fermented with apple cider. The name comes from a line in the holiday classic “Winter Wonderland.”
Lavender also likes to experiment with various seasonal fruits and spices including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, oranges, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, rosemary and thyme. This fall, Silver Hand Meadery will release its first pumpkin mead. The Meadery has also collaborated with several businesses on the Williamsburg Tasting Trail on specialty drinks, most recently with the Williamsburg Winery on a second edition of “Pyment.” Pyment is a style of mead made with honey and grapes.
Silver Hand Meadery first opened its doors in 2015. This past summer, the Meadery expanded its tasting room and retail space and added an observation beehive for visitors. There are 17 types of honeys to choose from and nearly a dozen types of mead to sample during a tasting.
“Our business has definitely grown since the introduction of the tasting trail,” Lavender said.
Copper Fox Distillery, one of the two distilleries on the Williamsburg Tasting Trail, also expanded its tasting room this past summer. Copper Fox Distillery operates from an abandoned hotel on Capital Landing Road, offering tours and tastings daily. Its line of spirits includes whisky and gin, including the top-selling “Copper Fox American Peachwood Single Malt.”
“We also have a super-secret delicious new product that we will be releasing this fall,” teased Rick Wasmund, owner of Copper Fox Distillery. “We continue to experiment, and so far, experimenting has been good.”
Wasmund opened the first Copper Fox Distillery location in Sperryville, Virginia, in 2005. The Williamsburg site will celebrate its fourth anniversary in September. Copper Fox Distillery uses locally sourced grains, including barley, in its products. The grains are flavored with fruitwood smoke and then each spirit is aged with new and used fruitwood chips in a used bourbon barrel. Everything is distilled and bottled on site. Old hotel rooms have been converted for use during the various stages of operation. The hotel’s original lobby is now home to the distillery’s new tasting room, which has doubled in size.
“Our spirits are unique because very few people make whisky the way we do in the world,” said Wasmund. “Plus,
I think we are just a fun place. People enjoy coming to see us, and that is the goal.”
Adding to the places where locals and tourists alike are flocking to for a good time is Precarious Beer Hall in
Merchants Square. The owners of Amber Ox Public House and Precarious Beer Project on Prince George Street opened Precarious Beer Hall in June. Precarious Beer Hall features vintage arcade games, including pinball, skee-ball and air hockey, plus live entertainment and a street taco bar called Electric Circus.
“I think Precarious Beer Hall fills a void here in Williamsburg,” said John Gulick, who frequents the establishment. “It’s a casual place where locals can go to try something new in terms of beer. It’s a gem. Who doesn’t like tacos and live music?”
Like Silver Hand Meadery, Precarious Beer Hall uses catchy monikers for its line of beers, which Guilick thinks adds to the appeal.
“I’m a fan of their New England style IPAs,” Gulick said. “They have a double IPA called ‘Everything Is Lava But the Swings Are Base.’ The names are really unique, and I think that is part of what makes them stand out.”
Precarious Beer Hall is the newest craft brewery on the tasting trail. Alewerks Brewing Company, Billsburg Brewery, Brass Cannon Brewing, and Virginia Beer Company round out the other breweries.
“The Tasting Trail has been a useful tool to let the world know that there’s more to Williamsburg than just history and roller coasters,” pointed out Jeff Phillips, marketing director for Alewerks. “The recent explosion has led to increased variety and creativity amongst the breweries. A beer release used to be a relative rarity. Now there’s one almost every week. Craft beer has become a vibrant part of the fabric of Williamsburg, and with that the customers’ knowledge and interest has grown as well.”
Beer enthusiast Josh Fielek agreed.
“There’s a great variety of environments and a wide variety of excellent adult beverages,” Fielek said. “We are lucky to have all this within a few miles. The Tasting Trail is a great opportunity for an epicurean or wannabe epicurean to spend a few hours having their taste buds tickled with a broad expanse of flavors and styles of beverages coupled with great food and lots of friendly people serving them to you.”
And, yes, the bartenders, servers and staff are having just as much fun as the patrons along the trail.
“I love interacting with people, finding out where they are from and what kinds of wines they like,” said Matthew Tanner, an associate with Williamsburg Winery, in between pours during a recent tasting with some ladies who stopped in as part of Drink Williamsburg (see sidebar). “I like getting to know people and teaching them things that they may not know about wine. That’s what I really enjoy.”
Added Lavender: “Our guests are genuinely curious about the different flavors that are available and about the craft beverage world. It’s a new experience for them and they find a whole category of drink that they really didn’t know they liked. That makes it a lot of fun for us.”
Brandy’s visited every business a part of the Williamsburg Tasting Trail. Her favorite craft beverage is the Silver Hand Meadery and Williamsburg Winery collaboration “Pyment.”