Second Battle of Bull Run, St. Mary of Sorrows, Clara Barton, & Bunnyman Brewing

This weekend, Pentecost and Memorial Day landed on the same weekend and that served as an impetus to tour the historic St. Mary of Sorrows church and then, after mass at the new church, visit Bunnyman Brewing -- #thecompasscbf 2023 stop number 73.

St. Mary of Sorrows was the second Catholic church built in Fairfax County (behind St. Mary’s in Alexandria) after Irish immigrants moved to the area while building the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to what is now Fairfax Station. The names of these families can still be read on the tombstones standing in St. Mary's cemetery. The church was finished in 1860 just when the Civil War started brewing. "Given the church’s important location on the main road from Fairfax Courthouse to the depot of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (now Fairfax Station), the area, with St. Mary’s as an identifying point, quickly became an important objective for both Northern and Southern armies vying to dominate the railroads in the area".

When Pope's Union army was flanked and routed by Longstreet and Jackson at the Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas, a field hospital was moved to St. Mary’s. "The wounded were laid out on the Church’s hill, many on pews taken from the church. They awaited the unloading of food and ammunition from the trains in the railroad yard nearby, so they could be placed on trains going east to Alexandria.

Clara Barton had arrived from Alexandria on one of these trains. She was a clerk at the Government Patent Office who had gathered a group of volunteers to tend to the wounded and dying. She nursed the wounded for three days and nights as heavy rains fell and doctors operated in the only dry place available, the church. Many soldiers died and were buried in the churchyard. Although 20,000 Confederate soldiers began the push toward Fairfax Station, Miss Barton, her volunteers, and the doctors remained until the last of the wounded were evacuated. She watched from the windows of the last train as the Confederate Soldiers captured Fairfax Station and set fire to the depot. As a result of her experiences at Fairfax Station, she devised a plan to establish a civilian society, which became the American Red Cross. A plaque honoring her heroism sits on the Route 123 side of the church grounds".
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Since the "original wood pews were destroyed during the Civil War, as mentioned above. Tradition holds that the present seats were installed at the order of President U.S. Grant. He often traveled by train to a resort in nearby Clifton, and ordered restitution when he learned of the damage inflicted on the church by Union troops...The soldiers buried in the churchyard during the Civil War were later moved to Arlington National Cemetery, with the exception of one Confederate named Kidwell. Only those bodies that could be positively identified were moved. Kidwell’s relatives wanted him to remain on Catholic ground, so they contrived a ruse with the pastor to not mark Kidwell’s grave so that his body would not be moved". (1)  

A beautiful new church for the expanding parish was constructed during 2019-2020 and is a stop on the A Jubilee Journey with Mary tour of Marian-Named Parishes in the Arlington Diocese. 

After attending mass or just visiting the new or old churches, Bunnyman Brewing is only minutes away.  The brewery is named after a local Fairfax urban legend and provides abundant beer for those willing to risk encountering the hacket-throwing insane man dressed in a white bunny suit. These beers are dispensed using a self-serve system where visitors can pour the volume of their choice and are charged for that amount. I poured two flights of various levels in order to taste a broad representation of their portfolio. A full taster pour of Kölsch revealed a refreshing bready beer and I'm becoming a fan of the steady and easy-drinking English Mild Brown Ale. The biggest surprise was the Juicy Viking IPA brewed with Norwegian Kveik yeast and Ekuanot & Galena hops.  A pint pour next time. And my favorite with a mini-taster at 12.5% was the Blinders Barrel-Aged S'mores Milk Stout. Delicious. 

 (1) St. Mary of Sorrows

River Outpost Brewing - the Hudson Valley's Entertainment Center

River Outpost Brewing may be the most entertaining family venture brewery in the U.S. This New York brewery features about a dozen craft beers, a kitchen, an adventure park with a rock-climbing wall and rope course, and a full-throttled gaming area including virtual reality stations. There's also plenty of live music and big-screen televisions - making this as much an adult escape. As for the beer, the Beast-Club Porter is delicious. Its development is reminiscent of the stories where porters would grab a quick beer by combining a portion from each tap. In this case, the porter is a 50/50 blend of their Basic Beast and Dub-Cub, the former a stout brewed with pumpkin, spices, vanilla, coffee, and milk sugar and the later a rather interesting English Brown Ale on its own. The Toad Alley ESB is an extra special bitter that also nails the English pub-style - and goes down quite smoothly. Finally, the Haze BAE is a New England styled IPA that is brewed with NY grown oats - and with lots of citrus and pineapple and not over the top with hop characters. Cheers.

#VABreweryChallenge: #58 - Ono Brewing Company

Chantilly now has its second craft brewery as Ono Brewing Company joins Mustang Sally's to offer craft beer near the intersection of Route 18 and Route 50. Ono means "delicious" or "tasty" in Hawaiian which is one of many ways the winery honors owners Scott and Cyndi Hoffman's ties to the Aloha State. Another link back to Hawaii are several beer styles such as the top seller Manako Wheat Ale brewed with mangoes and the Paradise IPA infused with pineapple juice. There's also the Pau Hana Pale Ale, a solid ale balanced with Motueka, Rakau, Kazbek, Kohatu, and Saphir New Zealand hops. Finally the brwery offers the Haole White Ale infused with cherry juices. This is a refreshing summer beer, neither tart nor sour, just flavorful. Two more I enjoyed were the Hellyes Lager and Hunker Down Brown both excellent examples of their respective styles.

Ono also utilizes the Pour My Beer system allowing customers "to take control of their own beer tasting experience". This works by visitors obtaining a RFID card which they then use to pour themselves up to a pint of beer and being charged by the ounce. There are many benefits to this system. First, consumers can experiment with multiple small pours of different beers so as not to purchase a pint or sampler that they eventually dislike. It also eliminates choke points at the bar where a handful of staff are attempting to service a large crowd. Finally it gives customers freedom to create their own samples or even blend beers to develop a new style. And as always, theCompass Craft Beverage Finder will guide you to Ono Brewing and other craft beverage destinations. Cheers.

Route 15 Wine Road: Warrenton's Powers Farm & Brewery & Granite Heights Winery

Just south of Gainsville, through Warrenton and into Culpeper, Route 15 merges with Route 29 and runs through rolling hills in one corner of Virginia's wine and horse country. This is Fauquier County where the roads and rail lines were major trade thoroughfares as well as a highly prized transportation hubs fought over during the Civil War. During one of these battles, Bristoe Campaign (October - November 1863), troops fought just east of Warrenton in Auburn - a short detour off the main road.

While navigating this detour look for Powers Farm & Brewery in Midland, a very unique craft brewery. As it's name suggests, Powers is a working farm and not just hops, just look at their Produce CSA. As for their field beers they use on-farm ingredients such as hops, herbs, fruits, vegetables, plus foraged bark and berries. Each of these non-standard ingredients add different characters to the beer but never overwhelm the base flavor. For instance The Saxon Schwarzbier is brewed with farm grown chicory which enhances the dark malt flavors with adds even more roastiness.  The Birch Brown Ale includes black birch tree trimmings that are added three separate times during the brewing process. This adds a little spice up front that balances the slightly sweet malty tail. Two other original and unique recipes are The Pollinator Irish Red Ale and The Heirloom Belgium Dark Ale. The former is brewed using seven different malts plus native Virginia Hawthorne berries which provide a sour cherry character to to the mixture. And the dark ale is brewed with farm grown dried heirloom tomatoes melding peppers and sweetness to the dark and yeasty character.  Finally, the Hibiscus Blonde Ale provides slightly tart and floral attributes to create a very refreshing beer. Now you can understand why Powers Farm & Brewery is a highly recommended detour off Route 15.

Not too far away lies another farm, the 200 acre farm land of Granite Heights Winery in which Luke and Toni Kilyk purchased in 1997. With the assistance of Lucie Morton they planted vines in order to leverage Luke's undergraduate degree in chemistry and home wine making experience. The first wines using all estate grapes were released in 2010 and since then the winery has become well known for their Petit Manseng and Lomax Reserve Bordeaux blend. I was able to taste verticals of these wines during a recent vitiCULTURE trade tasting. Petit Manseng is generally produced in a dry or off-dry style and the Kilyk's let the harvest dictate the style of each vintage. In 2015 the grapes were harvested a little early and the wine vinified dry. This 2015 Petit Manseng ($22) is light and fresh, tart, with a tropical - pineapple character. The following year's 2016 Petit Manseng ($19) was made off-dry and weighs in at 4% residual sugar. However, the wine comes across much drier as a result of the grape's abundant inherent acidity; it also shows less aroma and the flavor is more orange-citrus than tropical. Two completely different wines and I preferred the dry 2015 version.

The Lomax Reserve wines are only produced in exceptional years and since the winery stresses quality over cash flow, the Kilyk's will age a vintage in the bottle until the wine is ready for release. In this regard the 2013 Lomax Reserve was released before the 2012 vintage. A wise decision as the '12 joined the '10 as Governor's Cup Case Club wines. During our tasting we sampled all three of these years starting with the 2013 Lomax Reserve ($24) a blend of 55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 20 months in American oak. This wine has a solid mid-palate with a soft finish. The 2012 Lomax Reserve ($35) is the winery's current release and is a blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Petit Verdot aged 20 months in various oak casks. It is a delicious wine with bright cherries, texture, integrated tannins, and a long soft landing. Well done. Finally, the Governor's Cup Case Club 2010 Lomax Reserve ($59) is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Franc aged 15 months in mostly American oak. This is still a big wine, much more tannins so swirl away. There's a big smokey aroma, spices and dark fruit, and finishing chewy and mouth drying tannins.

There are other wineries and breweries in the Warrenton area and we will return to these using theCompass Craft Beverage Finder in the coming months. Cheers.

A Pre-Game at Morgantown's Chestnut Brew Works

Well before the WVU Mountaineers losing to the Oklahoma Sooners left us dispirited, our tailgate started brilliantly at Morgantown's Chestnut Brew Works. This three year old brewery is located in historic South Park and provides a wide range of styles brewed by Bill Rittenour. The brewery's name results from Rittenour graduate work (he holds a Ph.D. in Fungal Biology) studying the chestnut tree and how to resurrect the tree from it's demise due to a deadly fungal infection. Bill was on hand to pour my flight of seven beers and explain the reasoning behind each offering. And the beers were more than solid, they were delicious. We were in a cheerful, buoyant, optimistic mood heading to Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium...

• Smoke Hole Lager Rauchbier - love this style, light bacon smoke flavor, smooth tail
• Highwater Roselle Blonde Ale - refreshing even in the hold, snowy weather
• Your Best Hoption - 100 IBUs comes across rather smoothly
• South Park Porter - delicious sweet choclate and smooth finish
• Halleck Pale Ale - their best seller, flavorful and a bit more hop aromatics and bite than others
• Nate's Nut Brown Ale - fits the style, light malty and smoke
• Mo-Bel Prize Dark Belgium - IMO the weakest link,

#VABreweryChallenge - Loudoun Brewing Company (#26)

The #VABreweryChallenge gets more complicated as Loudoun Brewing Company opened it's doors recently. Located in downtown Leesburg, the nano-brewery augments the Loudoun County Beer & Wine Trail with a diverse portfolio of rather tasty beers.  The brewery is generous in its hours by opening at 11am on weekends which presented an opportunity to visit before preceding to Corcoran Vineyards & Cider. Owner-brewer Patrick Steffens lead me though a tasting of the seven beers on-tap as well as beers on deck. The healthy menu ranged from a standard Loud and Brewing IPA,  The Dogs Bullocks Dry Stout, and Blind Squirrel Brown Ale to the creative Thankful Belgium Cranberry Stout, The Bee's Knees Honey Wheat Ale, Jalapeno Business Jalapeno Saison, and Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana Belgium Quad. The Jalapeno Saison is a nice representation of a pepper beer as the heat comes early but does burn at the finish. My favorite two were the Dry Stout and Brown Ale, the later because it tasted more like a Porter than a brown ale, the former because of it's simplicity. It tasted just as expected. There's more good beer in the pipeline as Patrick hopes to release a Milk Stout on nitro as well as a Cinnamon Porter perhaps this week. Cheers to that.