Beer Run – A Family-Friendly, Pet-Friendly, and Environment-Friendly Restaurant and Bar
As part of our beer and breweries series in The Charlottesville Guide Vlogs, our correspondent, Tim Mills, visited Beer Run. Come along with Tim as he chats with Justin, the beer-buyer and expert-of-beer at Beer Run, and samples one of their trendiest beers.
Beer Run is a craft beer bottle and wine shop, restaurant, and bar – all under one roof. There’s an indoor dining area and a charming covered patio where patrons can enjoy a meal full of locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, a market with shelves filled to the brim with about 1,000 bottled and canned beer, wine, and kombucha items for sale, and a classy wine room for their free Friday wine tastings.
In the middle of it all is the bar, complete with flat-screen TVs and speakers airing Can’t-miss sports events. (Beer Run takes sports-watching very seriously.) Even at around 10am, when The Charlottesville Guide team stopped in to film, there was a hub of friendly people gathered at the bar, enjoying coffee and a hearty breakfast, ready for great conversation and cheering on the World Cup.
Additionally, Beer Run is kid-friendly, pet-friendly, family-owned and operated, and located near the Belmont and Woolen Mills neighborhoods. They’ve been serving the local community for ten years.
The Selection
Not only does Beer Run offer 27 beers on tap, but they’ve also got a plethora of beer, wine, and cider retail items for sale. Justin other members of the Beer Run team work hard to curate their collection to make sure to offer things you won’t find anywhere else in town
The “Green Sticker” Wines
Justin told us about his colleague, Chrissy Smith, the wine-buyer at Beer Run. She ensures that over half of the wine collection is either organic, bio-local, or biodynamic.
What does “biodynamic” mean? It’s actually a really cool term that says a lot about their wines. It means when, from grapevine to bottle, winemakers use as little machinery as possible when producing their product. They don’t even use tractors on their fields. Instead, horse-and-donkey-drawn plows till the land to make way grape plants.
Tim’s Tasting Experience
Justin poured Tim one of the trendiest beers of the summer. It’s called Nectar- an apricot-and-nectarine-infused hazy Double India pale ale from RaR Brewing.
Jim tells us that fruit-forward, hazy IPAs with low bitterness are killing it on the market nowadays. They are easy on the palate for those who aren’t used to hoppy, boozy craft beer, but at the same time, will satisfy seasoned beer connoisseurs. Also, he explains that the vibrant orange-yellow, cloudy appearance of the beer comes from the fruit-infusion and a brewing technique called “dry-hopping.”
Tim thought this hazy pale ale was a perfect summer drink. He enjoyed it so much, in fact, he couldn’t to have a second sip.
Planning a visit to Draft Taproom? Head here for location, hours, and contact information.
