PURCELLVILLE, VIRGINIA
While Purcellville’s Adroit Theory specializes in boozy barrel-aged elixirs and strong hybridized ales, BELLY LOVE BREWING COMPANY relies more on approachable moderate-to-medium body fare. Inside the red-bricked Shoppes at Main Street mall next to Coney Island Diner and a pizza parlor, Belly Love brewer, Tolga Baki, crafts a diverse range of familiar ale styles in his rear brew tanks. Open for business since November 2014, its latticed front deck leads patrons to the centralized bar.
A comfy lounge area near the entrance adds a vintage homey atmosphere with its sofas, easy chairs and cocktail table while exposed ducts and pipes fill the high ceiling. Several buddha-bellied statues and insignias serve as mascots for the serene family-owned alehouse.
The limited menu on this sunny September ’15 afternoon featured honey mustard-spiced pretzels, Scotch eggs, artichoke dips, flatbread sandwiches and burgers. My wife and I shared the sour-creamed, bacon-cheesed, potato-fried Tot Nachos while consuming seven fine tapped offerings.
Easygoing Weisse Weisse Baby crossed hefeweizen-like banana and clove sweetness with lemony orange-fruited American wheat ale traits above biscuit-y wheat malts. Lightly grain-charred Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em seared oak-smoked wheat malts into lemony herbal Saaz hops.
Light pilsner-malted Narcissist Munich Helles Lager brought sugary orange and peach spicing to its raw barley musk. In contrast, rich amber-toned Vienna lager, Marz Attacks, draped toasted pilsner malts atop leafy Hallertau hops and tangy orange-pineapple-grapefruit zest.
Mildly fruit-spiced (despite its provocatively harsh moniker), Shut The Fook Up Pale Ale saddled orange-candied tartness with floral-perfumed hops. Better still, Belgian-styled strong ale, 50 Shades Of Gold, placed citric-spiced Saaz hops against rum-sugared coriander sweetness.
For dessert, creamy oatmeal stout, Eye Of Jupiter, loaded mocha nuttiness all over black patent malts, leaving roasted coffee bean, black chocolate, dark cocoa, cola nut and hazelnut illusions in its wake.