VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Two entrepreneurial Virginia Tech grads, Aaron and Christine Holley, decided to showcase “German Style Brewing with a Beach Kick” and in 2015 started a water dog-named brewery for all the local denizens. On the outskirts of Virginia Beach, WASSERHUND BREWING COMPANY crafts some outstanding homemade Bavarian draught fare to go alongside damn fine artisan pizza and German meats.
A central bar services several wood-metal tables and four outdoor patios beneath an aluminum overhang. Surfboards decorate the ceiling alongside Edison lights while a huge blackboard displays tapped beer list.
My wife and I shared Puggle Pizza (white-sauced feta cheese with bacon, onions and mushrooms) while hanging out, ironically, with our puggle, Roscoe, mid-July 2018.
Mild PureBred Pilsner, a German-styled light body, coalesced grassy-hopped pilsner malting with corn-sugared sweetness and tingly spicing.
A Helles lager with Czech pilsner tendencies, Schutzhund Lager retained dry-hopped herbal pungency, wet-grained dankness and lemon-soured spritz.
Kettle-soured Salty Dog Gose let ground coriander serenade raw-honeyed lager yeast, whereas sharply tart pink-hued Raspberry Salty Dog Gose brought lemony raspberry souring to salt-licked coriander spicing.
Black tea-like Belgian blonde hybrid, German TEArrier, gained dried plum tones and delicate hop spicing.
Soft-toned German Shepheweizen retained lightly creamed vanilla sweetness and distant banana-bubblegum sugaring, leaving wispy herbal nuances in its wake.
Orange blossom-honeyed Summer Fetch Citrus Honey Wheat picked up herbal lemongrass reminders for lemonade-sugared pale wheat malts.
Nifty hop-forward Doggy Paddled IPA, a medium-bodied West Coast version, allowed mild grapefruit and navel orange tang to pick up light lemon souring for contrast against sweet honeyed pale malts.
Breakfast-styled Haywire Husky Coffee Pale Lager offered milk-creamed coffee pleasantries to pale malt dryness in an understated manner.
Casual nightcap, Bitchin’ Bacon Stout, draped mild bacon-smoked fattiness upon chocolate-milked cocoa fudging and peanut-charred whims.