Bobby-Q 

Downtown Norfolk's popular Bobby-Q BBQ Food Truck will return to Ribtoberfest in 2015!

Copper Fox Made in VA Product!

Copper Fox is a ‘Rye Spirit’ from the makers of Wasmund‘s Single Malt and is made at the eponymous Copper Fox distillery in Virginia. They were founded in January 2000 and have been playing with interesting spirits ever since, with their main two experiments being smoking malt using wood rather than peat and using wood chips in their barrels during maturation. The latter technique has been used in wine making for years to help develop woody flavours, but has been frowned on by the whiskey business as somehow ‘cheating’. Wasmund’s have happily ignored all that and continued to experiment.

The Rye isn’t a whisky (or a whiskey) for a couple of reasons. In the EU regulations state that you have to be matured for 3 years in oak to be called whisky and Copper Fox only sits in a cask for a year; In the USA you have to (almost always) fill your spirit into a new American oak cask to be called whiskey and Copper Fox uses refill barrels. They take a bit of Scottish whisky making tradition, ally it with a bit of American and add a bit of wood chip innovation to get something quite different.

Firstly the grain, a mix of 2/3 rye and 1/3 malted barley, is lightly smoked using a mix of apple and cherry wood. After distillation the spirit is filled into ‘used’ (I assume refill) bourbon casks and dosed with new and previously used apple and oak chips before being finished in ‘second used’ (2nd fill?) casks. - The Whiskey Exchange

Kopper Kettle Made in VA Product!

Belmont Farms is proud to introduce Virginia's first original recipe which is registered and trademarked "Virginia Whiskey."  Our special recipe is a triple grain whiskey, double wood, and twice distilled.  The Virginia Whiskey is first produced with grain grown on our farm (the only distillery in the U.S. that grows its own grain).  It is a secret formula of corn, wheat, and barley and is mashed and fermented in our all copper fermentation tanks.  Then, at just the right time, it is double distilled in our unique potstill using early American traditional methodology. Our Virginia Whiskey never sees any modern methods, i.e. column still.  Only a potstill can preserve the taste and aroma required for this unique product.  Our whiskey is then charcoal filtered and presoaked with oak and apple wood chips before it is aged in barrels for four years.  Before bottling, the barrels are hand selected in three barrel batches to preserve its uniqueness.  This is definitely a next generation Whiskey, so grab a glass of grain to glass goodness and enjoy! - Belmont Farm Distillery 

Wasmund's Single Malt Made in VA Product!

There is nothing as wonderful a new innovation! Here is the skinny from Rick Wasmund: "The foundation of our product is Thoroughbred barley from our own private grower and used by no other distillery. We malt our own, in small batches, using a traditional floor malting the way it's been done for centuries in Scotland. When the malt is ready to be dried, we don't use peat! Instead we use the smoke of an apple wood, cherry wood and oak wood fire that is kept at a slow burn for a night and a day. This is another first for single malt whisky that adds to the cascade of finishing flavors. When the malt is ready, it is milled here and mixed with hot water to make a sweet smoky mash that is pumped over to the fermenter where yeast is added and it is fermented out to a distiller's beer. The beer goes through our double pot still and comes out in one-barrel batches. It is said that the smaller the still the better the whisky, by that standard this may well be the best whisky on the market today! The next step is our secret chip and barrel aging process (patent pending). We can only tell you that it involves apple wood, cherry wood and oak chips, special selection and toasting techniques, and more time and passion than could be expected from a larger operation. - K&L Wine