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If you love autumn’s bright colors, golden light, and crisp air, you’re probably spending as much time as possible outdoors, enjoying hiking, biking, camping, sporting events, and leaf peeping. When a seasonal chill is in the air, extend your time outside by pulling on your cozy fleece and gathering with friends around a crackling fire pit. Make it even better by sipping a delicious craft beer! While most Beerwerks breweries have outdoor spaces, the ones we’re featuring this month warm those spaces with fire pits, making them ideal destinations for those looking to combine beer tasting with a seasonal outdoor experience.

Stable Craft Brewing

Stable Craft Brewing has several huge fire pits surrounded by Adirondack chairs, so there’s never a chance you won’t find a seat. S’mores kits are available to occupy the kids (and your sweet tooth). Cozy up for a long chat with friends, and if you’re hungry, Stable Craft boasts a chef-inspired menu with appetizers, sandwiches, salads, and entrees. The extensive outdoor space also has a shaded patio, picnic tables, and a variety of lawn games like volleyball and cornhole. When really cold weather hits, groups of up to eight people can reserve private heated igloos. Stable Craft has lots of indoor seating (and an indoor fireplace) and hosts regular events like weekend live music, holiday and beer-release parties, and special events like dancing, craft workshops, gourmet dinners, and mystery theater. Make a weekend of it by reserving one of Stable Craft’s on-site suites, just steps away from the taproom.

Cave Hill Farms Brewery

After you’ve spent the day hiking or biking at Massanutten, wind down at Cave Hill Farms Brewery. You’ll find an exceptional beer menu, full of IPAs, lagers, porters, ales, and even hard seltzers. The beer is made with farm-grown barley and hops as well as fresh water from the farm’s well. If the cool weather has stoked your appetite, the onsite Feedlot serves tasty bar food and has a kids’ menu. The brewery tasting room is in the large former feedlot of this working farm. While no cows use the space, visitors can explore exhibits of antique farming equipment, buggies, and more. The large outside seating area has views of the farm and mountains. Choose a seat at a shaded table during the day, or around the fire pit at night. Kids can stay busy playing cornhole. Catch live music on Fridays, Saturdays, and occasional Sundays.

Seven Arrows Brewing

Seven Arrows Brewing has several ways to enjoy the outdoors while visiting the brewery. Have a seat on the deck with a selection of open and shaded tables, enjoy the picnic tables in the graveled beer garden, or draw in close at the fire pit. There’s also an indoor fireplace to enjoy on especially chilly nights. The 12 beers on tap at Seven Arrows include lagers, pilsners, IPAs and a variety of seasonal and rotational brews. On-site Nobos Kitchen serves up American fare with a twist emphasizing locally sourced ingredients for lunch, dinner, and late-night snacks. The pooch and the kids are welcome, and there’s a kids’ menu and board games to keep them busy.

Rockbridge Vineyard & Brewery

Not only does Rockbridge Vineyard & Brewery serve amazing craft beer, award-winning wine, and a dry cider, but it also provides a peaceful atmosphere that makes a visit the best part of your week. Inside, a rustic modern taproom lets you choose from a variety of seating options, but if you want to enjoy the peaceful rural views of farm and vineyard, head outside. Take a seat on the deck, kick back in the Adirondack chairs on the lawn, set up a picnic in the pavilion, or gather around the crackling fire pit. Enjoy live “Uncorked” acoustic music on weekend afternoons as well as other events like “Sip & Paint” sessions and Mimosa Saturdays, and grab a snack of local cheeses from the tasting room or from a scheduled food truck. 

Fire pits are wonderful places to bring people together. The warmth helps your crew relax, and sampling a selection of locally-crafted brews really helps spotlight the particular characteristics of the season. Toast the autumn around a Beerwerks fire pit today!

Giant spiders stud the decorative cobwebs, the Halloween candy tempts you from the cabinet, and the scary movies are topping your Netflix feed. But after sitting alone on your couch last year, aren’t you ready to say “boo” to being a homebody? Fortunately, there are tons of ways to leave your house and have fun with real, live (or at least undead) people. Read on for details about historical ghost tours, horrifying haunted houses, and tricky (and family-friendly) corn mazes. Don’t forget to swing by your favorite Beerwerks brewery for some liquid courage before or after your adventure.

Ghost Tours

Make reservations to take the 90-minute Haunting Tales Ghost Tour through historic Lexington. Devised by local legend Mark Cline whose Dinosaur Kingdom II was named Virginia’s Best Roadside Attraction by USA Today, the tour combines entertainment with an exploration of Lexington’s dark streets and interesting history. Professional guides will lead participants through the city’s spookiest locations, winding up at Oak Grove Cemetery. 

Black Raven Paranormal’s Ghosts of Staunton Tours leads the brave and curious to the most haunted spots in Staunton. The candlelight tours give participants a healthy dose of history. 90-minute experiences include Staunton’s Haunted History, Dark Tales and Haunts, Haunted American Hotel, and Haunted Depot Spirit Tours.

Are spirits on the loose in Staunton’s Thornrose Cemetery? A 22-foot marble Confederate infantryman marks the mass grave of 1,700 fallen Civil War soldiers killed on area battlefields. Cemetery architecture includes mausoleums, monuments, an arching footbridge, and a tower. Check back next year for the Augusta County Historical Society’s Conversations from the Grave tour.

Haunted Harrisonburg Ghost Tours won’t be happening this year because of Covid, but check back next year to learn about the Friendly City’s spookiest residents.

Haunted Houses

People with weak bladders are warned against entering Madame Redrum’s Nine Gates of Doom. This Waynesboro haunted house experience promises one of the “most frightening haunted attractions in Virginia” with all new scares. Visitors will be “bombarded with sights, sounds, and smells.”

Fear Forest – Harrisonburg, VA

Get spooked in the forest, run from zombies in the corn, and tour a factory haunted by demonic clowns. The three all-new haunted spaces include interactive features, animatronics, and super scary sights and sounds.

Mazes and More

Rockingham County’s Back Home on the Farm features a 5-acre corn maze, ziplines, slides, wagon rides, games, a spooky enchanted garden, a carousel, a petting zoo, pig races, and much more.

Skeeter’s Maze Adventure in Crimora will thrill the family with its 6-acre corn maze and Candyland-themed scavenger hunt.

Troyer’s Fruit and Produce Farm has a pumpkin patch, a big corn maze, and a fall-themed Virginia LOVEworks sign.  

Besides great deals on pumpkins, Mount Crawford’s Mulberry Hills Pumpkin Patch offers hayrides, photo ops, and a menagerie of friendly farm animals.

The Blackburn Inn, a boutique hotel in Staunton, was once part of Western State Hospital, an 1820s institution that once specialized in the emotional wellbeing of psychiatric patients. Could it be haunted by former residents? Book a room or enjoy drinks or dinner at the Second Draft Bistro and imagine history coming to life.

Most Beerwerks craft beers are meant to be enjoyed in their purest form. However, sometimes it’s fun or festive to mix things up a little. While you might not want to go the route of pouring liquor or juice or other additives to your beer, you can sometimes get a satisfying and complex taste (or look) when you mix two different styles of beer in one glass. Why not try a beer blend as an alternative to green beer this St. Patty’s Day?

Can I Just Mix Any Beer Together?

Mixed beers can taste amazing, but you often have to play around a bit to get the proportions right and keep one flavor from overpowering the mix. So, if you’re playing around with mixes at home or asking for a new flavor in the taproom, try a small pour first.

What’s a Half and Half?

Probably the most famous blended beer drink is the half and half (a.k.a. the black and tan). Half and halfs are mixed beer cocktails made from dark beers like stouts or porters poured over lighter beers like pale ales or lagers. The beers layer in the glass because of differences in densities. The differences in color between them create a cool-looking and great-tasting drink that’s often associated with Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day because Guinness stout is a common ingredient. You might know them as black and tans, but many people consider that name offensive due to the violent role British forces (nicknamed black and tans) played in oppressing Irish freedom in the 1920s. Though many Beerwerks breweries don’t have this drink on the menu, just ask if they can recommend a good pairing for your mix. And if you’d rather enjoy this tasty, layered cocktail at home, great news: they’re really easy to make.

Make One at Home

You make a half and half by layering two beers. One should be a crisp, slightly bitter pale ale or lager, and the other a dark, creamy stout (that way you’ll actually be able to see the dividing line). The dark beer will float to the top because it has a higher alcohol content and alcohol floats on water (or beer with less alcohol). 

Start by filling your pint glass halfway with the lighter beer. Next, being careful not to dash or splash your beer, pour the darker beer on top. Pouring the second beer over the back of a spoon is a good way to achieve this. Fancy bar spoons with crooks in their necks are specially designed to make this easier by hooking over the rim of the glass. 

If you should accidentally start with your darker beer, never fear: your black and tan might not achieve the impressive beer divide, but your blended drink will still taste great.

What Beers Do I Use? 

Traditional recipes call for Bass Ale and Guinness Stout, but others may be substituted. For the light beer, you’ll want something light and slightly bitter. Consider a pale ale, pale lager, or Pilsner. Any dark stout or porter should work, as long as it’s higher in alcohol.

What Beer Blends Can I Get in a Beerwerks Taproom?

• Seven Arrows Brewing suggests a half and half using Sundog Milkstout and Spindrift Maibock, which will be freshly released. They’ll also be serving a special green version of their Skyline Lager.
• Pale Fire Brewing Co. suggests Skinny Dennis + Red Molly or Skinny Dennis + Sweet Nuthin’.

  

• Heliotrope Brewing will make you a mix using an IPA and a fruit beer.
• Brothers Craft Brewing suggests forgoing the mix and enjoying their Galway Girl Irish stout on nitro for a smooth, creamy St. Patty’s Day libation.
• Skipping Rock Beer Company has a new release: Irish Red Ale.
• Redbeard Brewing Company serves a delicious “House Blend,” which is half A.M. O.G. Stout and half Blueberry Wheat. They also have one called a “Blacklight” and that is 60% Blueberry Wheat 40% Black Rye IPA.