Aviator Brewery

Aviator Brewery

We had purchased a Living Social deal for a tour package at Aviator (tour for two, two beers, empty growler, and bumper sticker for $14 versus regular cost of $30).  If you are only interested in a tour then just pay for the cost of one beer which runs around $5 depending on which beer you order.  Aviator offers tours on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons but the coupon was only good for Saturday tours. They open at 3 PM on Saturday with tours starting at 4 PM.

We got there around 3:30 and the place was packed. A lot of people were just hanging out, a lot had the coupon deal and a lot of people were there for one of the “Shooting and Drinking” events. This is a package deal where you get to go shoot sporting clays then back to brewery for beer and bbq sampling. It was a bit chaotic in terms of not knowing what was going on but when in doubt make your way to the bar which is what we did. The bartender marked our coupon to show we had obtained our free beers and indicated that after the tour to just show the coupon again for our growler. We found a spot to sit to consume our beers while we waited for the 4 PM tour starting time. Right around 4 PM a large group of people made their way over to the large fermentation tanks and they were joined by an employee who proceeded to tell them about the brewery. We debated whether to join in – after all, seen one brewery seen them all, but did decide to work our way around and join the group. He went through the typical process of explaining ingredients, had open bags of hops and barley for people to touch and sniff, and explained the stages of brewing. Unfortunately, it was very hot inside and even hotter standing between the large fermentation tanks so we didn’t last the whole tour. I did learn something I did not know and that is that the flavors in wheat beers such as banana, clove, etc. actually come from the yeast and are not added. Once we opted not to finish the tour we resumed trying beers and hanging out with everyone else in the place.

Tour Time

Besides the main bar, there is a small seated bar area and a large round table and chairs, foosball table, and TV mounted on the wall. Further inside the building they have corn hole set up with multiple groups playing and another bar and tasting table for those involved in the Shooting and Drinking event. Out front they only had one small patio table but several groups were standing around hanging out in the sunshine. It was horribly warm inside the building but they had fans blowing in different locations. Was fine except for periods of time when it was so crowded the fans were being blocked by bodies. It is definitely a place worth checking out but if you are temperature sensitive I would recommend waiting for cooler weather. Or better yet, check out their Smokehouse and Taproom which is where we plan to go next time when we want our growler refilled.

Looking from seated bar towards back of building.

Beers we tasted:

• Mad Beach Wheat – half barley and half wheat, was very good in my opinion but Brad thought was too grassy tasting. I thought the spices were very mild making it a very pleasant beer to drink.
• Hogwild IPA – was a nice very extra hoppy IPA and Brad’s favorite of the day. This is what we decided to fill our growler with upon departure ($10 to fill growler).
• Devil’s Tripel – described as a tripel that finishes sweet which was very accurate. We did not care for that sweetness.
• Hotrod Red – “somewhat classic red” described again as having a malty sweetness. I thought it was interesting in a good way with a strong caramel flavor for a red ale. Brad did not like.
• Crazy Pils – we think, this was supposed to be our Hotrod Red but when Brad brought it to me it was obviously something else. Process of elimination leads me to think it was the Crazy Pils – Czech style pilsner with more body. It had a nice light hop character.

Looking across front towards doors, bar to the left.

West Jefferson Area Adventures: Part 3 Saturday Wine Tastings

These three wineries are in a nice cluster with very pretty driving through the mountains. You do need to pack some food if planning to visit all three in one trip because none of them offer food for sale and there are no obvious eating stops if you are going directly from one to the next. All have seating options if you do bring something to eat but the first two are the most scenic if you do want to picnic.  We ended up snacking on fruit I had picked up during the Hampton Inn complimentary breakfast.

First stop of the day was Chateau Laurinda in Sparta, NC. Our phone GPS provided the most direct and therefore the most adventuresome route. Things got interesting when the road we turned onto had a “bridge out/road closed in 0.7 miles” sign and our GPS said to go ¾ mile and turn right. Luckily the road was closed just past our turn point which happened to be a one lane dirt road deep in the woods (cue banjo from Deliverance). A mile later, after nerve racking meeting with a large truck coming in the opposite direction, we pop out onto a paved road at the winery, which very clearly has a much friendlier driving route heading into it opposite from the direction we came. My phone gives me the option to avoid highways, why can’t it give me the option to avoid dangerously scary, one lane, deep rutted, unpaved mountain roads? Once there we did find a very pretty tasting house on the top of the hill with a large sitting porch overlooking the vineyard.

This family has been making wines for 15 years but the recipes in the family go back over 100 years and are the German style of wine making - more dry than overly sweet. Kudos to the owners for offering a $2 tasting if you chose to use plastic cups versus $5 for the take home glass (after a while you simply have too many glasses and you can only go through one Christmas season giving them away to everyone you know). But while we could literally taste all of their 30 wines if we wanted to, she was very careful to barely pour drinkable portions for us. So my tasting notes come with a strong caution because it is very hard to actually taste in a single sip. Instead of providing actual tasting notes by wine I am going to list these by groups:

• White wine: only tasted the Niagra which was very light, dry, not overly sweet
• NC Native Grapes: tasted Noble, Muscadine, and Scuppernong – this grouping was dry, tart, and had lingering pucker power with the Noble being the most tart
• Red Wines: Cabernet Sauvignon was pale red and very light but tart, Sangria (blend) was excellent and lightly fruity, Alleghany Red (blend) was refreshingly light, Chandler was very tart but had a good fruit after taste.
• Fruit Wines: Blue Fox (blackberry) sweeter than most blackberry wines with very little fruit flavor, Plum was very good, Strawberry was lightly fruity, Appleberry (strawberry and apple) was very good and fruity, Raspberry had a pleasant sweet/tart like the fruit, Mango was too tart.

We ended up buying a bottle each of Sangria, Appleberry and Strawberry (Collecting NC Strawberry wines is something I apparently do now and one day will mix them all together into one large batch of sangria.)

View from the porch overlooking vineyard at Chateau Laurinda

Second stop of the day was easier to get to after we took the paved route away from the first winery:  Thistle Meadow in Laurel Springs, NC. This place was busy and they had a vibrant crew of pourers settling groups in as people arrived. There were tastings taking place on the porch and inside with multiple tiers of seating available in front of the bar. The same person may not help you throughout but someone will help you. We were provided with the tasting sheet and instructed to review and pick six to try with the explanation given that beyond six you really cannot truly evaluate the wines. A tasting costs $3 unless you end up buying at least one bottle of wine. There are 60 wines to choose from! Yes - 60 wines covering dry whites, Riesling styles, dry reds, Italian styles, blush wines, sweet/sour wines, and sweet whites. The winemaker is a former pharmacist and obviously still loves to formulate combinations. They gave us one wine glass and we purchased its mate for $5 because they are the nice large red wine style glasses that we like (and we are happy to see more places providing them). This winery ended up being our favorite stop of the day. The ladies doing the tastings were so very entertaining and gave the whole place a festive mood. Here are the ten wines we managed to taste between the two of us:

• Gewurztraminer Ice Wine (cost $2 more to taste this one but that was waived when we bought more than one bottle of wine) - good sweetness as needed for a pleasant dessert wine, very nice
• Glade Valley Red (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot) – light oak, mild berries and very smooth
• North Fork Red (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Shiraz) – tarter than Glade Valley, pick up on the Shiraz
• Pine Swamp Red (Cabernet Franc) – good body, nice tannins and oaky, very good
• Feather Bed Red (Cabernet Sauvignon) – sour cherry fruit, soft finish
• Bourgeron (Pinot Noir) – very light but not empty, good fruit
• Old Vine Zinfandel – tart with black pepper flavors (bought one bottle)
• Tom’s Special Blend (Barbara, aged 4 years by accident when they found two forgotten cases) – oaky, smoky, and very, very good (bought one bottle)
• Air Bellows Red (Sangiovese) – very nice strong acidity, lots of tannins, would go with spicy Italian food (bought two bottles)
• Horse Stomp Red (White Zinfandel) – very nice raspberry flavors and was fantastic with dark chocolate (bought one bottle)

Final stop of the day was New River in Lansing, NC and I am sorry to say it was a major disappointment after the fun we had at Thistle Meadow. In their defense they have not been open long and are very small scale. As a result of that many of the wines we would have liked to taste were unavailable – as in we ran out today and just need to bottle some more. They do have a very interesting location on an old school campus. The tasting bar is a fairly nice outdoor covered patio with plenty of picnic tables but not much of a view. They do have a demonstration vineyard and offer tours of the production facility. Of their 13 wines, six were available for tasting and two more were available for sale but not open to taste. In back calculating I think the tasting cost us $3 each and we did not get to keep the glasses.

• Seyval – similar to Chenin Blanc, very light, some herbal flavors, mild sour after taste
• Nathan’s Creek White (Niagra) – sweeter more like eastern NC style, good fruit flavor (bought one bottle)
• Big Laurel Blush (blend of Seyval and Baco Noir) – sweet with some tartness
• Baco Noir (French American Hybrid) – earthy, tart with some spice (bought one bottle)
• Sweet Bubba Noir (Baco Noir) – medium body, semi-sweet red
• Back Porch Blueberry (Blueberry) – vanilla and caramel flavors, very tart/dry (bought one bottle)

We did not get to taste the Hellbender but in discussing it with the host decided to take a chance. We drank the bottle in our hotel room that night. Some tartness/acidity with good body and was the best of the wines we had actually tasted at the winery.

Tasting of New River Hellbender along with Ashe County
Extra Sharp White Cheddar and assorted other snacks