Virginia Beer Month Day 2: #IPAday at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

Day 2 of Virginia Craft Beer Month finds your humble blogger sampling some tasty Virginia Brews in the RVA.  My friend Brian and I decided to check in at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, in Richmond, VA.  In addition to serving several unique and tasty beers, on Thursdays, Hardywood hosts a food truck derby in it's parking lot.  It being IPA day, we decided to focus on Hardywood's hoppier beers. 
Perhaps the most unique feature of Hardywood is its offering of in house, one-off beers, often infused with hops and spices via a randall.  I started out with the Reserve Bourbon IPA, and American IPA aged in a Bourbon barrel.  A unique twist on an IPA, the Bourbon barrel treatment is usually reserved for your more robust porters and stouts.  Next, it was the Belgian Double IPA, which happenend to flow through a randall infused with whole leaf citra, simcoe, and summit hops .  I must admit, I have a love/hate relationship with the "Belgianification" of the IPA style.  In my mind, the better Belgian IPA's exhibit a slightly restrained Belgian yeast character, which Hardywood's offering does.  The randall certainly gave the beer pronounced citrusy hoppy nose.  To finish our stay at Hardywood, we enjoyed a Hoplar, an American Double IPA aged on Virginia Poplar wood.  Unlike the previous two beers which are draft only, this beer is available in the Richmond area in bottles.

http://www.hardywood.com/