Visit Date: September 4, 2021
A lazy Labor Day weekend Saturday, and we flopped around pondering what to do. Doug had been wanting some oysters lately, so he did some looking in the google machine, and found the perfect place to go.
Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA. A brewery and a distillery. Plus, the food truck there had oysters. Beer and a food truck with oysters, and live music? A happy Doug and a good choice. Let's go.
Side note not related to beer: I'm always a little wary of oysters from a food truck, or oysters anywhere not like .... right next to the ocean. Inland Oysters to me sound like someone had to work hard to get them out there, and I'm not super cool with the concept, because it sounds like food poisoning.
Doug didn't mind. And since I don't eat them anyway, I'd be okay if he got ill, somehow. Hey baby, it's your body.
We grabbed the dog and the boy, and headed out. Flying Ace is in a beautiful section of Northern Virginia, way up near the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers.
We'd been up this way a few other times, having gone to nearby Harpers Ferry Brewing (in the eponymously named town) and to Brunswick's Smoketown Brewing right on the other side of the river. An hour later on a very scenic drive through Maryland, we rolled up on the breathtaking property with a big beautiful red barn and buildings, and a gorgeous blue sky.
This looked to be the place for us!
Top photo is where the beer is at, bottom photo is the distillery.
All around the area are cornfields, so my guess is that the silos (so classic) are for the harvested corn. It looked as if these are active use silos, and not remnants of the farm's former life.
I wasn't super interested in the distillery, but Geoff and Doug both went over to visit. I probably should have gone over and learned more about the silos that I suspected were in use, and learned more about their distilling process. But I opted to take the dog, and go get our first round of beers.
They have an outdoor tap, and I didn't even bother going inside to see what was happening because I had the dog. This was convenient, and there was no line.
The overall set up is really nice with a large rambling area of picnic tables and pavilion/stage right in the center. I sort of pictured it as the kind of place little kids would get up on and do their own little kid theater performances (speaking from experience) when there wasn't a live band playing.
But there was! Colin Thompson and Seth Bornstein took the stage shortly after Doug and Geoff came back from the distillery. They reported that folks were drinking banana daiquiris and mixed drinks, cocktails and mocktails, umbrellas and smiles all around.
As this is a beer blog, let's talk about the beers. Pictured above are the (Not) Just Peachy Fruited Sour (left) and the Flying Session IPA (right).
The Sour was indeed that, not heavily peachy but you could taste it in there. Nothing on the nose to start but such a nice tang. The IPA was cold and refreshing, great clean flavor, not too hoppy, light but not wimpy or anything.
Geoff got the Pilot's Pilsner (see down below for the 3 beer picture) which was also very nice. Kind of a surprising pilsner as I am used to those being a little on the watery side like a Budweiser or something, but this had great color and flavor.
With Colin and Seth providing a Grateful Dead and other jam bands infused mix, we sat and enjoyed the light, the sky, the not 900% humidity with 8400 degree temps. I loathe living in this area I have to admit. I do not enjoy the heat and humidity, and sometimes if I have to leave the house for any reason, I'm a grumpy gus. Saturday though? Saturday made up for the last 9 weeks or so of blah heat weather, and made me feel joyful and alive again.
And what a place to sit and feel that.
Here's the Punch Out IPA, slightly higher ABV than the other IPA that I started with, and backup musicians bringing on the soul with Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me," which is always a favorite of mine.
You could say this was shaping up to be a really gorgeous day!
Here's an artsy fartsy shot of the Warbird Wit, kind of a smoky smell at the start, which worried me (for those of you who know I do not enjoy Rauchbier) but it didn't taste like burning, and it had almost a cherry tang to it. Really nice and worthy of an artsy fartsy shot.
Final photo here is of the Flight Session, (Not) Just Peachy, and the Pilot's Pilsner. I noted that they all looked remarkably alike in color, but for sure they all tasted completely different and original. No mixing up of flavor!
As for the food truck, provided by the Polished Foxx, and my aforementioned personal fear of inland oysters: Doug said they were great and he didn't die from food poisoning in the night last night so a success can be declared. He was a very happy human.
Geoff got poutine which he did not share (rude!) and I got dumplings (which they both stole from, and the 2 I had were delicious even though they were described as Kung Pao and there was nothing pow about them), and the fried chicken pieces, which were a mix of good and kind of not. The chicken leg was perfect, the breast was dried out, and the wing and thigh disappeared because they were stolen out of my box. I am not a fan of sweet potato fries but Doug is, so he gladly ate those for me. The coleslaw with the dumplings was really nice, I would have liked a little more of that!
I should have gone with the non-shareable chicken sandwich. Note to self: your family is ruthless with food, get non-sharing food next time.
Flying Ace is truly a family and dog friendly space. There is a GIANT playground and parents were sitting at their tables watching the kids play and interact with other kids. There was a robust Capture The Flag game going on, and I'm not sure all the kids playing knew each other. One kid yelled "Hey! Guy! Hey in the blue shirt! Head to base! She's coming up fast on you!" and Blue Shirt Guy outran his pursuer.
Plenty of dogs to see and pet and talk to. Our dog is kind of a jerk to other dogs sometimes, so we kept him at a distance and let people know that if their dogs started to stretch over to say hi. The space is big enough that we felt comfortable having him there, and overall, he was very well behaved. He's a people dog so little girls came over to pet him and talk to him, and he enjoyed that attention.
My only complaint about the experience is a lack of shade. They had a couple of good tarp shades set up, but people had taken all these picnic tables. It kind of pissed me off to watch people dragging picnic tables all over the grass, ripping things up. Surely you could have found one of your friends to pick up the other end, dude.
By the time we were getting ready to leave, the shades started to touch our table. But it would have been a brutal experience out there if it had been hot like all the other days this whole summer. Not saying that ALL of the tables need to be in the shade, just a few more of those set ups would sure be helpful.
The staff was incredibly attentive, tables were cleaned as quickly as people left them, trash wasn't left filling up and pouring out. It is a beautiful spot, and I'm sure we will be back.
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