For many visitors to Washington, DC, their experience of Virginia is the interstate from Dulles on the way to the city, Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, and maybe the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center. The capitol claims the lion’s share of the spotlight, despite Virginia’s extensive history in the founding of the country and its many attractions (both natural and historical).
But where there are people, there will be beer, and the bedroom communities of Northern Virginia—for years the sleepy home of government workers commuting into the capitol and its environs—have risen with the craft tide. Today, buoyed by a statewide push to grow more brewer-friendly, the creative breweries of "NOVA" are becoming destinations of their own.
It seems like yesterday that we wrote about the D.C. area, where these ‘burbs received merely a passing mention. How times have changed. Join us for a guide to the highlights of this burgeoning beer scene.