3rd Annual OktoberForest Craft Beer Festival Highlights the Bounty of Virginia’s Lands and Waters
Fine Creek Brewing and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are co-hosting an annual celebration of the lands and waters on which all life (and beer) depend—and you’re invited. OktoberForest Fest 2024 will take place on Fine Creek’s beautiful grounds in Powhatan from noon until 6 p.m. on Sunday, September 15. Attendees can enjoy food, music and a variety of craft beers featuring local ingredients—including four collaborative brews, each starring a wild ingredient recently foraged from a TNC Virginia conservation site.
A Festival Inspired by a Forest
Adding a festival to OktoberForest was the brainchild of Upweller Beer Company brewer Josh Chapman, who first reached out to TNC back in 2019 with the “crazy idea” (his words) to make a beer with longleaf pine—the tree that launched the largest forest-restoration effort in North America.
Fast-forward to July 2024: I found myself riding shotgun as Chapman steered our UTV along a primitive road through TNC’s Piney Grove Preserve. Two similar off-road vehicles completed our caravan, which included Chapman’s wife and business partner, Jen, their three young daughters, and two local TNC staffers—Bobby Clontz and Andi Clinton.
After enjoying a short nature hike, the Chapmans and TNC staffers cheerfully set to work in a grove of slender young longleaf pine trees. Trimming only the lowest branches so that the trees would remain unharmed, the group soon filled several bags with clusters of green pine needles.
The following day, Chapman joined the brew team at Fine Creek to cook up Upweller’s first batch for the festival. After several hours, the vat of hot wort was ready for the addition of two mesh sacks filled with longleaf. Like giant tea bags, they steeped for a prescribed time as a citrusy-pine aroma permeated the brewhouse.
Tastes of Virginia on Tap
Will Chapman’s Piney Grove IPA—the beer that inspired OktoberForest Fest—taste as good as it smelled? You can try it for yourself at this year’s festival.
For the third year running, three other breweries also paired off with TNC landscape teams to forage an iconic local ingredient for a signature beer. Festival attendees will get the first taste of all four collaborative brews:
- Allegheny Highlands Farmhouse Ale: Brewed by Fine Creek Brewing with sassafras leaves from Warm Springs Mountain Preserve
- Barrier Islands Gose: Brewed by Väsen Brewing Company with eelgrass from the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve
- Clinch Valley Amber Lager: Brewed by Sweetbay Brewing Company with red spruce tips from Clinch Mountain
- Piney Grove IPA: Brewed by Upweller Beer Company with longleaf pine from Piney Grove Preserve
In addition, eight guest breweries will be on hand to pour their own creations featuring local ingredients:
- Blindhouse Beer
- Bluejacket Brewery
- Garden Grove Brewing
- Heliotrope Brewery
- Lost Generation Brewing Company
- Mieza Blendery
- Selvedge Brewing
- Sojourn Fermentory
Tap Takeovers Offer Second Chance
Can’t make it to Powhatan? Our sister event, the Taste of Virginia Tap Takeover, will bring our collaborative beers to locations across Virginia and one in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, October 2:
- Abingdon: Sweetbay Brewing Company
- Alexandria: Evening Star Café
- Charlottesville: Beer Run
- Norfolk: The Birch Bar
- Norton: Lincoln Road Coffee Lounge
- Richmond: Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
- Washington, D.C.: Andy’s Pizza, NOMA
Event times will be announced after Labor Day. For the latest information, bookmark our event page and follow TNC Virginia on Facebook and Instagram.
All four landscape beers will be on tap at each location, but quantities are limited. Get there early for the best chance of trying all four!
Beer Doesn’t Grow on Trees. But…
To make beer, you need grain, hops, yeast and the main ingredient: water. The quality and abundance of our water supply depend on healthy surrounding natural areas, especially forests. From canopy to roots, every part of a forest plays a critical role in filtering, storing and protecting our water.
The Nature Conservancy’s annual OktoberForest celebration raises awareness about the critical role forests play in cleaning the water we drink and use for delightful creations such as craft beer.
By highlighting this connection, we hope beer lovers from Virginia and around the globe will feel more connected to nature—and inspired to help us protect it. Learn more at nature.org/virginia.
