Beer Around Here- New Realm
Food, fire pits, fenced in children pens and fantastic beer; this edition of Beer Around Here covers, New Realm, located at 1209 Craft Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23454.
New Realm, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is known for its innovation and adherence to traditional techniques. New Realm’s experimentation pushes the boundary of expectation at the same time, never straining the limits of quality; driving for excellence in every beer produced.
New Realm is an easy jaunt from Sandbridge and an excellent place for the family to enjoy games, fire pits, inspired food, and the most crucial attraction, incredible beer. As one walks through their gate and onto their patio ringed with gas fires and milling groups enjoying the fall evenings, you know you’ve entered a “new realm”. Entering the facility to see an expansive room walled by brick and murals, there is a massive bar with 30 taps, a colorful display of 15 or so available drafts, then mirroring the massive bar are glass industrial sized doors to watch the production teams at work. In my experience, if you ask the bartender there is usually something not displayed but waiting for discovery.
Making sure only the most enjoyable breweries and watering-holes make it to the Beer Around Here list, my cousin and I went and had ourselves a flight of beer to make some suggestions. A New Realm flight is made up of six snifters of any listed beer. From the twelve tried, we decided on our favorite six “must try” beers. From their mainstay brews, Hoptripolis IPA was our favorite. An IPA that made me miss summer Hoptripolis is a rich hoppy IPA with hints of citrus, pineapple, and peach. Golden in color, it is a beer worthy of getting a six-pack of on your way out the door. Hazy like a Fox New England IPA, utilizing a double dry-hopped process once burring fermentation, and once post-fermentation, has a tremendous orange juice character with intense aromatics. Another favorite tried was the Munich Dunkel Lager. This might be caused by sitting by a fire pit as the sun disappears early on a fall night, but the rich amber lager seemed perfect for the moment.
Some other “must tries” if you can make a trip soon are on the small batches list. Tyrannosaurus Flex, Imperial / Double New England IPA has a summary I cannot replicate so enjoy the description form the brewer themselves, “A Hazy DIPA hopped exclusively with hops from New Zealand. Wai-is, Motueka, and Rakau hop combined with Norwegian Kviek yeast give this monster DIPA a cretaceous amount of juicy, fruity notes such as mango, pineapple, peach, apricot, and citrus. Balanced with an herbal, piney, and lightly dank full-body, this hazy beast is the ruler of the realm!”
I’m not much of a cider guy, but in the fall, exceptions can be made. If they are your cup of tea, you must try New Realm’s Inkjet Cider. Combining sweet, savory, and tart, this cider makes one think they have a blackberry mimosa, not a craft-brewed cider.
The last beer is a bit of a mystery, and I had to go back for seconds. It is a limited brew and had a name I barely caught; the bartender just told me to ask for the Chocolate Imperial IPA, so I did and was not disappointed. Rich, dark, heavily aromatic with a hint of spice; try ordering it and see if the bartenders can point you in the right direction.
Give New Realm a visit the next time you are in town visiting the beautiful Sandbridge Beach. Enjoy your time, some beer, good food, and remember to drink responsibly allocating a designated driver before you go. If your family is looking for a new place for dinner or a local attraction, just ask the Beach People at Siebert Realty and let us help you!
