The Wild Way That Craft Beer Breweries Are Majorly Upping the Ante

Odell Brewing has been producing award-winning craft beers long before it was a thing—since 1989. Granted, people along the coasts still might not have heard of them since 65% of their beers are sold in their home state of Colorado. Nevertheless, those in the know agree that Odell beer is one of the best. Then in 2020, they upped their game by launching their own winery, called the OBC Wine Project. The grapes are sourced from Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, and they’re all about experimentation—signature wines include rosé with bubbles and guava spritz. Both wine and beer can be enjoyed in the taproom or the backyard, along with live music, food trucks, and cheese and charcuterie platters.

Wicked Weed crashed onto the craft brewery scene in 2012 with spectacular Belgian ales and West Coast-style IPAs. And then, they decided to dabble with natural wines. Their operation, which launched in 2021 and is called Vīdl, uses grapes grown in the Yakima Valley in Washington (where Wicked Weed sources its hops). Their wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Blaufränkisch Rosé, and Red Piquette. Anheuser-Busch bought them out in 2017, but that hasn’t slowed their mission of offering adventurous beers—and now wines.

The original brewery and taproom are in downtown Asheville, offering a full restaurant, taproom, beer garden, and two outdoor patios. There’s another brewery in West Asheville, with a taproom, food truck, and outdoor space, and what’s called the Funkatorium, in Asheville’s South Slope, claiming to be the East Coast’s first sour beer dedicated taproom. You can get their wines at all three.

Of course, it’s not news that a winery exists in Napa, but a winery AND a brewery all in one? Now that’s news! Award-winning winemaker/brewmaster Elaine St. Clair and President Laina Brown joined forces to establish this tour de force in 2010 (the winery) and 2018 (the brewery)—Elaine graduated from UC Davis’s fermentation science program in both winemaking and master brewing (she is the first woman in the U.S. to become certified as both a winemaker and master brewer). The fairy-light-draped patio is the place to be, whether you’re sipping their signature Estate Syrah or Honey Wheat Ale (made with local organic honey). Typically, there are ten wines and a rotating selection of 14 beers on tap at a time. Laina designs all the food to pair with the wine and beer, offering such garden-fresh small plates as pickled Romanesco and hummus made with organic chickpeas and roasted peanuts.

It started as a winery in the lush rolling hills of the southern Shenandoah Valley, just minutes from I-81. Opened in 1993 by Shep and Jane Rouse, family-owned Rockbridge Vineyard went on to produce award-winning wines, including the DeChiel Chardonnay, which snagged a gold medal at the esteemed 2021 Virginia Governor’s Cup. Then, several years back, guided by brewmaster April Anderson, they added on a nano-brewery, focusing on crafted, small-batch brews.

“It was how we wooed our son Parke to come work for us,” Jane says. Parke now helps to run the brewery. You can enjoy a flight of wine or brew in the window-filled indoor tasting room—even better, at a picnic table overlooking vine-draped hills. Live music is offered every Sunday, rain or shine.

Everyone around here knows John Pulos, Wagner’s “wine educator”—a treasure chest of information, history, and stories, with a marvelously dry sense of humor. As he pours your wine, he’ll tell you all about Wagner Vineyards, how it was established in 1979, became a respected, family-run winery in New York’s Finger Lakes region, and how more than 30 different wines are being produced by the family’s fourth and fifth generations. But there’s more than wine here.

Wagner Valley Brewing Company opened on-site in 1997, becoming one of the region’s first small-craft breweries. Six standard brews are available year-round, along with a variety of seasonal specialties. In this supreme setting, overlooking dazzling Seneca Lake, you can have your wine and beer—and food, too. The late founder Bill Wagner believed wine and food are a natural combination—the philosophy behind Ginny Lee Café at Wagner Vineyards for dishes perfectly paired with Wagner’s wines and beers.

Snuggled in the Blue Ridge foothills of northern Virginia, the popular Quattro Goombas is all about friends and fun. Its name, after all, derives from the Italian for “four close friends and applies to everyone that experiences our establishment,” says winemaker and co-owner Jay DeCianno. But the legacy is deeper than that. Willie Thomas Campbell, co-owner David Camden’s great-grandmother, began making wine just after the Civil War in Bedford County, perhaps Virginia’s first recorded female winemaker. Today, you can taste artisan wines following Old World methods, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Sorelle—the signature is DiNonni, a family recipe. And then there are the beers. Head brewer Chris Jacques ensures there are numerous rotating taps—they’re best known for their Bright Light, an American Light Lager. And while we’re focusing on grapes and hops, you need to visit the pizza kitchen, serving up pans of Sicilian-style pie, which is worth the trip alone. Live music throughout the year rounds out a full day of fun.

Minnesota may be off the radar when it comes to both beer and wine, but this winery-brewery just west of Minneapolis unites the two in a gorgeous bucolic setting on six vine-draped acres overlooking a glistening lake. Opened in 2013 by Aaron and Ashley Schram, this family-run affair produces award-winning wines ranging from cold-hardy whites to dry reds. Then, in 2014, they opened a small-batch craft brewery, too (the couple met at an Oktoberfest with Aaron dressed in lederhosen, so it makes sense). There’s always a party at the tasting room, with bocce ball courts (the league meets Thursday nights), food trucks, and live music.

Sitting on 165 acres about an hour and a half west of Washington, D.C., in the rolling green foothills of the Blue Ridge, Old House Vineyards has something for everyone. Because not only is it a winery, it’s a brewery, as well as a distillery (Virginia’s first “trifecta,” they say). Each tasting room has a different feel: Try the Gold-Medal-winner Vidal Blanc in the 1890s farmhouse; or the signature Irish Red in the intimate Irish pub or large beer hall taproom. And then there’s the distillery—which, unexpectedly, features a World War II Museum (it takes you back to June 6, 1944, to an officers’ club located in occupied France). The three neighboring Lenn brothers, who were Army Air Corps WWII pilots, helped owner Patrick Kearney get the vineyard up and running in the late 1990s.

This one has a long, winding story, beginning over 50 years ago in North East, Pennsylvania as a family-owned winery called Mazza Vineyards. Fast-forward to 2013, when they expanded Mazza Chautauqua Cellars to 80 lush acres of farmland in Westfield, New York, to tap additional farmers, grow the wine operation and distilling operation, and launch their brewery, Five & 20 Brewing. “We added a brewery as we have experienced people wanting to enjoy beers on-site, so it made sense,” says Creative Director Vanessa Mazza. In the meantime, they had also started a distillery to create spirits for their fortified wines—heralding New York’s first combo winery/brewery/distillery. Whew! And here’s something totally unique: This enterprising, still-family-owned company recently partnered with TimberFish Technologies to launch a sustainable fish farm pilot system, transforming unused brewery wastewater and discarded grain into alternative fish food. It’s estimated the system could ultimately produce 3 million pounds of fish a year and add 300 to 400 new jobs to the economy. See—drinking is good for the world.