Game day beer picks: Syracuse vs. Virginia Tech

The Syracuse Orange football team has already suffered three straight losses by exactly three points, so in theory, nothing can hurt us anymore. Still, there are more games to play... hopefully with different outcomes. Let’s start that trend with Saturday’s matchup with the Virginia Tech Hokies, no?

Win or lose, chances are you’re going to want an adult beverage to accompany the game, so we’re providing several recommendations for before, during and after this one. Fair warning in advance: You won’t be able to find at least one of these near you.

Syracuse Area Beer Pick: Underground Beer Lab Variance NEIPA #2: Citra

Syracuse has themselves a nano-brewery. If you haven’t heard of Underground Beer Lab, that’s probably because they’re quite fresh on the scene, and open very limited hours. By limited I mean Friday 3-6pm and Saturday 12-4pm, which is pretty limited. At the location over off of Fly Road you can pick up cans of their rotational series of experimental IPA combinations or now some lager offerings and a mixed fermentation collaboration with Heritage Hill, Collectivity II. The Variance I mentioned is their new drop this friday, so it’s as fresh as it gets for you hop-heads reading this.

Virginia Tech Area Beer Pick: Hardywood Fightin’ Hokies Lager

While Hardywood isn’t in Blacksburg (it’s in Richmond), this beer was brewed in collaboration with Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, so the beer is technically about as “local” as you can get. Fightin’ Hokies is a beady helles lager with floral and malty notes — a combination that certainly sounds refreshing, so it’s the perfect pairing with an afternoon of football (especially compared to some of the barrel-aged creations we’ve featured here in the past). Better still, the can art is a nice nod to the team as well.

Los Angeles Area Beer Pick: Topa Topa Chief Peak IPA

Among the many styles you’ll find on tap in the L.A. area nowadays is the West Coast/hazy hybrid — one that usually drinks like a West Coast IPA but looks like a moderately hazy version of the style to appeal to both crowds. Topa Topa’s Chief Peak is one of those, sitting in between the two with dank and tropical notes, with bright additions of Citra, Galaxy, Magnum, Simcoe hops. It’s refreshing yet juicy, cloudy yet clear... a nice homage to each school of thought around IPAs that’s usually pretty available since it’s Topa Topa’s flagship brew.

How about you, though? What are you drinking this weekend?