This brewery is in an old food processing plant, simple tour and tasting. good variety of merch.

An old warehouse that looks like it has been very well used, and is currently being used for beer production, complete with a new canning line. The beer samples are free, and there are growlers, bottles, cans, and kegs to go. A small chili pepper garden, indoors, near the taps, will soon go into a porter. The staff is helpful and knowledgeable.

The bar is in a surprisingly pleasant large open room edged with something of a giftshop. The beer was free samples in little plastic cups. The hours are odd but a nice way to try a range of Starr Hill products.

Finally made it out here. I like the vibe here... the bar is right in the middle of the brewery and as you taste you are very near the bottling line. Free samples abound. The regular rotation is there with one seasonal. It was crowded when I went but not too hard to move around and plenty of tables. Plenty of parking. Employees were nice enough, though the person I dealt with on Saturday April 26th, 2009 was an epic asshole. Literally the biggest asshole I’ve ever had to deal with at any brewery anywhere. Oh well... just another incident from the brewery that loves to vascillate between trying to make me happy and trying to piss me off. Can you tell I find these people enigmatic?

Haven’t dealt with asshole in a while, and the people I’ve dealt with since are much nicer, including my good friend Sean. They’re still enigmatic, though. Score updated accordingly. Old score was 42

OK... original score was 42, updated was 52, and now it’s being downgraded again. I am now boycotting Starr Hill. There are lots of reasons. Some of them are customer service oriented, some of them are personal between me and Mark Thompson, who has been a dick to me even though we’ve never actually met. But the main reason is how they abused friends of mine who worked for them. Anyway, score will be upgraded accordingly. To be fair, there are still some cool people working there, and not all of their beers suck, but in general they can go to hell.

My opinion has softened a bit, though I still hold many of the same reservations about them, and I’m still giving them as little of my money as possible. Score history is now 42... 52... 24... 50.

Visited the Starr Hill Brewery on Veteran’s Day 2008, an otherwise random Tuesday afternoon outside their normal tour hours, on a whim, to see if maybe we could take a peek. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome my wife and I got from one of the Starr Hill folks who let us not only take a peek at the brewery, but kindly opened the tasting taps for us as well. I’ve always been a fan of Starr Hill’s brews when I can find them in southern Virginia. The visit introduced me to some of their less available, delicious brews, and I’ll certainly continue drinking the fine beers made here in central Virginia. Recommended visit (during tour hours!) if you’re in the Charlottesville area! Brewery #467, 11/11/2008.

For some reason, some of these reviews seem to be for the (now defunct) brewpub in nearby Charlottesville..........in any case, this review is for the new brewing facility outside of town, in Crozet. A former Swanson (or was it Banquet?) frozen pot pie factory, it’s a cool place to stop by on your way to or from the Blue Mountain Brewery and Hop Farm in nearby Afton. The beers are all above average to excellent, and the tour is informative without being overly indepth or long. You can also buy beer and lots of Starr Hill merch. Stop by on a Saturday and spend an hour or so.

This is the new factory for Starr Hill. This place is huge, previously being a frozen foods packaging plant. Many refrigerators to store their beer, and no where near capacity yet. Small sampling bar, serving samples in little 3oz plastic cups, but they have some of their newer stuff on tap.

This was the second brewery stop on the www.JRHB.org 2008 Brews Cruise. BrewMaster Mark Thompson gave us a very informative tour about the factory as well as some insights into his personal ’3-2-1’ brewing philosophy. The building used to be a Con-Agra Food Factory. Lots of room for expansion. Impressive bottling line runs 100 bottles/min. All the free samples you want plus you can get a growler fill for about $7. They also sell six-packs of their 4 flagship beers and some merchandise on site. This is NOT a facsimile of the brewpub that they had in Charlottesville. This is a brewery only and all of the previous ratings have been about their old brewpub location, which, admittedly was a great place to see a concert. It’s a shame that it’s closed now...

right below the star hills concert place. the beer selection is dismal for someone lives in charlottesville, but may be new for tourists. the food is bar food and the service is only ok.

Located between the University campus and the downtown shopping area in a nondescript part of town. Obviously the prime spot to sample Starr Hill beers (even though they are generally not made on site any more). But, both times I visited they only had the four regular beers on tap, so on the second visit I didn’t score any new beers. Food was pretty high standard for a brewpub. Service was attentive but, both times I visited, it was a quiet, early, midweek evening with no bands on that night. I’d only go again if I looked in and there were some specials on tap.