C'Ville-ian Brewing Co.

While Charlottesville, Virginia is known for its plethora of wineries, they also have an abundance of local breweries.  C'Ville-ian Brewing Company, conveniently located in walkable downtown Charlottesville, is a veteran owned and operated nanobrewery.  Its clever name incorporates a play on the word "civilian" as well as the tendency of locals to shorten Charlottesville to "C-ville." 

The owner Steve, who we met while enjoying a couple of pints, started the company in his garage in 2013.  Now, after securing a storefront, Steve remains motivated to create an inviting environment where people can enjoy delicious beer that was brewed with local ingredients.  Sitting in C'Ville-ian's cozy bar is like being draped in a U.S. flag: the bar is built with red wood, the walls are white, and there are 50 light bulbs hanging overhead, not to mention there's a gigantic U.S. flag hanging on the wall to seal the deal.

The moment we walked into C'Ville-ian the toasty warm smell of malted barley washed over us and we knew we were in the right place to finish up our first night in Charlottesville. As amateur home brewers, we were quite delighted to be present while a new brew was in the works.  Steve and the brewer happily let us smell the hops before adding them to the wort and candidly answered any questions we had as amateur brewers.

My fiance and I elected to try a flight of C'Ville-ian's beers, which included the: Albemarle Amber, Paramount Pale, Porter, and Oppenheimer Black IPA.  Although C'Ville-ian doesn't offer nearly as many beers on tap as many other breweries in the area, they do offer high quality drafts.  Personally I'm not a big IPA fan, but I thought the Oppenheimer was well-balanced and appealed to a variety of beer consumers.  It wasn't overloaded on hops, but neither were the hops barely there; it was a solid crowd pleaser.  My favorite was the Porter, which has big notes of chocolate and coffee on the nose and malty chocolate and earthy flavor profiles on the palate.

As with many breweries, C'Ville-ian changes what's on tap from season to season, which gives us another "excuse" to travel back down to Charlottesville and visit.  In addition to well-made brews, C'Ville-ian also hosts trivia night on Wednesdays and has live music Saturday nights from 8-11 pm.  If I haven't convinced you already to drop by for a pint, then judge for yourself and pay C'Ville-ian a visit.  We really wish a cozy, friendly bar like this existed near us; it's warm, inviting, locally-owned, unpretentious, and has great beer.  What more could you ask for?!

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