Legend Brewery turns 20 in 2014; the celebrating begins next month.

I've received this birthday announcement from my friends at Legend Brewery, in Richmond, Virginia. In 2014, the brewery will turn twenty-years-old, but the celebrations will start early, beginning next month.

In February 1994, Legend Brewing Company delivered its first keg of beer, to the Commercial Taphouse, in Richmond. Every year since, we have had our annual anniversary party in February. Here we are, 20 years later, planning the year of celebration that will be our 20th year of creating fine craft brewed beers in Richmond on the banks of the James River.

So what’s the plan? We will brew a special 20th Anniversary Imperial Brown Ale to mark the occasion, a very limited amount of which will be aged in bourbon barrels. We will also release a special edition of our Urban Legend series. Four guest brewers, from some of our contemporaries around the state, will be joining us to produce beers based on legends from their breweries hometown. The brewers, their legends, and the beer styles will be released closer to the end of this year.

• February 2014: Andy Rathmann, Saint George Brewing Company
• April 2014: Geoff Logan, Williamsburg Ale Werks
• July 2014: Mark Thompson, Starr Hill Brewing Company
• October 2014: Favio Garcia, Lost Rhino Brewing Company

We will also be partying in the Pub with a special 20th on the 20th. On the twentieth of each month, we will be hosting events, with celebrities from the Virginia beer world creating firkins, and a variety of other happenings to add to the festivities of our twentieth year celebration.

The year of events will kick off with a special Oktoberfest celebration on Friday, September 20, 2013. A ceremonial tapping of an Oktoberfest firkin will mark the opening of our year-long celebration. Mark your calendars now and don’t miss any of the events. It will be a year to remember!

In an email to me, Dave Gott, Vice President of Operations for Legend Brewing, added:

It has been a privilege to call Richmond our home and to be able to provide Central Virginia, as well as the rest of the Commonwealth, with the finest craft brewed beers. We are proud to be Virginia’s oldest operating micro brewery, and look forward to many years of serving the people of Virginia. Future press releases will include more information about the Urban Legend Beer styles, the guest brewers, and each twentieth-of-the-month event, as well as tidbits about the brewery, where the name “Legend” came from, and how the unicorn is linked to the James River.

Here's an early "happy birthday," Legend. Thanks for twenty years (and counting) of good beers.

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• I've been honored by the brewery to be one of its guest celebrity' firkineers. More details to come.
• YFGF interviewed Dave Gott in 2011, on the occasion of Legend's 17th anniversary Read it: here.