River On Session IPA for a Healthy James
Hardywood partnership with James River Association
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has released a new year-round beer in partnership with the James River Association. River On! Easy IPA is an easy-drinking sessional ale, with the soft, pillowy mouthfeel of a hazy and a slight bitter bite of a West Coast IPA. It boasts great flavor and citrus hop notes at only 3.9% ABV and 96 calories.
River On! is Hardywood’s second partnership with the James River Association. The first, Great Return IPA released in 2013, celebrated the return of the endangered legendary Atlantic sturgeon to the James. Through the Great Return partnership, Hardywood has contributed more than $140,000 to the JRA. Great Return was the top-selling Virginia IPA in Virginia last year, coming in second to Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Things among national craft brands.
“We chose Richmond as the location for our future brewery, with a big part of that being the river,” said co-founder Eric of opening Hardywood in 2013. The James River “brought people together and provided an incredible amount of opportunity for recreation – the whitewater rapids that flowed right through our city for kayaking and rafting to hiking and mountain biking on the trails. These experiences help to foster an adventurous community, one that was willing to try new things and one that we believed would be open to trying outside-of-the-box beers.”
The James River Association celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The nonprofit has worked over the decades to improve the health of the James. From 1976, when kepone and other pollutants had closed the river to fishing and recreation, to today, the JRA has helped raise the river’s “grade” from a D- to a B. The nonprofit has also established educational centers and programs up and down Virginia’s historic river to promote environmental knowledge and activism.
With the new beer, McKay says, they hope to create a healthier river to help the James River achieve an A grade.
River On! Easy IPA will be available at the brewery’s two locations and on shelves throughout Virginia and in North Carolina, starting in the Outer Banks and along the coast.
JRA’s signature rally call is “Let’s River!” Hardywood’s response? “River On!”
