Virginia Tech Now Has Its Own Beer, Fightin’ Hokies Lager

Craft Brew A Joint Venture Between The School And Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

Virginia Tech University now has its own beer.

Called Fightin’ Hokies Lager, it was created by VT researches and is brewed by Hardwood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond.

And the brewery claims it’s no turkey, either.

“As one of America’s leading academic institutions in disciplines vital to the craft brewing industry, from food science to mechanical engineering to hospitality management, Virginia Tech is an ideal, philosophically aligned collaborative partner for Hardywood,” said Eric McKay, president and co-founder of Hardywood.

”The opportunity to help create an official beer of the Hokies is surreal, and certainly a career highlight for Hardywood Vice President of Production and Head Brewer, Brian Nelson, a 2001 graduate of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering.”

Fightin’ Hokies Lager will be available starting in the spring. It is a classic Munich-style Helles golden lager with balance between pleasant malt sweetness and herbal noble hop character. It is 5% alcohol by volume and the brewery and university describes it as “clean, crisp, and refreshing.”

It will be distributed to beer retailers, including restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores by Hardywood’s network of wholesalers throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C.

And you can bet it will be drank in abundance at Lane Stadium during Hokies football games in 2021. Considering the team’s performances the past few years, the fans will welcome something to drink bearing the team’s name. No doubt several kegs of it would have been consumed during the team’s last-second loss to Liberty this season.

Fightin’ Hokies Lager is part a growing trend among universities and local breweries. Earlier this year, Texas A&M announced a craft beer for the Aggies called 12th Man Lager and in 2019, Arkansas released Razorback Red as well as naming its brewer as the “Official Craft Brewery of the Arkansas Razorbacks.”