Our family likes to essentially throw a dart at Airbnb listings to pick where we travel next. This exercise recently took us to Massanutten, Virginia, home to the Massanutten Resort, and just a stone’s throw away from Harrisonburg – the quintessential college town of James Madison University – and the Shenandoah National Park.
On the drive to Shenandoah, you pass through Elkton, where you’ll come across the Elkton Brewing Company, right in the heart of the town and down the road from the Miller-Kite House Museum, which was the headquarters of General Stonewall Jackson at the beginning of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign during the Civil War.
Elkton Brewing Company has every intention of being a destination brewery for tourists and locals alike – with no plans for distribution at the moment – and it’s safe to say they succeeded. The brewery, started by the Napotnik family with brewing ties dating back to the early 1900s – opened just weeks before the pandemic began in 2020 and specializes in a diverse selection of small-batch artisan beers, including some of the best sours you’ll ever taste.
Notably, the brewery’s building dates back to 1890, and has served as the home to the Elkton Milling Company, a warehouse, a church, and more before settling into its current iteration. The Elkton Brewing team has also worked hard to preserve many of the original architectural features of the building, from the brick walls to the second-floor beams and columns carved from old American Chestnut. You’ll of course be able to marvel at the beauty of this building and its architecture while sipping your new favorite beer in the cozy and inviting taproom.
Should you find yourself down this way – perhaps while staying at the Massanutten Resort or exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains – it truly is the destination brewery the founders intended.
