Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company

I love this place I always seem to miss the movies in the brewery, but I wanted to go. R2Hop2 is a blast and there Gypsy Lager formerly Helles Lager is great, Copperhead is good also and even the sodas are good. Only 1.5 miles from my house. Only thing that is goofy is they sell growlers at events and then don’t let you bring them back to next event??? Head scratcher there!

Fantastic. Great people and service. My favorite was the spring seasonal, cherry! Tried the cherry mixed with oak barrel stout too– yum! It’s a small tasting room– would love to see them grow into a place to hang out, order a pint and relax.

I would like to give this place more than 1 star. We drove an hour for a tour but it was closed. Everything on their website and VM says their open. They may want to improve their communication.

We had a blast at their tasting: great conversation with the staff, our server was a ‘certified beer server’ which was obvious by his descriptions, I will now be judging all my future beer servers to his level of expertise, oh, and the beer was great too.

Fordham /​Old Dominion is a great place to spend an evening, especially in the summer when they have their tables and chairs set up outside and often have someone playing music.
I am still testing the waters of beer, and many of them don’t suit my palette, but I do find many of these beers very drinkable. I love morning glory, gypsy, and cherry blossom.
Everyone that we have met that works here is really nice, and want their patrons to have fun.
They have really great release parties throughout the year where you can get limited pint glasses.
We recently went to the hopslips release party and they had a food truck and many lawn games.
One of our favorite places to come.

Went for a tasting and tour, about $ 5 for 4 tickets that could be used for any drinks on the tap in the tasting room or bottles of soda. They give you some glasses about 7 oz taste size and at the end you exchange that tasting glass for a full size souvenir pint glass in either Fordham or Old Dominion style logos. The pourers were quick, went for the earlier Friday taste time, not too crowded, about half the people were standing and half at bar stools, by the time we left was twice as packed. The tour was about 10 – 15 minutes long, not super detailed but showed us various areas elated to brewing, bottling, packaging. They don’t sell anything at retail to drink, so we ended up buying some 6-​packs later at a beverage store. They have some special events — there was a dog adoption SPCA event and a musician singer/​songwriter/​guitarist there when we visited. You may want to check their schedule to see if something going on. There were also some food trucks there when we were there, not sure how often that happens, but you could easily get your $ 5 worth and enjoy the activities for an evening. Worth a visit!

My first visit here was for Cheesetoberfest. What a great event! I have found that Fordham does many great events right at the brewery. They even have a stage outback for musical events. This is a microbrewery and tours are about $ 5 I believe. I have yet to take a guided tour. When you first enter you will see a bar with no seats or stools however you can purchase beers to your liking. I fell in love with the Spiced Harvest Ale and wish it was around year long but it is only seasonal. If you go to an event buy a growler but definitely get a koozie as they sell out seemingly fast!

The storefront tasting room is very cute but not very big so on a hot summers day, the AC couldn’t kick out enough cold air but the beer is super delicious. I am a fan of lighter beers and they have a Wisteria Wheat that is pretty yummy and though I am not usually a fan, their dark beer Morning Glory was delectable, a great blend of chocolate and coffee… a surprising treat!
As for the tour, even in the extreme summer heat it was a fun little jaunt ini the inner workings of the brewery… their R2Hop2 invention that helps put more hops into their beers brought out the inner Star Wars fan of my boyfriend and the design of the «robot» was a great photo op for me!
We walked out of the tour and the experience with a better knowledge of craft beer brewing, delicious beers in our belly and a fun tshirt…“loose lips sink ships” Morning Glory special!

You can’t buy beer here, only sample. Five samples for five dollars. Friendly staff. No chairs to sit at.
I rank beers on the pint scale, 0 – 5 of how many pints I could drink in a night.
Helles Lager: Lager with a subtle bitterness and slight sweetness on the finish. Goes with everything. 4 pints.
Moutherpucker: sour aged in burbon barrells for 3 years. Nice burbon flavor, oak from barrel almost makes it taste like wine. Could be more sour for my taste. Reminiscent of a Russian river sour. 5 pints.
Baltic porter: slight bitter with a Bacon like smokey finish. Dark but not heavy. 4 pints.
Oyster stout: bitter and hoppy like an ipa. Better on hand pump then draught, but then again, what isn’t? Tasty and lighter than other oyster stouts I’ve had. 4 pints.
Cooperhead ale: Like yuengling. Not too bitter not too sweet. Bold crisp refreshing pairs with everything. 5 pints.

This place is amazing, and as the previous reviewer said, the tour is such a good time. If you live near or have been to dover DE you know that there is not that much to do here. If youre headed to the beach and it looks like its going to rain, I would totally hit this place up. Even on a nice day and its worth your time. Plus the beer is really good, the people are awesome and will go out of their way to educate about beer/​rootbeer — so come out to support this great local place and buy their beer/​rootbeer/​gingerale!

While my fellow Unilocaler seems to be reviewing just the beer, I visited the actual brewery itself, and I’m putting in my review of the brewery, tour, and tasting.
My parents and I were in town visiting my sister at Dover AFB, and she took us to Old Dominion/​Fordham Brewing Company to take the tasting tour. It was probably the best $ 5/​person ever spent. I mean, wow! For $ 5 you get 5 tokens to sample 5 of their beers (and they are BIG samples) of your choice — plus their root beer and ginger ale that don’t cost you tokens, an hour-​long educational tour of the brewery, and a take-​home souvenir glass. They even threw in an extra sample or two of some of their limited-​release stuff or special stuff they’re working on. How awesome is that? Back here in the DC area, you can’t even get 1 beer for $ 5!
When we were there, the brewers were there making some home brew, and they talked to us for a while. Chris was really friendly, and he was happy to answer questions about beer, brewing, and anything else, really.
The Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout was my favorite. I don’t usually like stouts, and I’m more of a wheat beer/​lighter beer kind of girl, but I LOVED the Oak Barrel.
They’re releasing their Wisteria Wheat in June, and as a wheat-​beer girl, I’ll definitely be back for that and some more of their Oak Barrel stout.

I know as a first review I have little to base my opinion on, but I’m going to go for it anyway. Old Dominion makes lots of beers (according to their site), but what I had was a plain old root beer at Ray’s Hell Burger Too.
A root beer? Yep, and it was good! I mean, really good! They’re made with fresh honey and it sure tastes like it. It wasn’t overpowering like some are, and it was nice and refreshing. A perfect all around taste. If I drank beer, I’d be on to the rest of their selection ASAP.

I regret that I never visited OD before it was sold, so I can’t do a comparison. I happened to go and check it out after a day of tax free shopping at Leesburg Corner Outlets. I am not normally a huge fan of OD beer, but beer is always better when it’s fresh. I had an OD Stout and a Fordham Copperhead. Both were good, but not the best I’ve had. The Stout was above average and the Copperhead was very good for an Alt style beer. The burgers were excellent (mine was with smoked gouda and bacon) and my wife had a antipasto salad that was also excellent. It was fairly kid friendly — they had kids menus with Scooby Doo pictures to color and pretty standard kid fare — hot dogs, chicken tenders, pasta and burgers. It was also kind of loud, so no one noticed if the kids got a little loud. It is in a weird location, you come upon it after driving around this corporate office park and find it just as you think you must have written down the directions wrong. I’m not in this area often, but if I am, I will definitely be back.

Okay, so, road trip to Ashburn to see a friend, catch the Mets at the new stadium near the Navy Yard, last day there, we go to the Old Dominion for lunch.
Four Summer Wheats later, I can attest to the quality of the beer. It’s excellent. We saw people walking up with growlers, getting them filled, and thinking, «Okay, time to buy my own half-​gallon container.» No bad beers, and the bartender let us try shotglasses of each of the current taps.
The food was up to the standard of the beer. I had a steak wrap, for whatever reason, and it was good, if smallish. The black bean soup was more of a salsa-​plus-​bean soup, and I enjoyed it. The bill was reasonable, especially in light of the drinking that went on for three hours.
The weird Russian and French posters made absolutely no sense, but to be honest, if it was decorated like a working aircraft hanger I’d still recommend it.
–C

Just went to OD for the first time since it was sold… I guess maybe a year ago? It used to be a pleasurable and educational experience. You’d go sit at the bar, the bartender would talk to you immediately, provide a beer list, and excitedly answer any questions you had about their craft brews. Just a congregation of beer lovers. Now, you walk in and it’s surreal. It still looks like the old OD, but it’s not. Kind of like when Marty McFly returns home in Back to the Future 2 only to realize his town has become ghetto now that Biff runs the city.
I was appalled to see that amidst the usual OD taps, there are now Bass, Budweiser Select, and (wait for it)…Bud Light! Are you kidding me? Who are these people who would walk into a «BREW pub», see a huge assembly line of beer brewing equipment along with bottles, and then go up to the bar and order something other than a craft brew?
Well, I actually encountered some of these people last night. Dumb girl #1 comes up and orders a Miller Lite. She is shunned and then gets intimidated by the list of beers presented to her, clearly never having seen the words «hop», «malt», or «stout» before. She decides to play it safe by saying «well, I guess give me something that’s cool». Dumb guy #1 then comes up and orders a Sam Adams to which the bartender replies «This is Old Dominion brewpub, not Sam Adams brewpub».
This anecdote is not meant to mock the ignorant, but to provide an example of how different the culture is. You know that these bartenders don’t like it there, and you know that they are forced to deal with new clientele and push the crap they don’t want to push; deal with questions and confusion as to why they now have Fordham brews in addition to OD brews; attempt to push these brews in addition to their own. It’s very confusing and really takes away from the atmosphere, quality, and service of the old place. They even sell liquor now, and yes this comes across as an afterthought. The old OD would embrace the ignorant and yearn to inform them and open their eyes to a new world. But now they’re forced to field idiotic questions and deal with patrons who are not there to learn about beer and utilize the knowledge, but are drawn in to what now appears to be any old bar.
The new OD just goes to show you that you should never try to get a book of sports scores from the future and use it to bet on events in the past.

This place was not what I expected when I walked up to this place. Atypical locale for a brew pub — looks more like a dentist’s office or some other company office. And I agree with Sam R. The restaurant and bar really is an afterthought to the imense distillery attached to the place. With the size of the stills and the bottling line for this place, you expect the quality of product to be top-​notch.
And it is. The brewed beers are tasty and the food is surprisingly yummy for bar food. Their California burger is well-​cooked and well-​seasoned and the accompanying beer-​battered fries are amazing! I’m a sucker for beer-​battered fries so not much makes me happy. My husband’s meatloaf was well-​made with well-​peppered mushroom gravy and his garlicky buttery mashed potatoes were WONDERFUL! The portions were large enough that we were satisfied although we couldn’t finish our plates.
Tucked into an office building in an industrial-​looking part of town, but if you can navigate through it to get here, it’s definitely worth the trip.

It is amazing what a year can do to a person. A year ago i was all about Old Dominon. My parents went almost every weekend, we brought them cookies on Christmas eve and there was just a very positive and upligting atmosphere upon entering.
Then they got sold to Fordham brewing company (the people that own all of the Rams heads). We tried to go back, but it just wasn’t the same. I think the menu changed for a positive as there was a much larger selection of their fantastic food. And the beer is still the same, as the brewers did not change.
But what has changed is the atmosphere. Gone are the days where you could come in, talk with a tee shirt clad young guy who just got back from a beer tour around europe. Now you are met with tie wearing guys who never seem to be having a good time and are too busy concentrating on learning to make mixed drinks that they dont have time to talk to the customers. Its lost its atmosphere and all its fun.
So the beer is there and good. The food is there (get the burger… it is one of the best burgers out there) and great. But the fun and social atmosphere is completely gone. So if you’re looking for good food and good beer, its fine, but if you want the atmosphere, good beer and good food, check out Dogfish in Seven Corners. Its the place to go!

Yes, this place is a brewery first and foremost. All those local kegs and cases of Old Dominion you see at your local watering hole or grocery store come from here.
The «bar/​restaurant» is more an afterthought as it is directly attached to the brewery. If you’ve ever wanted to get a glimpse into the world of beer, this would be your chance. Armed with that knowledge, don’t expect a gourmet experience … but the food is solid, typical pub fare.
The lager is always a winner, and the summer wheat is refreshing in this damn heat. And as an added bonus, when you’re pounding out the miles on the W&OD trail, you can jump off around mile marker 25 and have a happy trail hour. Hopefully you won’t have to walk your bike the next 10 miles to get back …

Echoing everyone’s reviews, they have good beer. I really liked their ‘Dubliner’ which was very rich almost like chocolate.
Regarding their food I can only speak about the burger– delicious. They gave us a side of jalapeño tartar sauce which was great. I also liked their beer-​battered (?) fries. Excellent and friendly service as well.

5 Stars for the beer.
Make no mistake, this is a brewery first and formost. The beer is fresh, flavorful, and excellent. The food is also very good. On my last trip I decided to try the specials of the day — roasted red pepper soup, bacon wrapped shrimp with grits of some sort garnished with a sauce made from the brewery’s stout, and wonderfully smooth crème brûlée. It was all very good.
The boneless buffalo wings are good — nice and spicy, and the soft pretzels with mustard and cheese sauces are tasty as well. The menu includes a full range of appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts. Portions are medium to large sized. The service was excellent.
So far, the best bet seems to be to check the board near the hostess for the daily specials.