At first, making beer was just a hobby for Mark Fulton—when he finished punching the calculator during his day job as an accountant, he’d head home to his lab. Then, in 2010, the amateur beer enthusiast snagged a craft brewing apprenticeship with the American Brewers Guild. He untied his tie, quit his accounting gig, and moved to Maine to brew beer full time. Before long, he was the director of brewing operations at Maine Beer Company.
The mountains of Maine were beautiful, but the Blue Ridge called Fulton back. In 2017, he returned to Charlottesville and joined two friends from his student days at UVA—Patrick Adair and Jeff Raileanu, both avid home-brewers in their own right—to start Reason Beer.
Fulton says the business has enjoyed the support of the Charlottesville community since day one and is also seeing growing support throughout Virginia.
The brewmaster credits the popularity of Reason Beer to a focus on approachable and balanced beer, with recipes designed to produce depth and complexity while remaining complementary to food. The current offerings at Reason include a large range of classic beer styles, but also a wild ale program that focuses on beers aged in barrels obtained from local wineries.
When asked, Fulton says he believes the current popularity of hazy New England-style India Pale Ale is here to stay. For the future, he sees a growing interest in and demand for lower calorie, lower alcohol beers (known as “session” beers). Reason currently offers examples of each, a double-NEIPA style known as Unreasonable, which comes in at 8.5 percent alcohol by volume and the aptly named and contrasting session India Pale Ale named Reasonable, which is a lighter drinker at 4 percent ABV.
Unreasonable is a big, bold beer that is full of both flavor and alcohol. It manages to present a fine balance of biscuit and citrus fruit flavors while maintaining a nice mouthfeel despite lower alcohol. If you are looking for other styles of lower alcohol beer, Reason also has a blonde ale that comes in at 4 percent ABV (Hoppy Blonde), a German-style pilsner with 4.3 percent ABV (AOK), and a Saison farmhouse ale at 4.5 percent ABV.
On September 18, Reason celebrates its fourth anniversary with a block party at the brewery with new releases, food trucks and other programming. As if you needed another reason to check it out.
