Buy this for the sake of beer

You know you want to hang it in your basement:

Session #4

Well Session #4 blew past back on April 21, leaving us standing in a cloud of rhythm and blues. We had our first (only?) hefeweizen of the summer season, Brooklyner Weisse, and already our second beer out of Brooklyn for the year. By the way, has anyone tried the Sixpoint Apollo yet?

Because I'm putting up the session 5 recap, and then the session 6 announcement up very soon, I'm going to give this one shorter space than it deserves. Glenn was a great host, Cene spun some really out there R&B, and I drank my weight in wheat beer.

Here's the brewery's pitch hefeweizens:    

Refreshing, light, and brisk, wheat beers have been popular in Bavaria for centuries. Weissbier or hefeweizen (wheat beer with yeast) was once brewed exclusively by the Bavarian royal family. In the 1800’s, they were popular among German immigrants to the United States. Our Brooklyner Weisse is brewed in the classic German style from German wheat and barley malts. Our special Bavarian yeast produces the flavors and aromas that wheat beers are prized for – bananas, cloves, and melon, with a smoky note in the background. This beer is traditionally left unfiltered, so there’s a dusting of yeast still in the beer, adding the hazy appearance and greater depth to the flavors. Pour, admire the big fluffy head, and enjoy sunshine in a glass.

(click the image for the Beer Advocate review)

Style: Hefeweizen
IBU Rating: 17
ABV: 5.1%
Beer Advocate Rating: 86

By the way, since I've been asked a few times about it, the Flavor Flav clock definitely belongs to Glenn as much as Cene probably wishes he had one to keep on his bedstand.

Sign the Growlers in DC petition

This news comes down from PoP about Thor Cheston's petition to pass the Sustainable Bottle Amendment Act (aka the green light for growlers). Thor, pictured below on the left, has big plans to open a brewpub somewhere in the greater Petworth/Shaw/Bloomingdale area with Nathan Zeender, pictured on the right.

via Prince Of Petworth by Prince Of Petworth on 4/4/12

Back in Oct. 2011 we learned D'Vines was no longer allowed to sell growlers.

A readers sends this petition to sign to remedy that situation: 

This legislation will allow brewpubs in Washington, DC to sell beer to go in growlers. Having the ability to sell beer in reusable containers with a Class-C Tavern/Brewpub license has the potential of adding a great deal of revenue to local businesses and add to the growing craft beer scene in the District. 

A number of key restaurant professionals have been working diligently for the past few years to turn Washington, DC into one of the great beer cities of the United States. With DC based breweries like DC Brau, Three Stars and Chocolate city in operation and great beer bars like Pizzeria Paradiso, Brasserie Beck, Churchkey, etc. doing record setting business the only thing the District needs now is great brewpubs. 

Selling house-brewed beer in reusable containers, aka "growlers" is a cornerstone of brewpub culture in the United States. Passing the Sustainable Bottle Amendment Act of 2011 would allow brewpubs to expand their market and be the final step in making Washington, DC a city know for great beer."

You can sign here.

Session #3

KegLove session 3 is finally here, folks, and I hope you're all as psyched as I am to know we're only hours away from drinking some high quality beer. This round's been a long-damn-time coming since we skipped out on February, depriving me of the opportunity to pronounce it Feb-brew-ary without getting a dirty look from Laura. Sidenote: she hates poor pronunciation but she loves shitty puns.

So this is shaping up to be one of the best sessions yet with an excellent hostess, fantastic weather, and a great membership turnout. This month's beer pick went to Matt who pulled together a list of out-of-this world beers long enough to keep us happy and drunk for the rest of the year. But a little bit of luck and a lot of elbow grease and we narrowed down the pack. By the way, the blood and sweat of the search came courtesy of the owner/manager of Metro Wine, Greg Parikh.

The Bruery :: Saison de Lente

This is gonna be one hell of a fresh keg since we're just at the start of the distribution season, and you guessed it, this batch is specially brewed for Lent, I guess. So those of you who gave up alcohol this year can make an exception. From the brewer's site:

Our Spring Saison is light blonde in color with a fresh hoppiness and a wild and rustic Brettanomyces character. Lighter in color and alcohol than our Saison Rue, yet equally complex in its own way. Perfect for warmer weather and Spring celebrations.

Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale
IBU Rating: 35
SRM: 4
ABV: 6.5%
Beer Advocate rating: 91

Mary being Mary, meaning she's awesome, my advice to you all is to bring an appetite. I believe we're having brisket sliders and Thai lentil soup. You like that? Well, damn, I know I do. But that's not all! There's another surprise assembled for you here this weekend: Mary's new double tap kegerator. And because there's two taps, there's two beers. Hot shit, we're on fire, folks. The backup keg's none other than Victory's Prima Pils. Think we can suffer through that?

To break even on this edition of KegLove, we're only gonna need to bump the price point up to a mere $12 per head. Cheers!

Links:
http://www.thebruery.com
http://bruery.blogspot.com/

Here's a video of staff at The Bruery discussing the production and planning behind their sour ales:
 
The Bruery - On Sour Ales from The Bruery on Vimeo.

D.C.’s brewing renaissance

Matt's friend, Nathan Zeender, got name-checked in a recent Post article about significant things to come in the DC brew scene. A must read.

From the Washington Post article:

Imagine it’s 2013, and you want to visit a brewery in the District. Will you try the nanobrewery whose single employee brews only a few beers, all of them German-style, or the monolithic brewery-restaurant hybrid across town, with 15 constantly rotating house beers on tap and 100 seats on the patio alone? What about the cozy new brewpub ensconced in a historic storefront, with its experimental farmhouse ales? Or maybe the latest large brewery to spring up in Northeast, which sets itself apart with an eclectic blend of European and American flavors?  

 If all goes according to plan, those four establishments will open in the District within the next year or so, complementing DC Brau, Chocolate City Beer and 3 Stars Brewing, the three that emerged last year. Welcome to the second wave of the capital’s brewing revival, an influx of breweries that will reshape the local beer scene largely because of their unprecedented diversity.

Session #2

Session numero dos came and went, and I thought I'd share the brew with those of you who weren't able to make it to out in January. Well, I can't actually pour any for you because we drank it all, but you can read the Beer Advocate description here, and then decide if you'd like to go out and find it for yourself.

For those who did make it over to Dave and Kathleen's, I think we had a fine time, in a glass-half-full kind of way, considering how sorely we missed you no-shows but how happily we were fulfilled by Kathleen's soup, sausage, homemade bread and homemade sweet chili pepper sauce.

So, yeah, we had a fine time, missed those who couldn't be there, and drank a lot of Stillwater Ale's Autumnal.

Beer Advocate rating: 84
IBU Rating:
ABV: 7.2%

Stillwater's primarily brewed out of Baltimore by this guy:

Polling for KegLove Session #2

When you get the chance, go ahead and fill out the poll that's to the right. You can make any number of selections for the available dates just off to the right, and the results will update automatically after you hit the "vote" button. If anyone has any trouble with this option, let me know either by email or by leaving a comment to this post.

And just to keep you all in the loop, the January meeting is scheduled to be held at Dave's house on Calvert Street. More details forthcoming...