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...

Bourbon Adams Morgan will be offering beers aged in bourbon barrels.

via Prince Of Petworth by Prince Of Petworth on 12/9/11

Photo by flickr user Kevin H.
From an email:

This Sunday, Dec 11 at 6 pm, Bourbon Adams Morgan will be offering rare and exotic beers aged in bourbon barrels.
On draft we will be pouring:
Great Lakes Blackout Stout in a Buffalo Trace Bourbon Barrel
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout in a Bourbon Barrel
Allagash Curieux in a Bookers Bourbon Barrel
The debut of 3 Stars/Olivers Rye Pale Ale blended with a Rye Porter aged in Hudson Rye Whiskey Barrels!!!
We will also have bottles of Founders Backwoods Bastard and Mikkeller Blackhole aged in Bourbon
Full pints and flights will be available as well as the bourbon special of the night and with the purchase of a 2oz pour of Buffalo Trace, Bookers, or Hudson Rye, a pint will be discounted $2 while supplies last.
On a sadder note this will be my last shift before I take the long move up to Buffalo…gotta see about a girl.

Buffalo's gain is our loss. Brian Kruglak was def. one of DC's best beer directors. Good luck, Brian!

Fill Those Growlers, D.C.

 

With the District's beer renaissance in full swing, sometimes local laws lag behind libations. That's the case with growlers, the half-gallon glass bottles that are the preferred container for beer connoisseurs, brewers and some retailers. [ more at DCist › ] 

And here's this from the councilmember's website:

The second proposed introduced by Wells is titled the "Sustainable Bottle Amendment Act of 2011." The legislation is a way to support several entrepreneurs seeking new business and create a new sustainability effort to cut down on the number of bottles consumed and that enter our public works system.

Customers outside of the District have long reused containers - often 1 to 3 liters in size - at brewpubs and retailers to significantly reduce the number of bottles that find their way into our trash and recycling streams.

Just over the District border in Hyattsville, for example, a customer can return a clean container to a brewpub or retailer, have the container filled and sealed, and return home. Within the last year, the opening of new manufacturers such as DC Brau on Bladensburg Road NE, have raised the consciousness about using them. Several retailers have made investments in the containers and heat shrink sealers, but have learned through ABRA that current DC law doesn't provide clear guidance for this effort.

Councilmember Wells commented, "Small businesses I've spoken to have talked about the potential for a substantial reduction in the number of containers they and their customers use, and are also excited for a new line of business and offering of products to their customers."

A copy of the bill can be found here: Wells, Sustainable Bottles.pdf

via DCist by Martin Austermuhle on 12/7/11

Session #1

Polling's closed, and while Oct. 17 won out by a slim margin, I've spoken to the few of you who were outliers on the poll and decided that the best day to pull off this shindig will be this Saturday at my place. It's going to be cold out, but I'm going to brave it to throw some burgers on the grill. For the meat I'll be using a set of special ingredients never before used that will be designed to fuse perfectly with the brew I've lined up for this month's proceedings. I may also just use whatever's in the fridge.

Place: Girard
Time: Dec. 10, drop by as early as 3pm and stay until the keg's gone
Quantity: 1/2 barrel keg (so bring your growlers if you've got 'em)

Our place is ground floor just above the basement apartment. The doorbell's broken, but you can give my cell a call or knock on the window that's to the left when you're facing our front door.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for...this month's beer will be Diesel, brewed by Brooklyn's own Sixpoint Craft Ales. It's been released in cans for a short time now and only made its keg debut in DC this past week with a local premier at ChurchKey, and now we're getting a chance to try it out without having to fight the bar crowd.

And one last thought: if you don't own a growler and don't know where to pick one up, but you know you'd like to get one before we meet up, let me know, and I might be able to grab one for you while I'm out running errands.

[Click on the image to be taken to the Beer Advocate review.]

Beer Advocate rating: A-
IBU rating: 69
ABV: 6.30%

Description from Sixpoint:
As flaccid dark beers limp their way across the finish line, the Sixpoint Diesel powers itself to victory with extra horsepower. Should you expect anything less from "stout" beer?

The Diesel is our version of stout, and with a name like "stout" we needed something with character…something with substance. Something with a deep roasted flavor, something with a full-bodied toffee sweetness. Something with cleansing, citrus, and grassy hop bitterness after every swallow.

Diesel stout has actually been offered each winter since 2005, the year after Sixpoint was founded. Rich, robust and deep brown-black, this beer will linger in your mouth like a streak of tar. Yet it’s surprisingly sessionable and effervescent, too. It starts with nutty roasted malts, which get combined with Columbus and Northern Brewer hops. Another dose of Columbus in the dry-hopping stage gives it a defiantly hoppy character. Poured in a glass, the head becomes thick and cappuccino-like, with lacing down to the last sip.

New York Times article about Sixpoint.