Our Mission: DCBeer seeks to promote and grow the DC area’s craft beer culture through its locally focused beer website and its tasting and educational events.

We do our best to bring our readers information on the latest events, happy hours, beer bar and restaurant openings, and profiles of the many great people making the beer scene possible. We also seek to educate people on the various aspects of beer culture like food and beer pairings, the beer brewing process, clubs, tastings, and all the other exciting things going on in this nascent national movement.

In addition to our website which serves as both a way to document the goings-on and growth of the DC beer scene and as a way to promote it to the city and surrounding areas, DC Beer is also an events business that helps local bars and groups host beer-centric events such as tastings and educational classes.

We hope to keep the website going by providing event planning and promotions services to beer focused bars and restaurants that also want to grow the craft beer scene in DC and its surrounding areas. Beyond that, we offer an extremely focused destination for businesses who want to get their message out to the DC area craft beer drinkers. Check out our offerings here…

The Team:

Andrew Nations, Co-Editor

Andrew Nations, Co-Editor

Sometime around my early college years I realized there was more out there than Bud Light. Growing up in Louisiana, I wasn’t exposed to the craft beer scene as early as some but was still familiar with the likes of Abita and nearby Shiner. I credit a good bit of my taste and desire to learn more to my father who once explained to me what craft, then called micro, was all about. Since then, I have moved to Washington, DC allowing for this lifestyle, disguised as a hobby, to develop further than I ever imagined. Zum Wohl!
Favorite beers: New Belgium Fat Tire ( Don’t Judge Me ), Three Floyds Gumball Head, Abita AndyGator, Alltech’s Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

Bill DeBaun, Co-Editor

Bill DeBaun, Co-Editor

While attending American University, Bill DeBaun became familiar with all manner of macrobrews. One fateful day, he sampled a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and was stunned that this beer tasted far different than the watery offerings found in fraternity house basements. Since that epiphany, he has become an increasingly passionate advocate for and participant in the craft beer movement that is sweeping DC. After seeking out all kinds of craft beers, he starting homebrewing in January 2010. As an editor at DCBeer.com, he hopes to contribute to the community and camaraderie that he firmly believes is just as important to the DC craft beer community as the tasty tipples themselves.
Favorite beers: Bell’s Two Hearted, Victory Prima Pils, Founders Red’s RyePA. When he can get them, he’s a big fan of Sierra Nevada Tumbler, Odell Saboteur, 1809 Berlinerweisse, Founders Backwoods Bastard, and Oliver Ales’ Bishop’s Breakfast.

Michael Stein, Staff Writer

Michael Stein, Staff Writer

At some point in his youth, Michael Stein realized there was a fourth option next to the Budweiser, Miller, and Coors tap handles at Ray’s Famous Pizza. It happened to be a Brooklyn Brewery tap handle. Even at his young age, Michael realized that his father had a choice both in Manhattan and Long Island: one of the big three or the beer with the black, white, green, and gold logo. At this time, Brooklyn Lager was still being manufactured as a contract beer by (what is today) F.X. Matt Brewing Company in Utica, NY. ?While attending college in Central Pennsylvania, Michael was happy to find that Yuengling was hands-down tastier than any of the other lagers he typically quaffed by the caseload. During a semester “abroad” in DC, he discovered the Brickskeller and the then burgeoning DC Beer Scene. He returned to Pennsylvania with a newfound passion, visited the Troegs Brewery, and frequented the anomaly that is the Selinsgrove Brewpub. After school, Michael spent a summer in Annapolis discovering Heavy Seas, DuClaw and Oliver Ales. He moved to Arlington, submitted entries to homebrew contests as a member of the DC Homebrewers and watched the DC Beer scene come of age to be the powerhouse it is today.

Michael’s current local favorites include DC Brau, Mad Fox Brewing Company, the Lost Rhino Brewing Company, Evolution, Stillwater, Port City and 3 Stars. His further favorites include Captain Lawrence Brewing Company, Russian River, The Lost Abbey, Avery, Odell, Hair of the Dog and Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. His foreign shore favorites include d’Achouffe, Mikkeller, Saison Dupont, Meantime, De Proef, and Orval.

P.J. Coleman, Staff Writer

PJ Coleman, Staff Writer

You might be surprised to learn that PJ Coleman waited until his 22nd birthday to try his first beer.  Some claim it was due to his discerning taste — he would attribute it to laziness.  Never one to follow the crowd, PJ subsisted in his college years on Coca-Cola and the thrill of driving other people’s cars asthe perennial designated driver.  When he finally got around to trying beer, he stuck to the typical post-grad regimen of light beers and the occasional Yeungling.

After getting his Masters in Museum Studies at GWU, PJ moved from DC to Philadelphia and graduated from Miller Lite to the world of craft brews that Philly offers.  His roommate Sam (Beer Sherpa) and The Standard Tap (a bar in Northern Liberties which serves only beers brewed within a 100-mile radius) turned him on to fresh beer in a variety of styles.

PJ is hopeful that beer and food pairings in DC will soon be the norm on menus instead of the occasional specialty event at bars and restaurants.

His favorite beers are IPAs (Dogfish Head 60 Minute and Bell’s Two-Hearted) and Saisons (Brewery Ommegang’s Hennepin).

Nick Rakowski, Staff Writer

There was a time when Nick thought that drinking Miller Genuine Draft, with its classy label, was far superior to drinking Miller Lite. Thankfully, that period of faux-enlightenment was short-lived, as Nick discovered the joys of Belgian Ales while studying abroad in Paris during his years at Georgetown University. He returned from Europe a new, maltier man, quickly taking to the burgeoning craft brewing scene in the District and beyond, sampling and brewing whenever he could. After he began writing about beer, Nick’s beer-loving tendencies skyrocketed and he knew he had to start sharing his love with the world, or at least the DC Metro area. Eventually, he found his way to DCBeer.com and hopes it will somehow make him as cool as Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver, the coolest man alive.

Favorite is a silly word when it comes to beer, but here goes anyway: Orval, Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Dogfish 60 Minute IPA, Bell’s Two-Hearted, Russian River Pliny the Elder, Saison DuPont, DC Brau Public, Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock, Oskar Blues G’Knight Imperial IPA

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