First of all, we’d like to thank you, dear readers, for your unwavering support and wholehearted willingness to forgive typos. We at DCBeer are honored to provide the most up-to-date news, guides, and screeds on Washington’s craft beer scene, and we could not have done any of it without at least some of you.
So it is with a mix of pride and wistfulness that we announce the next step in DCBeer’s evolution: we’re opening a brewery!
Although we had hoped to make this announcement during CBC last week, most of us only got paid on Friday, which made it hard to purchase both a Bayou Burner, one of those pots you steam tamales in, and a van down by the Anacostia River (from which we will directly pull delicious, unfiltered, LOCAL water to brew). We were so inspired by all of the happy, bearded faces we saw last week at CBC, and we're itching to take the plunge and get “into the biz”, as we’ve heard it called. The idea was born at about 11:30pm last Tuesday at Smith Commons during the Hop Symposium. We'd like to reiterate to the folks who bought us a round of rye shots, "No, you are the best, man." After a few hours of chitchat, we think we’ve worked out all of the logistics.
The brewery – tentatively named Mid-Atlantic Drunk Store – will focus on brewing farmhouse beers, sours, lagers, session ales, and stouts. Some IPAs. Maybe a Kolsch. No ambers.
In the first year, head brewer Bill Jusino or Josh Hubner (depending on who wins the death match) will produce 112 different beers made primarily with ingredients found in Jake Berg's yard, fermented in an old hat covered by hay using the de- and re-coction methods.
The flagship brew, based on co-editor Bill DeBaun’s favorite style, will be Bigger than Quad, featuring local organic crabgrass, carrot peelings from a disreputable soup kitchen, and the non-marshmallow parts of Lucky Charms. The ‘slop’ (technical term) will be filtered through a basket of hair and stored in used Robitussin barrels. Other planned beers include:
- Party Gyle, an extremely mild beer brewed for sexy parties
- Bitter than Ezra, a nostalgic IPA, exclusively featuring hops available before 1995
- Oud Prune, literally just a bunch of smashed-up old prunes that we spit on after chewing Cracker Jack
We’re actively seeking support, so stay tuned for details of our Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns, $2,000 a plate black tie dinners, and Combined Federal Campaign designation. Also be on the lookout for our writers at your local watering holes – they’ll be the ones staring you straight in the eye with outstretched palm making that grabbing motion employed primarily by babies.
We can’t wait to begin this journey with you, DC. We can’t wait to finally be invited to all of the super cool barbecues that the local brewers have, maybe even get a high five or two. And most of all, we can’t wait to sink Great Raft Brewery. We hear those guys are jerks (don't steal our prune beer).
