We here at DC Beer have been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to sip on some beers from Right Proper, one of DC's forthcoming breweries. With the T Street storefront built out and news about their permitting progress trickling in, the prospect of seeing RP come online has been tantalizing.
I recently ran into Nathan Zeender at the Mt Pleasant Farmers Market, where he was selling some of his WildCraft Soda, and inquired about Right Proper's status. And wouldn't you know it, the first pints of RP will be poured this very Thursday at Brew at the Zoo. Now, before you get your hopes up, remember that the event is already sold out, so those of us who didn't already buy tickets (myself included) are out of luck. But thankfully, the collaboration with Baltimore's Brewer's Art will make its way into a handful of DC bars (and debut up in the B'more brewpub) in the not-too-distant future; more on that as details roll in. For now, here's how Zeender describes the beer:
The beer that we brewed with the gang at Brewer's Art is hard to categorize. First off, their head brewer Steve Frazier is a real brewing science and engineering hero of mine so it was an honor to work with him and he was open to brew pretty much anything. The beer has elements of 3 of my favorite traditions: a biere de miel/saison (Blaugies yeast strain and wildflower honey), a gruit (mugwort, yarrow, heather, calendula, and some other sacred bittering herbs), and a rauch beer (a bit of beechwood smoked malt). It should clock in under 5% abv and hopefully be reminiscent of a fragrant meadow […] Part of the inspiration for the beer was a wonderfully odd smoky gruit called Menno & Jens from two of my favorite small European breweries De Molen and Haand, a further inspiration was Phil Markowski's aromatic Cuvee de Fleurs that he brewed at Southampton. Steve came up with the name Brimstone & Clover for the beer which I though was equally fitting for being both evocative as well as a bit of a subtle nod to De Molen which seems to name their beers using a similar logic.
So there you have it. Not too much else to report for the moment, except that RP is still on track for its target October opening. Zoo Brew Crew, enjoy the first taste, and everyone else, we'll keep you posted.
