Welcome to The Mash-In! This feature is a hodgepodge of contributions from our staff that we hope you enjoy.
Save the Date!
DC Beer Week returns in 2014 from August 17-24. Preliminary info here, watch DCBeer for more to come!
Upcoming Beers/New to the Area
Here are some new beers/breweries in the way too long interim since our last Mash-In
Lost Rhino is releasing Bone Dusters Amber Ale, “created using yeast from a fossilized whale bone by Lost Rhino’s Brewing Scientist Jasper Akerboom. Jason Osborne of Paleo Quest came up with the idea to swab some of the fossils he found on his diving trips. Not only was Jasper successful in extracting a yeast from the whale fossil, but it happened to be a strand that was able to ferment a beer.”
Flying Dog Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale was released (and created quite a flurry in the Old Line State)
Right Proper Brewing Company released a number of new beers including Kodachrome Dream(ing) (a Radler), Gotland (a smoked collaboration with brewer Megan Parisi), Eno (a Brett farmhouse ale), Gnosis (a tripel), and White Bicycles (a blood orange wit with Brett)
Bluejacket Brewing Company released a large number of beers including Sideshow (blond ale collab with New Belgium); Disaster Proof (rye lager) and Nobody’s Darling (an imperial schwarzbier) (both collabs with Great Raft Brewing); Grover (American IPA); Moby Grape (imperial sour brown ale); Junebug (maibock); Jezebel (tripel); Burning Bush (tripel with Brett), among many others, and also started bottling beers
3 Stars Brewing Company released a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) beer: Green-Eyed Devil (an IPA). Additionally, the first bottle for their Illuminati Reserve Society has been released, though not to the public.
Welcome to North Carolina’s LoneRider Brewing (Raleigh, NC)
Welcome to Virginia’s Lickinghole Creek (Goochland, VA) which is now in the northern Virginia market
Starr Hill Debuts Soul Shine Belgian-Style Pale Ale
Port City Ways and Means Session Rye IPA Debuted in April to great fanfare
Twin Lakes (Greenville, DE) signed on with Capital Eagle Distributors
Gordon Biersch releasing Rite of Spring Maibock
Upcoming Event Spotlight
We’ve picked out an event that caught our eye. To see even more events check out our calendar at bit.ly/dcbeercalendar!
Had any beers from Hardywood in Richmond, VA yet? If not, Arlington’s Big Buns has the dinner for you. On July 3, join them for Bunsdependence Day, a five course dinner for $42.
Also on your radar should be the National Zoo’s Brew at the Zoo, a perennial winner for a good cause on the craft beer front.
Reader Email
Need to get in touch with us? Feel free to do so. Email us at editor@dcbeer.com!
You’d be surprised how often folks think our humble beer blog is a production brewery. We wish, believe us. Anyway, when we get emails like this: “Company annual picnic needs locally brewed beer. Looking for a quote on an American lager, light, and IPA,” we tend to pass them along to the proper folks, but we assure you, we are not the ones to supply your company picnic with anything but snark.
Recent Beer We’ve Liked
Bill here, coming to you live, well alright let me stop I already lied to you. This isn’t live. But so it goes. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m an absolute sucker for Odell Brewing Company’s Saboteur. It’s a Brett brown ale with intense earthy notes, hints of vanilla and tropical fruit from the Brett, and plenty of chocolatey (but not burnt) malt underneath. It’s a treat. And, as much as I plead, I don’t think it’s coming back. With that said, Bluejacket’s recent release, Moby Grape, is a 7.6% imperial sour brown. This has what has become a characteristic Bluejacket tang (in their beers with Lactobacillus anyway), with a slightly yogurty (don’t be offput) tartness and tongue-covering feel but also the same rich cocoa underneath that rounds out the flavor. The mouthfeel here is a little thin because the Lactobacillus ate so much of the remaining sugars, and this is a beer that is dangerously drinkable given its ABV, but if you’re a fan of malt and sour (e.g., Tart of Darkness, Duchesse de Bourgogne, Rodenbach Vintage), this is one for you to try.
"What's Brewing?"
Interesting batches/recipes from local homebrewers with the occasional spotlight on a specific kind of brewing ingredient. Brewing something good and want to see your batch highlighted? Email us at editor@dcbeer.com.
DCBeer has recently teamed up with local homebrewer Matt Humbard to post some great homebrew-related content. In the first two posts covered by DCBeer, Matt examines the experimental hop varieties Azacca and Experimental Pine Fruit. Be sure to check these out!
Non-Beer Read of the Week
Because sometimes you want something non-beer while you beer.
The World Cup is coming up, and if you’re anything like the DCBeer staff, in addition to being misanthropic, you’re probably pretty excited. Not all of us are super hip to the soc- err, footb-, err, alright let’s go with soccer, I guess, world. Luckily, the folks at Deadspin have you covered. No doubt inspired by our SAVOR profiles, they’ve taken it upon themselves to write a profile of every team that will be in Brazil for the World Cup. Whether you’re a die-hard looking for something to argue with or a newbie looking to cover that up with some quick knowledge about “the beautiful game,” start here.
/Facepalm’able Craft Beer Venue Yelp Reviews
Yelpers can’t help it, sometimes they write things in their reviews that are nonsensical. We will keep an eye on Yelp reviews of craft beer venues across the city and report back with anything of note.
With all due respect to this reviewer of Granville Moore’s, maybe stick to the wine and cognac from now on. So many questions arise from this review. Which famous Belgian beer is it that you like, exactly? Is it one of the ones on Granville’s extensive reserve list? Is it one of the ones on their rotating draft list? Either way (shocker!) procuring these beers and maintaining this kind of menu takes every bit of effort and expense that maintaining a great wine menu does. “Beer is still just a beer” is the kind of subtle trolling that deserves a slow clap. After all, Two Buck Chuck and a 2000 La DeMoiseile de Sociando-Mallet are both just wine, right? Why is the latter so expensive? Really such a rip-off when you could just go to TJ’s, right? Right!
“Do you like that famous Belgian beer? Then be ready to spend some major $ because for the price of a glass of beer at Granville Moore's you can get a glass of great wine at the Cork or Veritas. I mean beer is still just a beer, and not cognac to cost what they charge for it at these dumb bad-quality pseudo-Belgian establishments of DC designed to cater to gullible pretenders and suburbanites.”
As a sidenote, the near-universally lauded Rasika also earned one star from this reviewer. So, keep that in mind and Belgian beer in your glass, we guess.
Tweet of the Week
As both craft beer and Super Troopers fans, we couldn’t agree more.
My reaction when I see drastically over-priced #CraftBeer in DC. #DrinkLocal & don't over-pay folks! pic.twitter.com/u6iqqIEzaB
— Spenser Walters (@SpenserWalters) June 3, 2014
#DCBrews Photo of the Month
Take great photos? Of your dog? Good for you. Take great photos of the goings-on of the #dcbrews scene? That’s more like it. Tweet/Instagram @dcbeer or tag your post #DCbrews and you may find your photo right here.
Kudos to the folks at Brooklyn Brewery for their slate of events in DC called the Mash. Check out DCBeer co-editor Chris Van Orden moderating a panel with Brooklyn’s Steve Hindy, Atlas Brew Works’ Justin Cox and Will Durgin, and DC Brau’s Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock. Photo via @trivan.
Header modified from Flickr user beerbrewingman, some rights reserved.
