If you drink beer in DC, you're probably familiar, at least in passing, with such Neighborhood Restaurant Group mainstays like ChurchKey, Rustico, and GBD, among others. These are also the folks that bring you the Snallygaster festival each fall. Well, they decided they had too much free time on their hands, so now they're having something called the ABV Festival. It takes place Saturday, May 16 from 3-8pm at Canal Park (1100 New Jersey Avenue SE).
ABV has NRG's three drinkmeisters, Greg Engert (beer), Jeff Faile (spirits), and Brent Kroll (wine), and they've each got a curated list of beverages they'll be offering at this festival. With all due respect to Greg's colleagues, we don't deal with ghosts and the undead, and we certainly don't whine (us? never), but beer? Yeah we're into beer. We remember our first one, in fact.
The beer list though looks pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Before we get to the main event, here's what you need to know. Tickets are on sale here. There are three advance ticket options:
- $65 ticket (includes admission + a passport for 10 pours); or
- $85 VIP ticket (includes admission, passport for 10 pours, a custom wine glass and access to the VIP lounge, where the beverage directors will be pouring their favorite, limited finds); or
- $20 admission in advance (includes your first pour)
Additional tickets are $1, and additional pours will be $5-10 on average.
Alright with all that out of the way, let's take a look at the beer list.
- Allagash Golden Brett
- Allagash Moira – DC Debut!
- Allagash White
- Arizona Wilderness & Trois Dames Dark Absinthe Saison
- Beachwood & De la Senne Senne of a Beechwood
- Bluejacket Forbidden Planet
- Bluejacket Further
- BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien: Vin Jaune Grand Cru 2014 – DC Debut!
- Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus
- Crooked Stave Surette Provision – DC Debut!
- Crooked Stave Vieille Artisanal – DC Debut!
- DC Brau On the Wings of Armageddon
- De Struise Danko Power
- Ducato & Drie Fonteinen Beersel Mattina
- Firestone Walker Bretta Weisse
- Firestone Walker Agrestic
- Firestone Walker Pivo Pils
- Evil Twin Mission Gose
- Green Bench Les Grisettes – DC Debut!
- Green Bench Famous Flying Zacchinis – DC Debut!
- Green Bench Saison de Banc Vert – DC Debut!
- Green Bench Saison de Banc Noir – DC Debut!
- Hardywood Park Singel
- Hardywood Park Berliner Weisse – DC Debut!
- Oxbow Bandolier – DC Debut!
- Oxbow Continental – DC Debut!
- Oxbow Loretta
- Perennial Saison de Lis
- Perennial Funky Wit – Apricot – DC Debut!
- Prairie Standard
- Pretty Things Meadowlark
- Stillwater Projector
- Upright & The Commons Urban Farmhouse Ale
- Weissenohe Monchskeller – DC Debut + Rubber-Clad Franconian Gravity Keg!
- Weissenohe Unfiltered Pilsner – DC Debut + Rubber-Clad Franconian Gravity Keg!
VIP Limited Drafts and Bottle Pours:
- 18th Street & Arizona Wilderness Sophomoric Saison
- 3 Fonteinen Intense Red Oude Kriek
- Avery Insula Multos Collibus (Barrel-Aged Series #27)
- Anchorage Anadromous
- Anchorage & Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Boreal
- Dieu du Ciel L'Exorciste
- Firestone Walker Parabola
- Hardywood Walpurgisnacht
- Jester King Ambrée
- Jester King Le Petite Prince
- Kondrauer Hopster
- Magic Rock & Stillwater Pina Collision
- Partizan Saison: Raspberry & Lemon
- Partizan Saison: Iced Tea
- Prairie Eliza5beth
- Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbits
(If you are somehow a wine or spirits lover and somehow stumbled into our corner of the Internet, the lists of both of those products are also here.)
In conclusion, if you're going to ABV, have a really nice time. If you're not going to ABV, also have a really nice time.