On Tuesday, July 21, Black Narrows Brewing canned their first beer, How Bout It?, an heirloom corn lager. It was canned at Dynasty Brewing Company, in Dulles, Virginia, but this is no ordinary contract brewing situation. In a typical contract brew, the beer recipe from one brewery is brewed and packaged at another. Black Narrows, however, brewed How ‘Bout It? at their Chincoteague, VA brewery. They then kegged the beer and brought it to Dynasty.
Josh Chapman, co-founder, co-owner, and brewer at Black Narrows tells us that these cans will be sold at the Eastern Shore brewery for the time being, but is “looking to get cans into NOVA/DC early Fall.” He adds that using Dynasty’s facility is “win-win,” because Black Narrows may purchase the same canning system. As such, Chapman was on-hand at Dynasty to can the beer, a trial run, thus the label reads “Brewed and Canned by Black Narrows Brewing Company, 4522 Chicken City Rd, Chincoteague, VA 23336.”
How Bout It? is a 4.2% ABV corn lager that uses heirloom Bloody Butcher and White Pipe corn, grown on the Delmarva peninsula. Canning at Dynasty is a natural fit for the Eastern Shore brewery. While Black Narrows has long championed locally grown agriculture, Dynasty head brewer and co-owner Favio Garcia was first to create an all-Virginia beer, and is no stranger to non-traditional brewing arrangements, with Mieza Blendery on site.
In more traditional contract brewing news, Purcelville’s Adroit Theory is now brewing at DC Brau. They are Brau’s first contract brewing partnership, starting with two IPAs and a Russian Imperial Stout. Adroit Theory’s beer was available at H St NE’s Craft Beer Cellar, and they do ship to the city, but in no small part thanks to this arrangement, look for limited distribution within DC proper in the near future.
Michael Stein also contributed to this piece.
