On Friday, June 4, 2021, the group of production breweries in Washington, DC grows by one, as Edgewood’s City-State Brewing open its doors to the community. We talked to owner, founder, and neighborhood resident James Warner on The DC Beer Show last week, and on DCBeer.com back in January, but here’s a bit more on what to expect.
Located at 705 Edgewood Street NE, the brewery is around the corner from food incubator/ghost kitchen Mess Hall and is about a 10 minute walk from the Rhode Island Ave NE Red Line Metro station. There isn’t a lot of street parking, but there is a rooftop garage. If you’re driving, use it. Better yet, the brewery is just off of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT), bike it.
City-State will open with at least three beers: a Kolsch-style ale, a pale ale, and a dark wheat. We had a sneak peak at these earlier in the week. Blossom, the Kolsch, is still young, so think of it more of a kellerbier as the brewing team dials in City-State’s unique “20 + 5” brew house, which allows for decoction and step-mashing. You might see a hibiscus version of Blossom as soon as this weekend. 8 Wards Independent Pale Ale came across as emphatically east coast, with a big Maris Otter malt presence met by stone fruit- and citrus-forward hops. Equal Marriage, the dark wheat, skirts the line between a dunkelweisse and a weizenbock. More are on the way soon, including:
NEDC, because you can never have too many pale ales, and
Look for cans coming as soon as the end of the month, designed by local artist Anthony Dihle, whose neighborhood artwork adorns one wall of the brewery. Don’t drink beer? They’re kegging up two kinds of iced tea and will also have cold brew, as well as food trucks.
Do drink? You can now make a proper bar crawl out of this section of the MBT, starting at Brookland Pint, heading to Dew Drop Inn, then City-State, and ending at Metro Bar, where you’ll be able to instagrammably drink inside a decommissioned Metro car later this month. Still thirsty after that? Red Bear is just a few more minutes down the Trail.
Design nerds will note that three of those, Pint, City-State, and Metro Bar, were the work of Sorrell Design, a local firm. You can see Metro Bar from the southern end of City-State, along with the upcoming Alamo Drafthouse movie theater and apartments that will bring an influx of foot traffic to the area, so big changes are afoot and City-State is poised to take advantage of them. Please join us in welcoming them to the DC beer scene!
Opening hours: Wednesday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
