On April 15, 2011, Meridian Pint served The Public Pale Ale, the first beer from Washington, DC’s first production brewery–not a brewpub–since 1956. What many people don’t realize, however, is that since 2016 The Corruption has been DC Brau’s best selling beer. Now both are being refreshed, first in looks, then in taste.
“It’s time to put more distance between The Public and Corruption,” so they don’t cannibalize each other’s sales, DC Brau co-founder and CEO Brandon Skall tells us. With The Public, his ask was for a beer that’s “more approachable, less bitter,” and “more in the traditional category of a pale ale,” perhaps even one they could enter into competitions with style guidelines.
When The Public first debuted, it was viewed, and sold, as a “tweener,” somewhere between a pale ale and an India Pale Ale, along with Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale, the earliest craft adopter of cans. Changes include the alcohol content, more in line with that of a pale ale; the previous version of Public was 6% alcohol by volume, the new one is 5%. Falconer’s Flight hop pellets, a blend of hops that start with the letter “C,” are gone, replaced by Centennial and El Dorado. Shifting the hops in The Public also means more beer. Falconer’s Flight is only available as pellets, and plant matter absorbs beer. Centennial and El Dorado, on the other hand, are also available in oil, powder, and extract form, resulting in less liquid loss.
The recipe for Corruption, Brau’s best seller, was in place since 2010, before the brewery opened. It was a time when “bitter, resinous IPAs dominated,” reminisces Skall. Corruption survived the hazy IPA craze, and the new recipe comes at a time when West Coast IPAs are undergoing something of a renaissance.
The person tasked with refreshing these brands is DC Brau’s Head Brewer, Alex Spencer. “Corruption was a beer with lots of malt and hop intensity, but was a little one-dimensional, with a bitterness that hampered drinkability,” notes Spencer. “This was fine in 2010 when the name of the game in IPAs was ‘MORE BITTER!,’ but that’s not the world we’re in anymore.” Today’s West Coast IPAs differ from those before the rise of hazy IPAs, and Spencer is up to the challenge of making Corruption a beer you want a second can of.
Until now, the IPA has been a single hop beer. A grassy, resinous, dare I say dank blast of flavor that tasted like mowing the lawn while smoking Tahoe OG–or so I’ve been told–is now complemented by… notes of orange? “The primary hop is now Amarillo, with the more assertive Columbus in a more supporting role, with the final top note from a tiny amount of hot-side Simcoe,” says Spencer. Look for “layers of orange and grapefruit, in addition to the big dank diesely resin Columbus character that have defined it historically.” The amount of crystal malt was reduced as well, bringing the beer more in line with today’s IPAs. The paying public seems to approve thus far, as Skall notes that draft sales of Corruption are up at many key accounts for the brewery.
Spencer’s approach to refreshing The Public was similar. “I wanted to maintain enough of the bones of the beer to not turn away existing fans, while modernizing it and making it more approachable,” he says, and this began with reducing the malt bill to move the beer from 6 to 5% ABV. Centennial is one of the hops in Falconer’s Flight pellets, and it remains in the beer. El Dorado adds some sweeter, tropical fruit flavors. As our own Mike Stein wrote, the beer now features “a graham cracker sweetness but with a nice firm bitterness” and “aromatic candied grapefruit notes.”The best time and place to try the reformulated Corruption and Public is now, but a close second is Brau’s Crafty Draftsters holiday market on December 16. They’ll have a few surprises onsite that day. Keep it Northeast and head to metrobar afterwards, where we’ll be pouring Brau’s Holiday Ginger seasonal. “In fact, almost all of our beers have gotten a face lift to varying degrees to coincide with the new packaging,” says Spencer, so if it’s been a while since you’ve had a Brau beer, now is a good time to get reacquainted with the first beer from a DC craft brewery and the best selling beer from DC’s first craft brewery.
