Chuck Cook is The Belgian Beer Specialist. He runs Drink Belgian Beer and is a member of the Knighthood of the Brewers Mash Staff.
One of the newest DC area breweries is a keeper. Mieza Blendery opened in Alexandria, Virginia in June 2023, not far from Port City Brewing Company. “We focus on mixed fermentation saisons and mixed fermentation fruited beers,” says founder and blender Alex Lynch.
Originally from DC, Lynch “started home brewing in 2010, and my first brewing job was with Lost Rhino, in 2011. I was there for two and a half years. Later, I worked in the quality control lab at Bear Republic in California. After about four years there, I returned to Lost Rhino to manage their barrel program and quality control lab.”
Mieza Blendery’s mission statement separates it from many area breweries thanks to a focus on mixed fermentation beers. “Mieza Blendery is a beer blendery with strong inclinations towards oak vessels, mixed and spontaneous fermentation, and expressions of terroir. We hope to implement an unyielding dedication to saisons and barrel aged sour beers in the Washington, D.C. area.” The name Mieza refers to the place where the Greek philosopher Aristotle tutored the young Alexander the Great.
“I have three different angles that I think about,” Lynch philosophized when I visited Mieza on a Friday afternoon in the late autumn of 2023. He laid out his philosophy of beer brewing and blending as I sampled a number of his creations.
“The first is the ‘mixed culture purist’ where really cool flavors come from barrel-aged mixed culture beers. The second is the ‘terroir perspective’ where sour beer is made, using fruit of lesser or unknown varietals, sourced directly from farmers. This helps preserve the existence of the fruit for the future. The beer is facilitating an expression of the fruit. There is also the mixology perspective: blending is about different flavors. If you make a seven ingredient cocktail that flops, people will make fun of you. But if it works, it works!”
As to why he got into blending mixed fermentation and spontaneous beers, Lynch says: “I really like drinking all sorts of beer. Marzen might be my favorite style. Originally, I dove into mixed culture brewing because I didn’t have a lot of fermentation control in my D.C. basements, so why make an IPA when you know it will be mediocre at best? My mixed culture projects were coming out well in that basement environment, and I just kept tinkering. As I worked professionally in craft brewing, I realized that the day to day and month to month concerns of making a good IPA, and making good mixed culture barrel aged beers are vastly different. I thought it was best to realign all aspects of the building and the business to best accommodate the needs, strengths and weaknesses of barrel aged mixed culture blending.”
“Nowadays, I have a lot of excitement thinking about, and really trying to flesh out to the fullest extent possible, blending as a different creative approach. I try to perform the exercise of asking the question ‘what beer concept really can’t be achieved as a single batch, but must be a blend of different components?’ There are a lot of learned base assumptions from the brewery assembly line mindset that start to melt away as the only way to do it.”
Lynch brewed a number of collaborations with Dynasty Brewing in Ashburn prior to moving into Mieza’s current space at 109 Clermont Avenue in Alexandria, and continues to use wort from Dynasty in Mieza beers. “It took about two years to secure this spot during the pandemic. The idea was to have a barrel stock built up prior to opening. We are probably brewing at 400% of what our annual output is projected to be. Most of our beers have been brewed at Dynasty, and then pumped into our own barrels for aging (maturation) and later, blending,” he added. His goal here is to build up a stock of barrel-aged beer he can then blend with.
This should sound familiar to lambic fans. Belgium’s lambic blenderies purchase wort, or unfermented beer, directly from lambic breweries during the winter brewing season. Lambic blenderies then add this wort to their own barrels for aging, producing what will in time become lambic. Lambics of different ages can be sold as straight lambic, or, more commonly, lambics aged 1, 2, and 3 years are blended and bottled to produce oude gueuze. Lambics of different ages can also be blended together along with macerated fruit to produce fruited lambics.
While some of Mieza’s brews contain some spontaneously fermented wort as in Belgium, most utilize mixed fermentation yeasts and bacterias, including brettanomyces. There should be more spontaneously fermented wort in the future, though: Mieza plans to install a custom built, 12-barrel copper coolship by the end of February. “We hope to do three spontaneous fermentation brews this brewing season,” Lynch says. Copper is more expensive than stainless steel, and harder to clean, but the coolships at some of the most famous Belgian lambic breweries, such as Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels, Brouwerij Girardin in Sint-Ulriks Kapelle, and Brouwerij Timmermans in Itterbeek, are built from copper.
“In the future, we will probably brew four of five batches of spontaneously fermented wort each winter. We will use the turbid mash method, similar to what is used at Brasserie Cantillon and Brouwerij Boon, and other Belgian lambic breweries,” Lynch noted. For previous batches of spontaneous brews, he got creative: “I actually used a hop back at Dynasty, which had a functional enough surface area to volume dimensions to work as a coolship.” Mieza will continue to produce wort at Dynasty, and the hot wort will cool overnight in the new coolship.
Aged hops are used as a preservative in lambic brews, and also by the makers of lambic-inspired beers. Aged hops typically impart very little or only a mild hop flavor to beers, which is by design. As some of his future brews might be considered “lambic-inspired,” Mieza will use aged hops in these beers as is the case in Belgium. “I already have some aged Cascade hops and Styrian Goldings,” Lynch notes. “The hops are eight years old, and have been unsealed and open for two and a half years.”
Mieza offers a number of fruited beers and saisons, on draft and in bottles. The Mieza beers hit the mark by generally having a mild to medium acidity, rather than being overly sour. “I really don’t believe in a house yeast culture,” he told me. “But that is kind of what we are working with, in reality. The saisons have multiple strains. Two of them were isolated from yeasts from a couple of famous Belgian saison breweries.”
Standouts include Striss (5.2% alcohol by volume), a mixed fermentation saison hopped with Strisselspalt and Styrian Goldings, and Cousin Throckmorton (5.8% abv) which has at its base a helles lager, and is hopped with Saphir. Both were interesting and refreshing. Many Mieza saisons are reminiscent of funky Belgian versions, such as some of the classics from Brasserie de Blaugies and Brasserie Fantome, among others. As a saison lover, visiting Mieza is like going to the candy store.
Fruited sours include several blends of blond beer. Angels and Astronauts is a blend of blond ale made with Petit Verdot grapes; Venatio II is made with Viognier grape, and dry-hopped with Huell Melon hops; and Ceramic Gnomes, another blend of blond ale, is produced with with sweet and sour cherries, star anise, and aged in rye whiskey barrels. All were very good, with a medium acidity, interesting grape notes, and prominent fruit character. “We usually macerate the fruits with the beer blends for about two to six months before bottling or kegging,” Alex says.
One of the most interesting fruited beers was Kuplink, Kuplank, Kuplunk!, a blond blend made with Virginia blueberries. With the perfect combination of a low to medium acidity, a deep fruit character from the blueberries, and a mild funkiness, it could pass for a brew produced in Belgium’s lambic country in a blind tasting. I tasted this 6.4% abv brew first on draft, and then from a bottle that had been filled in May 2023. While both were excellent, the bottled version was the winner. Due to 6 months of bottle-conditioning, it was more complex and refined, and the color was a deep reddish blue. “This beer has some three year old spontaneous wort in it, and the spontaneous is about one-third of the overall blend,” Lynch added. Linnean, another blond blend macerated with peaches and nectarines in 2022 and 2023, was also drinking nicely.
For any sour beer loving coffee fans out there, check out “Ironic Timing,” a dark sour made with Little Red Fox coffee beans, 8.5% abv. Mieza often has a stout on offer. During my visit, I tasted “A Quiet Feast,” a blended imperial stout made with Petit Verdot grapes, and aged in bourbon barrels. It weighs in at a hefty 12.5% abv, yet was not too sweet. I’m not a fan of overly sweet stouts, and fortunately, it seems that neither is Lynch, as this brew was very enjoyable.
If you’re not sold on mixed fermentation and blended beers, worry not: there is more on offer than the house blended saisons, fruited brews, and stouts: “We have several beers on tap that we brewed at Dynasty, including IPAs, and–as of last fall–even a Marzen.
“By the end of March, we should have close to 100 oak barrels filled with beer,” Lynch told me. Most previously held red wine from California’s Alexander Valley, but Mieza is adding an assortment of spirit barrels, including some that formerly held Sagamore rye whiskey, 10-year old Heaven Hill bourbon, Jamaican rum, Laird’s apple brandy, and gin.
It is a family affair at Mieza: Alex’s father, James Lynch, is retired, and works behind the bar. The taproom is small, with space for about 30 people, but cozy and welcoming. “We’ve had a lot of support from our neighborhood. A lot of patrons live nearby, and have become regulars since we officially opened.”
Mieza’s current tasting room hours are 3 to 9 pm on Fridays, 1 to 9 pm on Saturdays, and 1 to 8 pm on Sundays. “We are also open for bottle sales only from 3-8 pm on Wednesday and Thursdays,” Lynch adds. “Outside food, well-behaved children, and dogs are welcome.”
I highly recommend a visit to Mieza Blendery! It is a welcome addition to the DC area beer scene, and one to watch for the future, as it becomes better known to beer lovers in the region, and further afield.
Charles D. “Chuck” Cook has traveled to Belgium 43 times since 1994 to explore, experience, and enjoy its incredible beer culture. He has written for such publications as USA Today, Delta Airlines Sky Magazine, All About Beer Magazine, Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine, and many others, including his own website, DrinkBelgianBeer.com. He has also co-hosted a lambic-focused beer tour of Belgium four times. Chuck was enthroned as an Honorary Knight of the Knighthood of the Brewer’s Mash Staff in Brussels in 2023. He makes his home in Richmond, Virginia.
