New Kids on the Block: Meet Upweller, Dad Strength, & Lost Nomad
When Chincoteague, Virginia’s Black Narrows Brewing closed, we left open the possibility that they would return in some form, writing: “Josh Chapman probably isn’t done brewing on the Delmarva peninsula. Stay tuned…” That time has come, and the form has taken shape. Though no longer on the Eastern Shore, some Black Narrows beers will be made under a new name at Right Proper’s Shaw Brewpub, where co-founder and co-owner Josh Chapman currently brews. Please welcome Upweller Beer Company.
Upweller is able to brew at Right Proper because the tanks at Shaw aren’t full, and this is before additional tank space comes online at their third location now under construction in Eckington. That is, the Shaw brewpub–Chapman’s job there is part-time–has the capacity to produce more beer than they’re brewing, and Right Proper is not alone in Washington, DC in this predicament. According to Chapman, “Thor and Leah [Cheston] (the dynamic husband and wife duo of Right Proper) threw out the concept of us starting our own side project brewery right there in Shaw.”
Excess capacity, the ability of a brewery to make more beer than they’re currently brewing, has come to DC, leading to a rise in contract breweries, beer brands without a brick and mortar location. Jeff Alworth, who you may better know as the author of the Beervana website, notes that excess capacity is bad for business: “the days the mash tun is idle, the number of tanks sitting empty…. Brewing is a capital-intensive industry with narrow margins. Breweries do not want to buy, or worse, finance expensive equipment that just sits around. They don’t want to pay leases on space they’re not using. They don’t want to pay staff who have no beer to make.” One potential solution for breweries with excess capacity is contract brewing. While that’s not an ideal way to make a living for most, it’s getting easier thanks to more physical breweries with the ability to produce and store beer.
The first area brewery of 2024 to close and then return as a contract-brewed beer brand was Calvert Brewing Company, which closed in January and returned in March via Burnish Beer Company in Salisbury, Maryland. Burnish, like Right Proper, has more tank space in the brewery than beers that can be sold fresh in both the taproom and via distribution, and plenty of brewers are finding ways to take advantage of that.
DC Brau contract brews for other brands, including Soul Mega, which found themselves out of tank space when Calvert’s brick and mortar location in Upper Marlboro, Maryland closed. Soul Mega CEO and co-founder Elliott Johnson was able to pivot to Brau, which has also brewed beers for Adroit Theory, Bitter Fruit, and Hellbender when the latter’s boiler caused a lapse in production, among others.
Atlas Brew Works in Ivy City is the site of Dad Strength Brewing, starting with a 2.9% alcohol by volume IPA, and we’ll have more on them soon. The same goes for Lost Nomad, a beer brand brewed at City-State by people whose day jobs take them abroad. Both these beer brands are now available in a few stores in DC, with more beer coming soon. Dad Strength IPA is about to be in 20-plus locations, including metrobar and both Atlas locations in the District. Odd Provisions may have Lost Nomad’s IPA available, but check their respective websites for more information.
At one point there was stigma around being a contract brewery. You lack “skin in the game,” as one local brewery owner put it a decade ago. Increasingly, however, it’s seen as a win-win, filling brewery tanks and bringing new beers to market. While some contract brands fade away–Sankofa hasn’t made a beer in 2024–others become brick and mortar breweries, as Urban Garden and Joyhound will soon do. We’ll chat with the minds behind Dad Strength and Lost Nomad soon, so watch this space.
