On Saturday Lost Generation is celebrating their two year anniversary with not two but five beers! Hard to believe the scrappy upstarts are now 24 months in operation and we at DC Beer are celebrating their existence. Three of the five beers are collaborations with breweries from, respectively, the District, Virginia, and California. Back in 2016 when I worked at DC Brau, the brewery turned five and they brewed five collaborative beers. To this day, those were some of my favorite beers brewed in DC and it lays the groundwork for how excited I am for the five beers coming to us Saturday, November 9.
I’m most excited about Nectar of Life, a 4.6% ABV Polish-style pilsner that is a tripartite collaboration with Virginia’s Benchtop Brewing and Sojourn Fermentory. The beer, simply by using “Polish Pilsner” as a style indicator, pays homage to the brave Polish people who resisted Nazi control of their country. It is brewed with floor malted pilsner and Polish Lubelski hops, something we know a bit about. Consider the patriotic story of pilsner: a Czech beer style that neither the Nazis or Soviets could destroy. The floor malted pilsner is Bohemian barley malt, malted by the Ferdinand malt house, which has produced this malt for over a century. And yes, it is that famous Ferdinand.
Perhaps the only thing better than good beer from an honest brewery run by honest people like Jared Pulliam and Anne Choe is good beer with good music. Lost Generation has us covered with the illustrious Granny and the Boys at 4:00 PM and jazz follows at 7:30.
Nothing Here For Death To Take is an 8% ABV Double Hazy IPA collaboration with Orange County’s Everywhere Beer Co. Stefan Weber and the Everywhere production team won the 1,001–2,000 Barrels Brewery and Brewer of the Year at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival. Everywhere also won a silver medal for Branching Out, in the Hoppy Lager category and a gold medal for Joyful Intuition in the Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale category. The Lost Gen collab is a double dry hopped strong pale ale with Citra, Nelson Sauvin, and Riwaka hops.
DMV – DC Edition is a strong 8% Double Hazy IPA which was brewed collaboratively at Other Half, Hometown favorites Bluejacket and DC Brau round out the collaboration. The beer is hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Rakau, and Krush hops. Rounding out the bill and not to leave out the darker beers, Lost Generation brings us two big and strong malty offerings: imperial stout and doppelbock.
While the final beers aren’t technically collaboration beers, they are aided in their uniqueness by utilizing barrels originally used for Catoctin Creek rye and Republic Restoratives whiskey. A title like Creaking Machinery of Humanity sounds dark, it is a quote from author Henry Miller, keeping within the theme of well-regarded authors and works the brewery enjoys. Sometimes this pays off in fascinating ways. Tiger Spirit’s title comes from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, and the award-winning author herself actually tried the beer and enjoyed it! The 8% ABV barrel-aged doppelbock should be a malty treat, with heightened fruit and spice notes from the bruleed peaches and tahitian vanilla the beer was conditioned on. For good measure, the doppelbock was aged for one year in Catoctin Creek Rye barrels and reminds us that good things can come to those who wait.
Finally, and strongest of the five, is a barrel-aged imperial stout, called The Sorrow That Cannot Talk, an 11% ABV stout. This big stout slept for a year in a Republic Restoratives whiskey cask and was then introduced to Peruvian cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans.
We would be remiss in not mentioning that Lost Gen is not the only brewery with an anniversary party this weekend. The even scrappier Hellbender turns ten, and while we have less news on their new releases, we know they’ll be good times and even better community on the northern end of the Metropolitan Branch Trail as well. See you at both these fine events from fine people.
