DC is not insulated from national trends in beer, but we do have our own little quirks and intricacies and many of these are what makes our scene special. One trend that we wish would go away is the lack of overall beer sold in DC.
As DC Brau CEO Brandon Skall told us on episode 213 of the DC Beer Show, DC used to be a six million case town and currently the city is closer to 4 million cases sold annually. If you don’t know, a case of beer is typically 24 cans. So DC currently buys about 96,000,000 beers annually whereas it historically bought about 144,000,000 beers per annum.
City tax data shows us that in 2018 about 420,000 barrels of beer were sold. A barrel is about two kegs worth of beer. A similar number was sold in 2019. But 2020 had about 303,169 barrels sold. In 2021, that number was 324,618. This trend is not unique to DC and in fact it reflects a national trend of a slowing market for beer sales. So whereas DC used to sell about 840,000 barrels of beer, today we’re closer to 648,000 barrels.
One of the things that makes our scene special is the massive number of breweries distributing in DC, in no small part the work of the many area distributors, the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, and the District’s laws around self-distribution. This of course makes the playing field full of sharp elbows for local brewers, but it hasn’t stopped many local brewers from making exceptional beer.
I’m thinking of the delightful Midwest Condensation, a Bluejacket beer that is special to me in that it’s under 4% ABV, Czech (as was my late father), and is brewed using a malt that’s only been malted in the US twice, thanks to Andrea Stanley owner/founder of Valley Malt, despite the special barley having a long history in Czechia. In addition to this lager, Bluejacket has been sourcing some incredible German hops, and while it breaks my partially Czech heart to say it, some of the German Saaz has really lead to incredible lagers (as well as some other incredible German hops like Hallertau Mittelfruh). Henceforth, our newest brewpub in DC has received rave reviews in the few weeks it’s been open and I can personally attest that their bitter tasted incredible from their brite tank prior to their opening. Somewhat related: if you’ve not had what the World Beer Cup judged as the best Extra Special Bitter, go try Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on cask the next time it’s on at Churchkey or Shelter at the Roost. It is now the gold medal winner, an American pale ale is also somehow an extra special bitter.
As our editor emeritus Bill DeBaun once opined, “being local isn’t good enough.” Being exceptional of course is, though exceptionality is a sticky wicket and one that’s hard to pin down in the kaleidoscopic beer landscape we currently find ourselves in.
So does owning more than one brewery make you exceptional? I will leave that to you, dear reader, to decide. But I can tell you there are now multiple DC breweries with multiple locations. This is a fairly new development for the city, and it makes sense. Tree roots spread to obtain more water, and so our breweries have opened more locations to reach more drinkers. Yes, we had multiple Gordon Biersch locations, one on 9th Street and one in Navy Yard, once upon a time, but for local upstarts, that is breweries born in DC proper, to expand it is a recent development. One that we’re enjoying watching play out.
Homegrown local expansion is in many ways what’s trending in the DC brewing world today. Owning more than one brewery is new for us despite how many times it’s happened in surrounding states or further afield.
Atlas will open their Anacostia production facility in the coming months and when they do, they’ll have four locations, five if you count National Airport: a production brewery in Anacostia, a production facility in Ivy City, a brewpub on Half Street, and a brewpub in Alexandria. As we wrote in 2023, Alexandria’s Atlas was the first DC brewery to open in neighboring northern Virginia. Of course their airport locale doesn’t brew, but it does stock fresh Atlas beer including cans you can take with you on your travels.
Right Proper is also expanding, soon enough they will have a brewpub in Eckington, joining the brewpub in Shaw, and the production brewery in Brookland. The brewhouse in Eckington will be either a five or seven barrel kit–the brewpub in Shaw is home to a five barrel brewhouse–and the production brewery in Brookland cranks out 20 barrels of beer per kettle turn.
When Aslin opened their 14th Street filling station this was the first location for the brewery in the District. They also have locations far flung in Pittsburgh and Virginia Beach. Of course Aslin locations also exist much closer to DC like the two in Alexandria and Herndon.
While we’re subtly rounding out the breweries in DC, we would be remiss not to mention Solace in Navy Yard and Crooked Run in Union Market. To my knowledge these three Virginia transplants are not making beer but they are Virginia breweries who are now operating in DC proper.
Towards the first trend mentioned in this article, the lack of beer sold, any one of aforementioned breweries, brewpubs, and taprooms is a good place to reverse that trend; drink more local beer, beer brewed here, and beer from here. The latter category would include Port City’s lovely Optimal Wit, with wheat from Virginia’s northern neck, and farm breweries of all sorts, such as Wheatland Spring, Waradaca, Pen Druid, and Manor Hill. Not sure where to start? We’ve got ale trails for you. Give them a shot. Cheers!
Jacob Berg assisted with this piece.
