Three weeks ago Barrel & Flow, the largest festival of Black-owned beer brands in the world, took place in Pittsburgh, and local breweries represented. Here’s what we missed, though a few collaboration beers will be available in DC and Maryland.
We’re starting with Liquid Intrusion, which brewed a special collaboration with Soul Mega, a 9% alcohol by volume Belgian-style tripel. The beer is named Genetically Unapologetic because LIBCO’s co-founder and brewer Jasmine Dill has been experiencing headache and blurred vision, which turns out to be Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (VHL), a rare hereditary condition that causes tumors and cysts throughout the body.
“This beer honors Jasmine’s personal journey, the pain, the misdiagnosis, the resilience, and the rare truth of it all,” co-founder and co-owner Andrew Dill told us. “It will be released some time after Jasmine’s scheduled surgeries in the DMV market, and we invite you to taste it, share it, and understand what it stands for. Until then, supporting us through your favorite LIBCO flagship liquid or merch means the world.”
Dill is in treatment, so you might not see the twin shirted duo of Dills around as much as normal this fall. LIBCO isn’t slowing down on brewing, however, and they’re raising capital for a taproom and production facility in Prince George’s County, which would be the first Black-owned brand with that distinction in the county. Look for cans of Genetically Unapologetic in DC and Maryland soon. They’ve also partnered with The Wine Concierge to ship their beers nationwide. More information at their website, and watch their social media, too. If you want to help in a non-beer way, Genetically Unapologetic shirts are available. You might see members of the DC Beer team wearing these at Snallygaster on October 11.
Black Viking stayed busy, brewing two collaborations with Pittsburgh’s New France Brewing Company. Redux, a 4.5% ABV lemon-lime lager, was brewed at New France, which we won’t see in the DMV, but cans are available in Pittsburgh. “At Oliver (producers of Black Viking beverages), we brewed ‘Remix,’ a Belgian witbier with lemongrass and lime leaf, also 4.5% ABV,” co-founder Shaun Taylor tells us. Remix should be available at both Downtown Crown Beer & Wine Store in Gaithersburg, MD and Whitey’s Liquors in Linthicum.
The brewery isn’t done, though. Queen’s Rose hard seltzer, with rose water and strawberries, got a soft launch at Barrel and Flow and will be available in Maryland and DC soon. Taylor and the Black Viking team have been workshopping this one for a while; early batches of this avoided one of our main issues with hard seltzers: the cloying artificial sweetness found in many seltzers is absent from this one. Also, if you don’t like leaving the house, Black Viking’s original brew, Zingabier, is now available for DC delivery via GoPuff.com.
Beyond collabing with Liquid Intrusion, Soul Mega took a road trip to Troeg’s in Hershey to brew an altbier with Harrisburg’s Zeroday for the festival. Tasting notes come via Troeg’s: “Featuring the hallmark light red hue and moderate bitterness, the beer’s twist comes with Mosaic and Galaxy hops added later in the boil and then dry-hop. The result lends notes of sweet citrus and stone fruit to the weighty, dry-finishing ale.” It’s 7.3%, ignore that number in the artwork above, and alas only Troeg’s has it on draft, though they can put it in a crowler should you visit. We hope a sixtel will make it to Soul Mega’s Mega Fest 2025 in a week because sticke alt, strong altbier, is an underappreciated style and hitting it with American hops makes a lot of sense. Also, more on Mega Fest, in downtown DC, soon!
Lead pic via Amber Farris, all others via the breweries unless otherwise noted.
