Prost, DC Beer fam, it’s Jordan, your favorite hophead here with another Beers Around the Way (BATW) Spotlight. In 2024, I highlighted the winner of Third Hill Brewing Company’s inaugural Homebrew Competition, Roy Robert’s Belgian Dark Strong, Leetvleteren, which was an excellent take on a Belgian-style Quad. 2025’s podium stuck to popular European styles as well, with two Czech-style dark lagers taking home the second and third place prizes and a British Strong Ale taking home the gold.
With some homebrewing experience myself, I remain impressed at the stylistic diversity, diligence, creativity, fortitude, and vision homebrewers bring to their craft. Often seen as a labor of love, homebrewers in the DMV have been putting out some bangers and the winners of these competitions deserve their flowers. The 2025 winner of the THBC Homebrew Competition is Sean Moffitt and his British Strong Ale, Undercover Lover.
Undercover Lover is a full-bodied, smooth and dark mahogany ale, with a malt-forward nuttiness complimented by chocolate, caramel, and dark fruit and figgy sweetness. A beer for the winter months, this 6.7% ABV brew is intended to be enjoyed slowly, giving drinkers the opportunity to appreciate the beer and the complexity Moffitt incorporated in both the original and commercially-produced batches. Released in November at Third Hill, the beer has evolved and matured, its flavors integrated and well-balanced.
I was fortunate to be along for the ride throughout this process. From an enthusiastic and informative brew day with owner of Third Hill, Jason Sliter, and head brewer, Matt Cronin, to the November 2025 release party, seeing Undercover Lover go from mill to pint glass was a dope experience, one annually offered to the winner of their homebrew competition.
For those interested in the 2026 Homebrew Competition, entries are due by Saturday, March 7, 2026. The winners of this purely hedonistic competition will be announced on Saturday, March 21, 2026. Learn more about it! It’s one of the many fixtures of Third Hill’s community outreach, giving us a chance to appreciate works from talented homebrewers as they get an opportunity for their beers to be produced and distributed commercially.
Undercover Lover is available on draft and in cans, I encourage each of you to go out and support Third Hill and this brew while supplies last!
Cheers!
