There’s a lot going on in DMV beer that we haven’t addressed on the site… until now.
Jefferson, Maryland’s Distillery Lane Cider has closed. This one is a retirement; we wish proprietor Rob Miller the best in what comes next. We’ll miss apple picking in their orchard and their many excellent wine-like ciders, at least one of which is still available at Red Bear Brewing. “Yes, we are very sad about DLC closing, but we wish Rob the best in his retirement, DLC was an amazing partner for the last 5 years. We will no longer have the Black Currant Cider once the stock we have on hand is gone. That said, we are now replacing DLC with Doc Waters Cider in Germantown, MD. We will be transitioning to a few varieties of their flagship ciders and we plan to eventually have a cider made especially for us as we did with DLC, although what that will be is still to be determined,” Red Bear Director of Operations Simon Bee tells us. There’s a lovely statement up on Distillery Lane’s website. Go read it, then head back here.
Keeping it Frederick County, Vanish Farmwoods Brewery is now part of a music space in Boonsboro, in addition to their partnership with Il Forno Pizzeria, an Italian restaurant on Frederick’s “Golden Mile.” This gives them two spots in Maryland; the original location is on the Virginia side Potomac, which was once going to be Flying Dog’s farm brewery. The circle of life! Vanish Hall and their taproom-slash-nanobrewery in Frederick means they’ll be at the Maryland Craft Beer Festival on May 11–see you there!
In January we reported that Calvert Brewing had closed. Well, someone bought their intellectual property–meaning the brand names and recipes–and will contract brew some of Calvert’s more popular beers. We assume the brewing will be done at Baltimore’s Oliver Ales, stay tuned for cans later this month.
Speaking of contract brewing, New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewing declared bankruptcy late last year. Baltimore’s Guilford Hall Brewing has acquired the brand and will be brewing and canning Flying Fish. Weird!
DC Brau is releasing a non-alcoholic pale ale later on this spring, in cans! It will actually not look like the image above, as that would cause consumer confusion with The Public, but the beer will be based off the Centennial and El Dorado hop bill. It’ll be the first canned NA beer by a DC brewery. More soon. Other Half’s All NA Everything was the first NA beer commerically brewed in DC, and may hit cans later on this year as well.
Back to Maryland, Montgomery County farm brewery Landmade was one of a few breweries to take a winter break. Their fate appears to be the same as many of those other breweries “on hiatus” in that we are hearing that Landmade will not return, which is a shame. I named Lewes, their foeder-fermented Helles, one of my favorite beers of 2022.
Now-closed Black Narrows Brewing was one of those breweries initially taking off the winter. Co-founder and head brewer Josh Chapman will return to the District to take over brewing operations at Right Proper’s Shaw brewpub. It’s a homecoming in more than one way, the first Black Narrows beer was a collaboration with Bobby Bump at the brewpub. Again, the circle of life. Right Proper’s next canned seasonal release will be a hibiscus saison. Also, the permits are in place for construction to begin on their Eckington location. Also also, they’re staying in Shaw for the foreseeable future. That’s right, three Right Proper locations come late 2024!
Know who else has a hibiscus saison? Port City. At the brewery and draft only, as the inaugural release in their “brewer’s cut” series. Look for one of these about every quarter, in-house only. “This saison pours a beautiful pink color with cotton candy foam. Fermented with a local saison yeast, the beer tastes slightly sour and dry,” we’re told. As far as we can tell, it’s Port City’s first saison. The Alexandria brewery is also readying a gose-style beer, made with genetically modified yeast that produces lactic acid during fermentation. Should the yeast cooperate, cans will be available in a few weeks. Pretty cool to see them expand into more “esoteric” styles.
Atlas Alexandria is readying a Memorial Day opening according to Eater and our source for all things Alexandria, Alexandria Living. Andy’s Pizza will provide the food, and Wegman’s is right there, too.
Our last podcast of 2023 featured Mike Earle, who you may know from Other Half and Bluejacket, who was crowd-funding to buy Manassas’ Bad Wolf Brewing. It didn’t work out, but Brightworks Brewing will open in that spot later on this month. Mike will be moving on to Silver Branch, go say hi.
