With the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) back in DC for 2017 I was asked to sign copies of American Sour Beers as I have at Great American Beer Festivals and Homebrew Cons before. All of these events are under the umbrella of the Brewers Association which also houses my publisher, Brewers Publications. That was only good enough for a day pass to the expo, so I applied for and received my first media pass for the full experience!
CBC is a bigger, more expensive version of NHC. Rather than homebrewers from around the country, there are thousands of professional brewers. With those larger brewery budgets come more vendors, sponsors, and events.
Welcome Reception at Smithsonian Institution
The last time I was drinking beer in a museum it was seven years ago at the Lambic Summit at Penn Museum. Drinking (mostly) solid local beer is the crowded Smithsonian Natural History Museum didn’t quite measure up. Although I had fun chatting with Brewmaster Alexis Briol from St. Feuillien (a technician as he described himself) and a many other people I ran into! We should have headed over earlier to the Smithsonian American History Museum which was much mellower, and had a better selection of beers.
Seminars
In a move that would be nice for NHC, seminars started a bit later in the day. While there were a few technical topics that piqued my interest (e.g., A Practical Perspective on Foraged and Agriculturally Based Beers, and How Dry Hopping Affects IBUs and Bitterness) most were on the less glamorous areas of safety, regulations, and business (e.g., Contract Details for Purchasing Equipment in the Brewing Industry, China Market Overview: Export Opportunities & Trademark Issues, Arming Reps for Success in Today’s Beer Market). The National Homebrewers Conference tends to be far more about brewing itself, CBC more about topics specific to craft brewing (surprise!). I can always download and listen to the seminars later if something becomes more relevant. The State of the Industry is available on the Brewer's Association website.
Signing Books
Always nice to sit next to John Palmer while signing books! Excited for the new edition of How to Brew as well! I answered a few questions for John about sour beers over the last year, humbling to have input on the fourth edition when I learned to brew from the third! Also fun to talk to Brian Burke who is opening Burke Brewery in Massachusetts (a family name and location, not sure if any relation - but hopefully enough for a free pint once they're open anyway).
BrewExpo America
The Expo was out of control. Two gigantic halls, hundreds of vendors, many with bottling lines, brew houses, and other equipment set up. However, photos were not allowed so nothing I can show here.
I did stop by the Sahm booth when I saw a copy of American Sour Beers up next to the Sensorik, the same style as on the cover. I signed their copy and took a business card... a few weeks later a box of glasses showed up that you'll be seeing photos of in tasting posts.
The most fun part of the whole thing was bumping into people I knew at the Expo and around town. Jeff from Bootleg Biology, Jeramy and Greg from Commonwealth, Blane from Sinistral, Matt from Modern Times, Adrian from Ocelot, and Garrett from Old Trade.
CBC-Week Events
So many brewers were in town every beer bar in DC had about nine events that week. I moderated a talk between Walt Dickinson from ABInBevWickedWeed and Nathan Zeender at the Right Proper brewpub. The bar was mobbed and acoustics weren’t great, but getting to ask those two about their views on house cultures, fruit, and growth was fun even if I was the only one who could hear their answers. Not surprising that Wicked Weed sold out given the massive scale they are expanding sour production, including contracting fruit like most breweries contract hops.
After that event I walked next door to Howard Theater for the Here We Grow featuring a band and beers brewed by 3 Floyds, Creature Comforts, Beechwood and other with the new Yakima Chief Cryo Hops lupulin powder (LupuLN2) and debittered leaf... promising stuff! I took home some samples of Citra and Mosaic to brew my next IPA with. I also had the fun of introducing two of the biggest hop-nerds I know, Stan Hieronymus and Scott Janish.
The next day I was planning to stop by the Right Proper Brookland production location to chat with Fonta Flora, Scratch, and Jester King on my way to the conference. I left six hours later after trying a range of wonderful foraged beers with commentary from some of the best brewers in the country… never made it to the convention center.
I went back to work Thursday but that night I walked down the street to 3 Stars Brewing for an event that featured beers from Other Half, J Wakefield, Aslin, and a few others. Enjoyed getting to try a bunch of South African hops in Other Half’s Other Southern especially. The only beer I’d had with them before had actual passion fruit in addition to Southern Passion hops, not exactly a showcase for the hops. Was nice to try a few J. Wakefield beers and actual meet John after emailing back and forth a few times over the years.
Is CBC Worth $1650 for a Homebrewer?
No, but then that’s like asking if buying a 30 bbl brewhouse is a sensible idea for your hobby. I got much more out of it than I would have a few years ago, but that was because I kept bumping into industry folks! Not sure I'll make it to Nashville for 2018, but you never know!
It is always easier to say “No.” Every year I get a few invites for international trips combining speaking, judging, and/or brewing. With only so many vacation days each year, I can't go everywhere I'm invited. I love talking to locals with shared interests (and the free flight and hotel doesn't hurt), but it means a few days spent being on rather than relaxing. Sometime though an event, place, or people are enough to turn my answer into "Yes." Nelson, New Zealand and the 2017 NZ Home-Brewers Conference was the most recent thanks to organizers Karl, Ed, and Mike!
Drinking in Christchurch
We left our house in Washington, DC on Thursday afternoon and after three flights and a total of 24 hours in transit we arrived in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon. The city was hit by an Earthquake in 2011 that killed 183 people and is still knocking down damaged buildings. We were surprised how quiet it was on the weekend, I guess when the area around it is so beautiful, why live downtown?
Our first stop between the airport and our AirBnB was Pomeroy's Pub for two sampler trays (one of theirs and one of other local beers). It set the tone for much of the beer on the South Island, lots of British-inspired, with some American craft beer leanings, and the foundation for emerging local trends. The next day we met with the Chch Homebrew Association at Volstead Trading Company (excellent beer bar) and then onto dinner at Twisted Hop Pub (a local brew pub) with a few of them. Both breweries we visited in Chrischurch had some excellent house beers (Pomeroy's English Mild and Twisted Hop Twisted Ankle) and some I'd rather forget... from their guest taps with overdone adjuncts.
We also stopped by FreshChoice for bottled beers to sustain us on the trip around the country. Despite being hyped in America, New Zealand hops aren’t especially played up. Almost all of the local IPAs that highlighted a particular variety used American hops (e.g., Liberty Citra Double IPA). It was actually the emerging New Zealand Pilsners style that usually showcased Nelson, Motueka, and Riwaka! In general I was let down with the lack of local adjuncts used (certainly a handful of honey, wine grape, and manuka-smoked beers) especially from the likes of Garage Project. Freshness was a big issue too, many beers are given long shelf-life (12-18 months) and still a good number were out of code.
I bought honey at a self-serve roadside honey shack, and Audrey tracked down thyme honey for me at a farmer's market. Regrettably I didn't get to come home with hops (I'll have to order some in a few months when the new harvest is pellitized).
One interesting note is that bars are required to serve at least one low alcohol beer, which adds an incentive to brewers to brew them. The best of the ones we tried was White Mischief, a peach gose from Garage Project. The North Island, especially Wellington, is the center of the brewing industry, but there are still quite a few breweries in and around the cities on the South Island.
South Island Tourists
After a couple days we set out on a circuitous five day route to Nelson. We drove about three hours a day, but the scenery was beautiful and ever-changing. Down through Tekapo (a dark sky reserve) for stargazing at Mount John University Observatory, by Lake Wanaka (with a stop at Rippon Vineyards for beautiful scenery and serious natural fermentations), and up the West Coast with hikes to Franz Joseph glacier and onto Fox glacier by helicopter. We walked along the coast at Gillespies Beach, where there was no shortage of flat rocks, and a calm inlet perfect for skipping.
Hop Harvest
Our first day in Nelson we went on a tour of the New Zealand's hop growing infrastructure. Along with 20 local homebrewers we were joined by the other Americans (BJCP President Gordon Strong and Brulosophy Captain Marshall Schott).
We essentially ran the steps that hops take in reverse order. Starting at NZ ("N-Zed") Hops. This is the cooperative processor owned by the hop farmers. The guide noted that a few more farms were coming online this year and they expect a substantial expansion in acreage over the next three years. This is the building where your Nelson, Mouteuka, and Riwaka (if you can get it) are pelletized and packed for distribution. Harvest was well underway (an average year) and the place smelled intensely resiny. I would have loved to see the pelletizer in action, but the highlight was the storage room, it was like something out of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Up until now they have only done larger packages in-house, but starting this year they will be packing 100 g and 1 kg packages on a new machine.
Next we were onto Mac Hops, the largest grower in New Zealand. That day they were harvesting Green Bullet (the hop, as we were told several times, is the signature of Steinlager). They grow a variety of hops to stretch the harvest season. The machinery was fascinating, and we could get a bit closer than I would have expected. They dry and bale the hops on site and send them to NZ Hops where they are tested for moisture before processing.
I took a few videos of the various stages going from bines to dried whole hops (sorry for a few vertical shots mixed in...). They are basically in order from the bines hanging moving to have their hops plucked off, through the machines that remove leaves, and finally to loading dried hops into the baler. We didn't get to see into the oast, so the drying process isn't recorded. They are selling this 50 acre farm (to a private equity group that Modern Times has signed a bunch of contracts with) and using the proceeds to purchase 100 acres of land to build a new farm.
We had lunch at The Moutere Inn (the oldest pubs in New Zealand) where I tried Townshend Trial Hop 2 an subtly hopped beer brewed with an experimental variety (later I'd hear it was one of the breeder's current favorites, more herbally-balanced than the big tropical bombs they are known for). Our final stop was at the New Zealand Hop Research Station. Our group started in their test brewhouse (for single-hop trial batches). Here promising hops are added to a simple standard base beer, something like a Pilsner fermented with US-05. They use a neutral bittering hop and load up the experimental hops at the end of the boil and in dry hopping. Regrettably they didn't serve us any samples! Dr. Ron Beatson gave us a tour of the field, has been the driving force behind their breeding and selection programs. We didn't get to see the Nelson Sauvin "mother" (the one that all are propagated from) but we did see a few of her daughters. He cracked a few jokes about selecting the Cascades (now called Taiheke) for their breeding program in the 1980s. While some of their hops are bred manually, others are in secret test sites around the country with several female plants and a single male to pollinate. He said the same thing I had heard about Riwaka, beautiful hop (my Riwaka Hefeweizen), terrible agronomic properties. Our last stop was a tour of their chemical analysis lab where we got to smell samples of hops and some concentrated oils they had steam distilled. The lab also handles fruit analysis, and it was blueberry season.
BrewMania The next night I was honored to be asked to judge at BrewMania. A bit less so when I realized all 100 homebrewers there were also judging. It is a really unique contest with less structured judging (and feedback) than the standard BJCP contest. To be eligible for the overall win each brewer is required to submit three beers. The 10 tables are each presented with four beers for each round with no stylistic consistency, and each judge gets three bottle caps to vote for their three favorite beers. The beer that receives the fewest votes is eliminated. If any of your three beers are eliminated, so are you!
For the final round of the night each table gets the complete flight from two remaining brewers head-to-head. This whittles the 20 remaining brewers down to 10. The goal is to showcase your range of brewing skill, so when picking between equally good flights the one with more variety (saison, Baltic porter, and coffee IPA) is preferred over limited range (APA, IPA, and DIPA). The next morning I really was honored to participate in the best of show where along with Gordon, Marshall, and a few local judges to select the top three brewers. The winner didn't quite have the variety we were looking for, all were pale fruit beers (rhubarb Berliner, apricot sour, and raspberry saison), but they were of a higher quality than any of the other entrants.
MarchFest
Saturday was another unique event, MarchFest: a beer and music festival at Founders Park where each of the 16 participating breweries releases a new beer at the festival. It included a few excellent hoppy beers (Eddyline Black IPA and Moa Riverside Recliner) considering their freshness. Rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd, although the full pint option for pours may have had something to do with that!
During the first few hours of the event I brewed a version of Nu Zuland Saison with Jamie McQuillan. He's a sour specialist, reigning NZ Homebrewer of the year (including the top beer with a 49 with his riff on my no-boil Berliner with plums), and as I found out the next day winner of BrewMania 2017! He's also in the process of opening a brewery (New Zealand is much less strict, so he'll be able to essentially sell homebrew at first).
It was my first time brewing on a Grainfather. Surprisingly compact, and a smooth brew day considering we were out of our element and people were coming up to ask questions. We did neglect to realize it had an automatic 60 minute boil shutoff timer which threw off our timing (not bad for the worst mistake the first time brewing on a new rig). Malt was mostly local Gladfield Pilsner, which was surprisingly toasty. Without a way to reseal the 100 g of Nelson Sauvin for late-fermentation dry hopping we opted for only two additions, hop-stand and brew day dry hop. We pitched Belle Saison along with the dregs from two bottles of each of our homebrew. Excited to hear how it turns out when they hold the tasting between our batch and the ones brewed by Gordon and Marshall!
New Zealand Home-Brewers Conference
My last full-day was spent talking and listening at NZHC. Nice to attend a homebrewing conference in English after Florianopolis, Brazil and Drammen, Norway (my Portuguese and Norwegian are not strong). I presented about the advantages homebrewers (BeerSmith podcast on the same topic) have over commercial brewers to the general session, and then about sour beers to a break-out (along with head brewers David Nicholls of Moa and Jason Bathgate of MacLeod). Good response, and glad that sours are taking hold! As several people mentioned, New Zealand is still a few years behind the US, but that gap is closing quickly!
It was nice to catch-up with my friend Sean Gugger, who took some time to come to Nelson in the midst of nine month working at Batch Brewing in Sydney (not to be confused with Bach Brewing in New Zealand). He met up with us at the after-party at The Free House where I had one of the best hoppy beers of the trip, Behemoth 6 Foot 5 from Andrew Childs who had sat on the Going Pro panel earlier in the day. Also had fun chatting with Annika Naschitzki of Tiamana, a passionate German brewer.
With our ten days spent we started the long trip home. With the International Date Line working in our favor we landed in San Francisco 8 hours before we took off from Auckland. As a weird side-note, being in the Southern Hemisphere for the vernal equinox meant that we'd been in all four seasons during a two week period: when we left DC it was winter and then arrived in New Zealand for the end of summer, by the time we left it was autumn and returned to spring.
Sales of American Sour Beers will never make me wealthy (I’m hoping that by the time it goes out of print I'm up to minimum wage). However, the success of the book has opened up so many opportunities (e.g., collaborating with breweries, invitations to speak around the world)! While I’d love to say “yes” to everyone, I still have to show up to the job that pays the bills most day. I could go to more if I was willing to land, speak, and head back to the airport the next day; I try to make a trip worth the travel time by turning it into a vacation, seeing and drinking the area.
While Belgium had been on our list for next European trip, how could I say no to speaking at the Norbrygg Hjemmebryggerhelgen 2016 at Haandbryggeriet in Drammen! Norway has a long history of beer brewing and drinking, being too far north for wine grapes. Like many other places, craft beer has taken hold over the last decade. Americans may be familiar with exported bottles from Nøgne Ø Bryggeri and Haand; both brew riffs on American and European craft-brewing staples and also play with local ingredients and flavors. Luckily there were also beers from dozens of other interesting local craft breweries that aren’t exported!
For the first week Audrey and I stayed at an Airbnb in Grünerløkka, a hip area about a mile north of Oslo city center. Our first night we visited Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri, located in the lagering cellar of the historic Schous Bryggeri (talk about a beautiful place for a beer)! In general, the beers were very good, although sadly the mango sour was a butter-bomb (they were nice enough to swap it out once Audrey alerted them to the diacetyl).
Another beer highlight was dinner at the Håndverker Stuene beer bar/restaurant, which had a delicious and reasonably priced nightly sampler board of food (smoked shark, pickled herring etc.). They also had a couple sours on tap, including the unique Lervig Café Sur - tart with light coffee (for dessert I also had their 3 Bean Stout, flavored with cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, and tonka beans).
At Amundsen Bryggeri we split a bottle of Southern Passion, a nice IPA brewed with Southern Passion (South African) hops and a touch of actual passion fruit – it would have been nice to try it without the fruit, but it was delicious as is. Lokk had some delicious and interesting food like fried cod tongue (although each entree may have had a few too many components); I drank the bright and yeast-driven Lokkebrygg hoppy saison brewed for them by Little Brother Brewery, while Audrey had the Salty Surprise (passion fruit gose) from Cervisiam Bryggeri.
I was surprised to see as many American beers as I did (many that I can’t get regularly): Alesmith, Ale Apothecary, Ballast Point, Crooked Stave, Oakshire etc. Prices were high, but not outrageous compared to the local beers (excluding Ale Apothecary of course). Brooklyn Brewing has a deal with Carlsberg, and as a result is really all over. Crowbar & Bryggeri had an especially good selection of beers from Oregon, although I focused on drinking their clean dark lager (much better than their coconut sour).
In general bar prices were a bit steeper than we were used to in DC, but not by much. The dollar-krone exchange rate is better than it was a few years ago (above 8:1 rather than below 6:1). Part of the issue is psychological, when you see the equivalent of $9-10 for a full pour you have to remember that includes the tax and a living wage (although small tips are still customary for good service). The high taxes certainly play a role in the popularity of homebrewing though!
The other thing to be aware of is that any beers over 4.5% ABV can only be sold at a Vinmonopolet (“wine monopoly,” aka government liquor store) – there had recently been a crackdown where some had tested much higher however. The Oslo Meny supermarket had more than 100 session beers, but in general I wasn’t impressed by the freshness of the ones I purchased. Most had best by dates well in the future, but I’d always rather see bottled on dates. The Vinmonopolet had a nice selection of weirder beers, which seemed to fair better.
A few other memorable things were the hipsterific (and delicious) coffee roasted and served at Tim Wendelboe. The chicken sandwich ( at Stangeriet in the Mathallen Oslo beautiful indoor market (which also contains Hopyard, where I drank a balanced Lervig/Põhjala Walnut Porter). Café Sara was another great, albeit crowded beer bar.
One evening we stopped for an after-dinner drink at Himkok
(literally “home-cooked,” their term for moonshine), the largest and fanciest “speakeasy” I’ve ever been to. The bartender was terrific (we ordered three cocktails, but sampled about six liquors and four beers). Their aquavit (caraway liquor) was the most interesting. As I understood the tour, they are only allowed to buy already distilled spirits and re-distill them with aromatics. A bit of shtick, but they push the distillate out of Corny kegs allowing it to drip into clear vats set behind the bar. They also have a cider bar in the same space, barber shop, and room for hundreds of people on nights more popular than the one we visited.
Don’t have the impression that all we did was eat and drink. We had the good fortune to arrive on a weekend of Oslo Open Art Festival, when hundreds of artists’ studios are open to visit. We grabbed a map and wondered into them whenever we happened to be close-by.
Many museums are located on a peninsula that is easily accessible from the Oslo docks via a public ferry. We visited two of them, first the fantastic Viking Ship Museum (which houses three ships and their contents that were buried for more than a millennium). We also walked around the nearby Norsk Folkemuseum, which features dozens of traditional buildings moved from all over the country, including the Gol Stave Church, which was built around 1200 and reconstructed with mostly new materials in the mid-nineteenth century (it had an aroma of wood and pine sap I wish I could capture in a beer).
The Vigeland Park is also well worth a visit if the weather is nice (we didn’t go into the sculptor’s museum). The Norway's Resistance Museum was also worth the visit, but it is more intensive on reading than some. Not bad for a little less than a week?
I had one more day is Olso by myself, I spoke to the Oslo Sour Rangers! Luckily English is spoken by most (especially younger people), although it was sometimes tricky for me to understand Norwegian names/places. The Sour Rangers are a club/event that draws both homebrewers and sour beer enthusiasts. Smak Selv, which organizes/hosts the events, had recently installed a small brewery (an early sample from one of their barrels were promising).
As is expected from the country with huge oil wealth, and the foresight to spend the money not invested in their nearly-trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund in infrastructure, the trains are frequent and immaculate! The trip from Oslo to Drammen was smooth, with trains running every 20 minutes (in comparison for me to go the similar distance from DC to Baltimore on the MARC commuter train for HomeBrewCon, I had to be on the 8 AM train or wait until 3 PM).
Drammen is an older industrial city that has been going through a revival the last couple decades. It is home to both Aass Bryggeri (and their eponymous bock) and Haand. Haand is in their third brewery, but may need to move again sooner than expected as a large hospital is planned for the land they currently occupy. It is a shame as the building is beautiful. I talked to their head of souring, who started working for the brewery through a government program that pays the salaries of young workers for a few months for risk-free experience (a wonderful answer to the paradox of entry-level jobs that require three-years of experience).
As with homebrew conferences anywhere in the world it is difficult to go thirsty. I had the chance to try many delicious homebrews at the opening event at Aja Bryggeri, the second building Haand occupied (so many I didn’t try the brewery’s own beers), and throughout the conference as people pulled me aside. Whenever we would go to a bar, beers would miraculously appear in front of me, often while my glass was still half full!
While there was a lot of excitement for beers from other places, I was glad to see the passion for resurrecting and experimenting with local traditions and ingredients. Homebrewers gave me a couple cultures of kveik to bring back with me - for what it's worth microbes don't count on the prohibition on “cell cultures” when you are going through customs. These are true farmhouse strains, mixed Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures that have been repitched for many human generations, shared between homebrewers. The really unique thing about them is that they are often fermented near 40C/104F. I’ll have much more on the cultures I brought back later, but if you are interested in experimenting there are isolates available from Omega Labs (HotHead Ale) and The Yeast Bay (Sigmund's Voss Kveik). Traditionally paired with juniper-branch-infused brewing liquor, and smoked malts (see Larsblog, and Lars Marius Garshol's section in All-Star Homebrewers, a book that features me as well)!
The final night was the banquet and award ceremony, have to say the food outclassed most similar American events I’ve attended! As always, it was an honor to be invited and a pleasure to get a perspective on a country from the people who live there! You start out talking about beer, but I get just as much from the eventual talk of food, family, politics, and life!
Columbus Day was a long day. I was in the car before I would have been awake for work on a normal Monday, trying to beat the notorious DC traffic. My destination was three hours south, Virginia Beach and specifically Commonwealth Brewing Co. The brewery had only opened a month earlier, just in time for Labor Day weekend. I’d been talking to founder/owner Jeramy and head brewer Greg (a Seattle transplant) in the lead up, planning a collaborative batch of barrel-aged brown to inaugurate their souring program!
Luckily traffic was light and I made it to the brewery with the smell of dough-in welcoming me. The grain bill was loaded with specialty malts, including Aromatic, Special B, and Carafa. We’d passed the recipe back-and-forth a few times via email, each providing tweaks and adjustments. Our goal was to brew something substantial (in terms of strength and maltiness) to stand up to the first-use red wine barrels. For microbes, we split the batch between Flemish-type blends from Wyeast, White Labs, and East Coast Yeast. The diversity of microbes will provide variety for future fruiting, blending, and tasting efforts. We currently don't have firm plans on what those will be, the results will dictate that as well as the timing.
It was the sort of brew day I love, mostly me standing around, taking photos, drinking samples, talking sour beer, and eating banh-mi! Although they did eventually put me to work milling grain for the second 20 bbl batch, scheduled for the following day.
Commonwealth is housed in a former volunteer fire department in a mostly residential neighborhood just a few blocks from the ocean. The roof is constructed from leftover spans from construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel! They’ve done a great job on the interior to the point I could have believed it was constructed to be a brewery; the three bays are for packaging (with a side-room with an open fermentor), brewing/fermentation, and barrels. The tasting room is also beautifully done with plenty of rough wood, concrete, and big windows looking into the brewhouse (depending on your perspective).
Speaking of the tasting room, the beers already on tap were impressive (thank goodness!) for a brewery still serving many of its inaugural batches. Jeramy and Greg have put together a diverse list that mostly stray from the crowded path. My favorite was the intensely-tropical 100% Brett IPA (Wapatoolie), although that may not count as I've been a huge advocate of the concept for years! I was also fond of their hopfen-weisse (Taonga) – a juicy blend of citrusy hops with understated banana and clove from WB-06. Nice range of strengths as well, from a session IPA, up to a blonde quad. Even their pumpkin ale (Pumpkin Juice) had a twist, based on a cream ale with correspondingly light spicing!
In a fitting cap to the day, someone dropped off a mixed four-pack of Modern Times cans and a shirt for Jeramy. Apparently the coasts really get me! Luckily the mid-Atlantic is a bit easier to visit for the day.
As I learned when Nathan and I collaborated with McKenzie Brew House on Irma, it’s always smart to show up with a sanitized keg or carboy (a few growlers never hurt either)! Greg ran off three gallons of wort for me to take home. It had their house ale yeast already and I pitched Omega Lacto Blend when I racked it to a bucket for primary fermentation. I still need to pitch bottle dregs to up the biodiversity now that I've racked it back into the 3 gallon carboy for aging.
End-of-a-three-day-weekend traffic added a couple hours to the drive back, but I still made it home about 13 hours after leaving. A long day, but well worth the trip! I’ll be making that drive a couple more times for blending and release events, hopefully with time to spend the night down there for a bit of exploration. Looking forward to tasting the beer (name TBD), sometime in 2016!
Every few weeks I receive an email for someone planning a visit to DC wanting to know where to grab a few beers. I thought I’d flesh out my standard response and post it to save everyone the hassle. I limited each category to a maximum of five places because this isn’t intended to be a complete list, just a variety in terms of location/price/vibe. If you're looking for goings-on, DCBeer maintains a really helpful events calendar.
Brewpubs
The DC area seems to have more brewpubs that are serious about their food than most other cities. There is also a great culture of interesting session beers.
BlueJacket/Arsenal – Close to National’s (baseball) Park. Somewhat confusingly, BlueJacket is the brewery, and Arsenal is the co-located restaurant. They opened talking a huge game (i.e., 19 fermentors of various sorts, huge tap list, A-list collaborations), it took some time, but some of their beers are finally delivering on that promise. Beautiful vertical layout.
Mad Fox Brewing Co. – The most recent stop for local Johnny Kölsch-seed Bill Madden (who previously brewed at Capital City, and now defunct Vintage 50). Nice variety of mostly "to-style" beers, solid food, worth a stop if you are in Falls Church, VA (or near their new DC outpost in previous beer-desert Glover Park).
Franklins Restaurant, Brewery, and General Store – In 2006, I volunteered with head brewer Mike Roy a couple days at Milly’s Tavern in Manchester, NH. A few years later, I was glad he ended up brewing in Hyattsville, MD a few miles from my house (where he has really cleaned up the brewing side of things). Franklins' always had solid food, plus an adjoining general store with a solid selection of bottles (now augmented with some of their own).
Right Proper Brewing Co. – Next to the Howard Theater in Shaw. My friend Nathan Zeender left his post at the brewpub recently to oversee the new production facility in Brookland (which will have a tasting room). Luckily he was ably replaced by Bobby Bump, previously of BlueJacket, who continues to make a wide variety of pale/funky/fruity beers, some normal-ish stuff, and plenty of weird "others."
Production Breweries
The nation's capital hadn’t had a production brewery in more than 50 years until DC Brau opened in 2009. It has taken some hard lobbying (the original requirement was that they needed to install a drop ceiling!), but breweries are now allowed to fill growlers, give samples, and most recently sell pints! Still most of the local breweries are in Virginia, and to a lesser-extent Maryland.
3 Stars Brewing Co. – The closest brewery to my house. They opened a few years ago with a mission to brew mostly strong beers. They still do, but I'm glad they are mixing in some lighter stuff (like Cognitive Dissonance, a snappy 3% ABV rye-Berliner). Also houses DC's only homebrewing shop, DC HomeBrew Shop.
DC Brau Brewing Co. – While big hop-bombs On the Wings of Armageddon and Solar Abyss account for much of their beer-nerd recognition, they also brew a solid, Pilsner, porter, and some other fun beers as well. Head brewer Jeff Hancock and his wife Mari are also great people, which never hurts my opinion of a brewery.
Lost Rhino Brewing Co. – Some of the equipment and talent from Old Dominion Brewing when they shacked-up in with Fordham Brewing in Delaware. Lost Rhino brews solid clean beers, but I also really dig the sours Jasper Akerboom and company are turning out!
Ocelot Brewing Co. – If you want strong and hoppy this is the place for you! When we stopped a few months ago they had 10 beers on, nine were 7%+ ABV, including five heavily hopped beers.
Port City Brewing Co. – 2015 GABF Small Brewing Company of the year! I'm especially fond of their porter, big and plenty roasty. Best wit in the area as well. Their hoppy beers tend to be more English-leaning.
Beer Bars
Not being a state results in some weird laws. The Brickskeller built its reputation (record for most beers available) by having a truck crisscross the country buying out-of-market beers. They closed a few years ago, but the tradition lives on and I’m often surprised by what is available at the better beer bars and stores (the prices can be shocking though).
Black Squirrel – Audrey invited me here early on when we both lived near Adams Morgan. They have three levels with their own bars, each of which has different beers on tap (70ish total).
ChurchKey/Birch & Barley – The big name in town is owned by the same group as BlueJacket (plus Rustico, GBD, Red Apron etc.). Huge beer list and prices to match. They do plenty of events and tap-takeovers as well. Birch & Barley is the fancy restaurant on the first floor of the same building.
City Tap House – I wanted to include something downtown because that is where many people end up. City Tap House is not my favorite bar, but it isn't a bad place to grab a pint and some food before an event. Jackpot, and Iron Horse are two other solid options if you aren't hungry.
Meridian Pint/Brookland Pint – In Columbia Heights and Brookland respectively, owned by the same people as Smoke & Barrel in Adams Morgan. All have solid tap lists with a good spread of slightly more obscure local releases, and interesting stuff from elsewhere.
Pizzeria Paradiso – I usually end up at the Dupont location, but there are two others as well (Alexandria and Georgetown). Midweek happy hour at the bar for half-priced drafts is the time to go. They don’t have a huge number of beers on tap, but they are usually well curated.
Bottle Shops/Beer Stores
Sadly the DC area is somewhat lacking for great places to buy beer to take home with you.
Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits – Plenty of singles, sadly not what it once was when I used to live over on that side of town. A few doors down in Magruder’s, which has a sizable selection of six-packs. A bit out of the way unless you are driving.
Connecticut Avenue Wine & Liquors – They used to do a lot of "gray-market" stuff (I've seen Alpine, 3 Floyds, Russian River etc.), but not so any more. Despite the small size, their selection usually includes some more obscure bottles. An easy stop if you’re headed to Pizzeria Paradiso Dupont.
The Perfect Pour – In Columbia, MD it certainly the biggest selection around. Good variety, but watch the dates, and bring a second credit card. While you’re up there you can also stop at Frisco’s, Victoria Gastro Pub, or Maryland Homebrew.
Whole Foods P St. – Solid selection, right around the corner from ChurchKey. Several of the Northern Virginia Whole Foods have very good selections as well if you are headed out that way.
As an American it can be easy to think of good beer as being exclusively brewed in Europe and former English colonies. You might think that every other country has a local generic ultra-pale lager, and not much else… That may have been almost-true 20 years ago, but not any more!
Ronaldo emailed me late last year to ask if I was interested in presenting at the second annual II Congresso Técnico da ACervA Catarinense a homebrewing conference held in Florianopolis, Brazil. I chatted with Stan Hieronymus, who had attended the first year (incorporating the experience into his review of American Sour Beers), and he spoke highly of the hospitality and experience. Once I talked Audrey into it, I agreed to go!
Being a relatively small city in southern Brazil, reaching Florianopolis from the US requires several flights, so I wanted to extend our visit as long as possible. Neither of us had been to South America before, but rather than jump around between cities, we decided to have a more stationary-relaxing trip. Audrey and I arrived Sunday around 4 PM, by way of Miami and Sao Paulo. We’d left DCA the previous night around 8. Florianopolis is a relatively wealthy city with a small airport. We were told taxis are perfectly safe, but were still happy to be greeted by Ronaldo and a few more smiling homebrewers outside security.
We spent the next three days visiting beaches, eating interesting (sea)food, sightseeing, and drinking local beers (it was funny to see Omnipollo and Evil Twin collaborations on the shelf at the local supermarket). Our bed and breakfast (pousada) was up on a hill with a gorgeous view of the island's lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Breakfast the first day included delicious cheese made by the owner’s father, along with eggs, ham, fruit, jam, and bread.
Wednesday Denny Conn and Drew Beechum arrived. I’ve been aware of them practically since I started brewing, but we'd never met. Denny is known for his simple approach to the brewing process, combined with dedication to perfecting recipes (like his Wry Smile Rye IPA and Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter - I've brewed batches based on both). Drew is known for his prolific writing and brewing, especially unique projects and recipes (e.g., Methode Champenoise for Beer). Together they wrote the engaging Experimental Brewing. In person they were even more entertaining than they are when writing. The final member of the American contingent was Scott Bickham, a BJCP judge pulling double duty administering an exam as well as speaking. The night they arrived we had one of the best meals of the trip, at a Portuguese restaurant with fantastic octopus rice.
The next day was probably the longest and most memorable of the trip. It started with a bus ride to a glass factory, Cristal Blumenau (where we got to blow our own glasses). The glasses (the ones we didn't blow anyway) were beautiful, and the experience felt practically medieval. OSHA takes all the fun out of American factory tours! Denny and Drew have many more pictures on their website (including my glass-blowing face).
After that excitement, we had a hearty lunch at Bier Vila in Blumenau. The city was previously home to the world’s second largest Oktoberfest outside Munich. We tried one of the local "specialties," Chope de Vinho (wine-beer): essentially pale lager sweetened with sticky-sweet wine. We were told that despite not being marketed or publicized in any way by the brewery, it represents a significant portion of their sales. Followed by a stop at the well-stocked beer store one door down (there were a few 750s from Brooklyn Brewing prices for the equivalent of more than $100).
Back on the bus to the local brewing school (Escola Superior de Cerveja e Malte) for a tour. Then onto Cervejaraia Bierland for beers and a tour. The strong German heritage in the area around Blumenau at least partly explains the interest in good beer in southern Brazil compared to the rest of the country. While we drank several Vienna lagers (Bierland's is particularly clean and malty - the brewery staff wore white aprons and hairnets) and Pilsners, there are also many breweries producing Belgian and American inspired beers. For example I grabbed a bottle of Tupiniquim Frutas De Jardim - Amora (a beer with Brett and blackberries).
The last stop of the day was for a cachaça (sugar cane liquor) tasting at Du Pipe a funky little distillery on the edge of the rain forrest. There were some bats living above the barrels, I got a weird rash on my ankles from wondering off the path, but the homemade sausages were delicious! Finally the long bus ride back to the city, and a couple slices of Mafioso pizza before crashing.
The conference itself started Friday. I was impressed by the knowledge and excitement of so many of the homebrewers who attended. Translation was handled simultaneously, via headphones. This extra bit of equipment allowed me to speak more naturally than if I had to wait for translation between each sentence. It also made answering questions seamless (I wore the headphones for that). I was impressed how much effort and thought had gone into the conference! I was also surprised to see my picture in the local paper the next day (article)!
The “cocktail” reception following the first day was really eye opening. I thought that the beers were as good as most American homebrew club meeting I've attended. Sure there was one butter-bomb, and another was too fruity-sweet for my palate, but overall they were fun and delicious. I was especially excited to try some beers brewed with Brazilian fruits and woods (amburana – adds a cinnamon and chile-like spice). Sadly southern Brazil doesn’t have the huge variety of fruits that the more tropical latitudes in the north provide.
It was interesting seeing the differences in "standard" equipment as well. There were some corny kegs, but also lots of small sanke kegs (a result of relatively inexpensive Chinese-made imports). Rather than standard ice-cooled jokey boxes, most of the beers were served through plug-in refrigerated taps. It was enlightening to hear about the different hurdles Brazilian homebrewers face. Sourcing hops was one of the biggest. While malt ends up being a similar price to what I pay, high quality hops have to be ordered directly with high shipping costs. There is a local yeast lab, but many strains that aren't available locally are passed around between brewers.
I was especially impressed by the beers shared by the guys from Random Nano (including sours, and a stout with mushrooms), and a few bottles of sour beer sent down from a homebrewer (Rodrigo) in northern Brazil. It is always fun being a guest at events like this because brewers go out of their way to bring their best batches! In general I thought the weirder ingredients were really well balanced in most of the beers I tried.
It was great to see many of the best elements of American homebrewing culture translate well to Brazil. People were friendly, nerdy, and passionate about what they drink and eat. I also thought it was funny that the seven brewers who won their categories in the associated homebrewing contest all had beards. Not sure what the connection is...
Our last full day in Florianoplis we visited Cervejaria Badenia, a German-style brewery (run by a couple Germans) where we had some delicious lagers and local smoked trout with horseradish. Then onto a classic roadside churrascaria, where meat is brought around and lopped off onto your plate. Most of the cuts were relatively familiar, but a few like the hump of the Gyr Indian cattle (which tasted like pot roast) were new to me.
With a few hours off we dashed over to the mall to get suitcases for Denny and Drew to haul home all the glassware, bottles, and souvenirs they’d picked up (still not sure how all ours fit). Then off to Ronaldo’s house for more meat, homebrew, book signing, and group photos with the smaller local homebrewing club. Luckily the two bottles of homebrew I brought with me survived the trip, and seemed to live up to the expectations.
I'm not saying that it's time to book a flight to Florianopolis for your next beer-centric vacation, but give it a few more years. We heard lots of buzz about beer from locals when we mentioned why we were visiting. There are several new breweries in the works including Ronaldo's Bruxa (named after a local witch, and not the yeast.)
I was hesitant to agree to go when I was invited – which is my initial reaction to being asked to do just about anything – but much like summer camp, friendships formed quickly, time flew by, and I was sorry to be heading back to DC when the time came. A special thanks to Ronaldo, Rafael, Júlio, Gabriel and everyone else who drove us around, shared beers, bought/made us food, and went out of their way to make it a fantastic experience! Luckily some of them will be at NHC in San Diego in a couple weeks, so hopefully I’ll be able to repay some of their hospitality!
Welcome Reception at Smithsonian Institution
Signing Books
After that event I walked next door to Howard Theater for the Here We Grow featuring a band and beers brewed by 3 Floyds, Creature Comforts, Beechwood and other with the new Yakima Chief Cryo Hops lupulin powder (LupuLN2) and debittered leaf... promising stuff! I took home some samples of Citra and Mosaic to brew my next IPA with. I also had the fun of introducing two of the biggest hop-nerds I know, Stan Hieronymus and Scott Janish.
I went back to work Thursday but that night I walked down the street to 3 Stars Brewing for an event that featured beers from Other Half, J Wakefield, Aslin, and a few others. Enjoyed getting to try a bunch of South African hops in Other Half’s Other Southern especially. The only beer I’d had with them before had actual passion fruit in addition to Southern Passion hops, not exactly a showcase for the hops. Was nice to try a few J. Wakefield beers and actual meet John after emailing back and forth a few times over the years. 
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