My DC Trip
I spent last weekend in DC, visiting Hannah. I’ve spent the last week digesting and thinking more about it. Obviously, I’ll get into the beer in a second. I first want to touch on how weird DC is.
DC is weird because there is a weird interspersing of socioeconomic groups. Beyond the areas by the mall, when you move into the more residential areas, block by block, you don’t know what part is nice and what part is sketchy. It’s not defined like in some cities where you can avoid it. I don’t live in DC, but I didn’t really get a read on whether I would enjoy living there beyond being with Hannah. I actually like the honest confrontation with different peoples, but safety is always a lingering concern no matter where you are. It’s definitely more of a concern when you live there. It’s strange to me that the capital of the wealthiest country in the world has this.
The first brewery I went to is in the transitional Navy Yard neighborhood. There’s a lot of redevelopment of ex-Government/military buildings in that area. The Nationals Stadium is over there as well. The brewery that I visited, Bluejacket, is an a building that was home to The Boilermaker Shops, part of the Navy Yards Ship and Munition Manufacturing Complex. Their space is absolutely incredible.
A lot of breweries will look like breweries. When people talk about touring breweries, I’ll say that all breweries are pretty much the same. There might be some differences in the taproom design, but for the most part, it’s an area for customers and an area for the brewing. Brewery spaces tend to have more in common than not.
Bluejacket definitely felt different because of its space. The restaurant is in the ground floor and the brewing equipment is up above on the mezzanine. There are huge windows and vaulted ceilings that provide tremendous sunlight. I’d say the one drawback of the space is that it’s a little too clean and corporate looking. If I ever start a brewery, I’d want it to be in the Arsenal complex in Watertown because of that building space. I feel like visiting Bluejacket gave me a glimpse of what that would look like if that dream ever happens.
Bluejacket’s beer was good. There were many many hoppy beers on draft. It was a little bit of an overload from the standpoint of deciding what to have. I actually started with the farmhouse/saisons and the stout. The stout was particularly good in that it had all the Mexican hot chocolate character, but it wasn’t too big. A lot of these beers tend to try to knock you on your ass and I feel Bluejacket created a very quaffable version that won’t do that. My favorite hoppy beer was the single hop citra (Lost Weekend). I liked that there was plenty of hop variety so you could pick based on the hops you liked. There were also four cask options which I’ll definitely have to check out next time.
While Bluejacket may have inspired this portion or rant, I want to say that this is a practice by many brewers; brewers use way too much hops in individual beers. Bluejacket lists the amount of hops they use on some beers. I like this actually. However, I feel that brewers in general are using way too much. Brewers need to find better ways to innovate and become more efficient in their use of hops. There are plenty of brewers that are putting a heap full of hops in the dry hop or whatever and it’s not all good. The goal should be to reach the desired flavor threshold with the least amount of hops possible. Putting more hops shouldn’t be a marketing thing. Furthermore, the beer should be able to stay stable. Too many brewers are putting too much hops in their beer with diminishing returns. We can make the same or better beer with fewer resources.
The other brewery I was able to go to was Right Proper Brewing’s Shay Brewpub & Kitchen. It was a more homely environment. There were a bunch of Christmas themed parties going on at neighboring bars, and I feel like Right Proper got a lot of overflow business on Saturday night. We couldn’t get a table right away and eventually snuck our way into bar seats thanks to a friendly couple.
I really enjoyed three of the four beers available. Ships Passing was a tart funky pineapple-y saison that I reluctantly let Hannah take. The other beer we got to start was a “Juicy Pale Ale” called Humulus Lycanthropus. Honestly, it seemed more like an English Pale Ale, which I would have loved to have on cask, but wasn’t what I was looking for or imagining a juicy pale ale to be. They had a peach mead barrel aged tripel called Gnosis that was sweet, grassy, lactic, and delicious, and a grisette that was grassy and refreshing. Again, I’d revisit RIght Proper as it had the homely inviting vibe.
We did have some time to visit a couple beer forward bars and restaurants. After Bluejacket, I jetted over to the much heralded Churchkey. Churchkey has a very extensive list of local and national beer with a huge book of bottles. I probably could have had a few pints here if we didn’t have dinner plans (or I had get drunk plans). I had the Union Double Duckpin. I had had it before at ACBF and it had been one of my favorite beers at the festival. I found it a little underwhelming, very biscuit, not as fruity and tropical as I remembered it. It had much more of the Midwest IPA character than the Northeast. Churchkey’s tots were good though.
We went to dinner at The Partisan. They have a pretty nice charcuterie and cheese selection. We got two meats and a cheese with some bread that included an Italian pancake like flatbread that was very tasty. I got the Lizard of Koz as my beverage. This Founders stout was good, but as it warmed, the astringency of the berries and alcohol came out more and more and made it more difficult to drink. I should also add that the menu at The Partisan was very meat heavy and while we had a nice time there, I’m not sure we would go there again for more than a drink due to its very focused menu. We had a good time.
There’s still a lot to explore in DC and not just beer. Beyond seeing the woman that I love, I am looking forward to visiting DC and seeing more of what the city and region have to offer. May be President Obama will knock back a few beers with me, once his term ends.