MD/DC Breweries?

I have a project that's going to require multiple trips to Washington DC over the next couple months, so I'll be damned if I miss out on breweries while I'm traveling.

My locations will likely be Crystal City and College Park, but any Metro stops relatively close to those are fair game.

I appreciate any advice!

Blue Jacket is near the National's stadium and I believe it is the Navy Yard metro stop.

If you can make it to Alexandria, VA Port City is a good stop. Not sure about using the metro to get to Port City.

DC Brau might be an option, but I'm not sure about metro access and I haven't been there yet during my trips to the area.

If you can get a rental car (or maybe Uber) here are some options in MD. Jailbreak, Heavy Seas, Flying Dog, DuClaw and Growlers.

I hope this helps. Have fun!

not IN Crystal City, but just south of, is a brewery called Hops in Potomac Yards. more of a restaurant that happens to brew its own beer, but food and brew are both decent

a little west in Shirlington is Capitol City Brewing. very tasty beers

I'm 30 miles west of there, so not very knowledgeable about the Reagan National area.

we have awesome beers out here in Loudoun County, if you're flying in/out of Dulles

Thanks guys! Depending on how long I'm up there, I may rent a car but I'll be more likely confined to the Reagan National area and the university. I'll do my best to check those out!

Also, if you guys have never been to Epic Smokehouse in Crystal City, I highly recommend it. The beer selection was 'meh' but the food was great!

If you're at a bar near College Park, and you can find any of the B'more-based beers like Union Craft, Stillwater Artisanal, Jailbreak (Columbia) or Peabody, I'd give them a try... especially the first two in the list.

Definitely try Union Craft if you get to Baltimore. Their Double Duckpin is excellent.

Aslin Brewing is near Dulles and makes some nice NE IPA style beers

Oldskewl said:

Definitely try Union Craft if you get to Baltimore. Their Double Duckpin is excellent.

Aslin Brewing is near Dulles and makes some nice NE IPA style beers

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I have a question about that, can you describe what you think of as a NE IPA?

I tried one while I was there last and it was overly sweet, no hop aroma, and heavy bitterness.. I would have called it a very hoppy pilsner had it not been labeled an IPA.

at its best, a NE IPA is a glass of hazy hoppy goodness

at its worst, it's a murky glass of orange juice

Typically low to moderate bitterness with lots of juicy hop flavor and aroma. Typically has a hazy appearance due to the hop oils in suspension. Like pic in last post. Sometimes malt bills are light, others slightly malty.

that pic isn't "hazy"

that's murky, and not appealing to me at all

btw, it's a pic of one of Aslin's IPAs

Port City - (Alexandria) Ways and Means or Maniacal
Fair Winds (Lorton) Howling Gale
Forge Works (Lorton) - Suggestions?
Occelot (Dulles) My only friend
Old Ox - Alpha Ox is all I've tried so far...
Union craft - double Duckpin is good
Portner (1886-1916 in Alexandria)- great grand Daughters of founder hop to reopen by end of 2016
DC Brau -(DC) On the Wings of Armageddon
The list just goes on....
have fun

Thanks guys, I guess I just had a bad example!

DemonsRun said:

Port City - (Alexandria) Ways and Means or Maniacal
Fair Winds (Lorton) Howling Gale
Forge Works (Lorton) - Suggestions?
Occelot (Dulles) My only friend
Old Ox - Alpha Ox is all I've tried so far...
Union craft - double Duckpin is good
Portner (1886-1916 in Alexandria)- great grand Daughters of founder hop to reopen by end of 2016
DC Brau -(DC) On the Wings of Armageddon
The list just goes on....
have fun

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Ocelot and Old Ox are two of the almost 20 breweries out here in LoCo. we also have several cideries, distilleries and OMG, probably the most wineries you'll see outside of Napa Valley

GrogNerd said:

Ocelot and Old Ox are two of the almost 20 breweries out here in LoCo. we also have several cideries, distilleries and OMG, probably the most wineries you'll see outside of Napa Valley

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The List was just off the top of my head, I need to get out there and try more. what's your favorite?

Also opening soon but way out in Warrington VA. is Wort Hog brewing.

DemonsRun said:

The List was just off the top of my head, I need to get out there and try more. what's your favorite?

Also opening soon but way out in Warrington VA. is Wort Hog brewing.

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Oh, no... i did not mean to say there was anything wrong with your list, my apologies for not explaining better. It's an awesome list, including the other area breweries.

We both need to try more, but when there are so many great beers being made within a 5 mile radius of my house, hard to find a reason to drive any farther.

Favorites so far are Lost Rhino and Old Ox. Solid core beers with excellent seasonals and experimentals. As with all the local breweries, they are very supportive of homebrewers and once a month, the owner of Old Ox comes in on his only day off to open his doors for our homebrew club to meet

The other brewclub I'm in is called The Wort Hogs, established in 1992. We've heard of the new brewery in Warrenton and we're going to sue their asses off.

No, we're not, not if they give us free beer and a ton of swag

Another one that might be too far is Adroit Theory in Purcellville, VA(near Leesburg). They make some good barrel aged beers

Has anyone had a NE IPA from a place like treehouse, tired hands, trillium, hill farmstead etc, and also tried Aslin's versions?

I was blown away by this tree house beer and wish I could get similar beers more often. But I wonder about people talking about NE IPAs who havent tried one of the good ones, only because they're so different, and soooo good, that I don't think you can really get it by reading about them. Since I know they're hard to get, this makes me skeptical when I see people talking about NE ipas.

I'd love to hear what someone that's had the real thing has to say about aslin.

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Right Proper in DC - Brookland area - Metro
Denizens in SilverSpring/ Tacoma Park just down from College Park
Dogfish Head in Gaithersburg - Metro or MARC train plus an Uber (Growlers in G'burg Metro plus Uber or MARC directly)
Have fun!

I have only had an Aslin beer Brought to me in a can. Is it in the same league as Hillfarmstead or Treehouse? No. I still enjoyed the Aslin beer, it reminded me of a Milkshake from tired hands. I definitely think Hillfarmstead makes an awesome beer that has incredible mouthfeel.

TheMadKing said:

I have a project that's going to require multiple trips to Washington DC over the next couple months, so I'll be damned if I miss out on breweries while I'm traveling.

My locations will likely be Crystal City and College Park, but any Metro stops relatively close to those are fair game.

I appreciate any advice!

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I have a brother in law that lives in the area and he has taken me to quite a few. I really enjoyed Lost Rhino and Old Ox.

Oldskewl said:

I have only had an Aslin beer Brought to me in a can. Is it in the same league as Hillfarmstead or Treehouse? No. I still enjoyed the Aslin beer, it reminded me of a Milkshake from tired hands. I definitely think Hillfarmstead makes an awesome beer that has incredible mouthfeel.

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Thanks! I'm thinking about whether its worth it to go out to Herndon from where I am in Silver Spring.

I recently learned that Tree House is about 40 minutes from my in-laws so I will try to stop there whenever I visit. I've only had one opportunity so far abut that same night I went to a bar that had Hill Farmstead's Edward and a Hill Farmstead/Tired Hands collaboration, Karma Emulsion. Ever since that glorious day I've been searching...

wolves63 said:

I have a brother in law that lives in the area and he has taken me to quite a few. I really enjoyed Lost Rhino and Old Ox.

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The brewer/owner (?) of Lost Rhino did a talk on IPAs at HomebrewCon this year that was pretty good. I liked the IPA he offered, too. I've been meaning to get out that way.

Favio is no longer at Lost Rhino. Think he's at Sehkraft Brewing in Arlington now

I think Jasper, the world famous Dutch microbiologist is brewing at LR.

GrogNerd said:

Favio is no longer at Lost Rhino. Think he's at Sehkraft Brewing in Arlington now

I think Jasper, the world famous Dutch microbiologist is brewing at LR.

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Oh, wow. The website lists him as a founder. I wonder what happened.

Favio's linkedin profile shows him at Beltway Brewing, now.

Fairwinds in Lorton. Pretty easy uber from Franconia Springfield metro. One of my favorites in the area.

I've been in the area for about 10 years now, and it's a great time to visit as a brewer! Here's my three tier recommendation:

• First, take trips to Right Proper, Blue Jacket, and Atlas. First two are great brew pubs, both easy to get to on metro. Atlas is the best packaging brewery in DC-proper and worth a cab/uber from College Park. Once you're there it's walking distance to 3 distilleries.
• Once you hit those, try Port City, 3 Star, and DC Brau. All good packaging breweries, all pretty good. All within short cab/uber rides from metro.
• If you're willing to rent a car or catch a ride, there are several additional ones you may be interested in, but do the above first. Baltimore has several, Frederick has Flying Dog, and Northern VA has a few.

Hope this helps, enjoy your time in the area over the coming months.