Beerbeuring BASF 2018
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The only possible reason one might have for supposing this was an IPA was that the wife asked “do you have an IPA” and the bartender said yes so we both asked for the IPA. It could have used more pepper.
IMG_20180309_144615318 by Jon, on Flickr@jrenaut 175925 wrote:
Took a long lunch with the wife and hit a couple of Ruby Tuesdays Breweries. First on the list, where we had lunch, was District Chophouse. When we walked in it looked way too fancy, but we sat at the bar. We were going to do two flights because I don’t like to share but the bartender suggested we start with one, which turned out to be a good idea.
I was pleasantly surprised by their light lager, which was crisp and flavorful and much better than I expected. Their bourbon stout was not good. The rest of the flight was solid – what you’d expect from technically proficient but unimaginative brewers, or brewers constrained by a clientele without a sophisticated beer palate (if you want to be charitable).
IMG_20180309_131609052 by Jon, on FlickrI’d recommend giving them another try. Their dopplebock is quite good, as is their brown ale on nitro. They are constrained in making the usual lineup, but also have two or so extra different ones. Plus, they are great supporters of the DC homebrew community.
@sjclaeys 175979 wrote:
I’d recommend giving them another try. Their dopplebock is quite good, as is their brown ale on nitro. They are constrained in making the usual lineup, but also have two or so extra different ones. Plus, they are great supporters of the DC homebrew community.
Their Amber on nitro is NOT good, so avoid that. And yeah, they did have two that were a bit out there, but neither really my style. I’ll give it another shot.
So today we struck out completely. Gremlin 2 had her first soccer tournament out in Arlington. Game at 1:00 and another at 4:30. We needed to kill some time in the middle, so we decided to go to Heritage. Wife drove the kids to the game with her bike and Gremlin 1’s bike on the car. I rode the longtail 10 miles to the game so Gremlin 2 didn’t have to ride – soccer game, 9 mile bike ride, soccer game seemed like a bit much for a 7 year old.
So it turns out that Heritage doesn’t always have ANYTHING brewed in house on hand. And they didn’t today. I had the Freedom Isn’t Free aged in gin barrels, which was really interesting. Then I had their as-yet unnamed NE-style DIPA, which was fantastic, but I’m a sucker for NE-style IPAs AND DIPAs so that was no surprise.
Gin barrel aged Freedom Isn’t Free IPA by Jon, on FlickrWhen we got home, we were determined to get a point, so we headed out to Hellbender, only to find out that they close at 7pm on Saturdays. What kind of crazy hours are those? So we got no beerneuring points at all. At least we got some riding in.
We blew it again – we’ve successfully scored a beerneuring point in only 3 of our last 7 tries.
We took bikes on the Metro to King St because the ride to Portner is too much for the kids and it’s even pushing it for me after 35 miles yesterday. But the Eisenhower Rd trail is quite pleasant. Portner is I think the only women-owned brewery in the area. I liked the place – we ate an early dinner. It’s a German-inspired menu, Americanized a bit, but not so much that it sucks. My grilled cheese had more ham than cheese, but it hit the spot dipped in a cup of tomato soup.
I started with their Pilsner, which is one of their flagships. It was solid. The DIPA was very good, and the IPA was also worth drinking.
IMG_20180311_165628241 by Jon, on FlickrWhile we were having dinner, we finally got around to looking up the hours for Port City and realized that they were closing in 30 minutes and we hadn’t even finished at Portner. So we missed out on Port City. We should have gone there first, but we were all hungry and they don’t necessarily have food. Next time.
This ride will be SO MUCH NICER when they connect the trails and you don’t have take the road or “sidewalk” on Route 1.
The beer was good. This is the IPA. More interesting was the 97 Pound Weakling, which I think they called an imperial wheat wine. or something like that.
IMG_20180312_132305145 by Jon, on FlickrFinally made it to Hellbender when they were open. I have a soft spot for this brewery – when they opened, their beer was not very good. But they stuck with it, and they are now much improved AND have a really chill space. We brought a dinner picnic, which was great, but then found that they had tacos from Tamales Pachuca. We ate too many tacos. The kids loved them.
IMG_20180314_174815880 by Jon, on FlickrWhat I love is that Kansas Ave NW is uphill in both directions, and we also had a headwind in both directions because probably global warming or something.
Oh, right, the beer. I had the Agosto, which they alternately call a Belgian IPA and a farmhouse IPA. It’s also 4.8% alcohol, which is very low for any type of non-session IPA. It didn’t taste like a session, though. Also their Ignite IPA is solid.
Of course the first time we use the roof rack, it’s super windy out and I thought the whole time we were going to lose a bike.
IMG_20180316_150451512_HDR by Jon, on FlickrI had the Voluptuous, a “vino pale” which is apparently is beer with grape juice added. It was surprisingly light and a little bubbly and didn’t taste at all like 10%. Then I had the Completely Nuts, a nut brown ale that was SUPER nutty.
IMG_20180316_170939580 by Jon, on FlickrVery bikey. Solid beer. We did two flights. Solid but not outstanding. The staff was really chatty and engaging. They don’t actually brew on site, but they do a few brewing-related things there.
IMG_20180316_181127922 by Jon, on FlickrThey don’t do much brewing on site, but they DO make their sours there, so we had one. I don’t really like sours that much, but this was a fine sour if you’re into that sort of thing.
IMG_20180316_192730759 by Jon, on FlickrWe stayed in Leesburg for the weekend. I dropped the kids and wife about halfway to Purcellville, drove back to the hotel, and then biked back to join them as they finished at the consignment shop. Then we all went over to Jack’s Run. We started with a flight – the cream ale, wee heavy, irish red, and American wheat. I really liked the wee heavy, which is not something I generally like that much. I also tried their oatmeal stout, which was pleasant. The woman serving us recommended the burger place around the corner for lunch, which was an excellent suggestion.
IMG_20180317_122902258 by Jon, on FlickrWe biked to Adroit Theory via Taco Bell for the kids. It was snowing pretty hard. They had some good IPAs, but the most interesting was the Imagination Atrophy milk stout. They describe this version as: Aroma of Reese’s Pieces blend with espresso, caramel topping, and vanilla. Body is silky smooth, rich and boozy finish. Inspired by a caramel machiatto. It would have been great in a big glass with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream.
IMG_20180317_141556390 by Jon, on Flickr
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