Mouth-puckering sour cherry liming gains vinous green grape esters and oaken cherry tannins to contrast sweet cinnamon cider riffs. Freshly-squeezed lime salting spreads dry sourness as weird cologne musk enters the fray.
All posts by John Fortunato
OTHER HALF BREWING
WASHINGTON DC
In a modern Industrial red brick building at DC’s Ivy City neighborhood, OTHER HALF BREWING opened September 2020, six years after its original Brooklyn, New York business commenced. A 22,000 square foot brewing facility and taproom (formerly a tomato can factory), Other Half’s multifaceted facility includes an outdoor deck, covered pavilion and roof deck.
Inside, the immaculate pub features an elongated tile-sided 12-plus draught bar servicing the cement floored benches and barrel top tables. A rooftop deck (with full bar) allows for more seating.
The first-floored overhead doors lead to the outside deck where my wife and I (with dog, Roscoe) down eight enjoyable tapped offerings (including three lagers, three Imperial IPA’s, an oated cream IPA and a barrel-aged stout) on a rainy Friday evening, May ’22.
Easygoing helles lager, Box Car, plied mild herbal hop astringency to light lemon spicing over white-breaded pilsner malts.
Spritzy lemon musk and herbal hop astringency paced Ivy City Lager, a dry Eastern European-styled moderation with biscuity toasted grain bottom.
Musty perfumed ricing saddled Japanese-styled rice lager, Poetry Snaps, a pilsner-malted light body with floral-herbed Saaz hops scouring spicily sour lemon musk.
Zesty floral-spiced grapefruit and pineapple brining led golden-hazed Imperial IPA, Blue Crab, picking up Chardonnay-buttered guava, mango and passionfruit snips.
Salty lemon-limed grapefruit bittering, mellow orange peel sweetness and mild pineapple-guava souring guided fellow Imperial IPA, Quonset Hut, to its pine lacquered grassy hop stead.
Meanwhile, New Zealand-styled double dry-hopped Imperial IPA, Riwaka + Motueka, brought limey yogurt-soured guava, gooseberry and pineapple fruiting to soft herbal pungency contrasting mild vanilla creaming of unassumingly 8% ABV medium body.
Lactose-aided Imperial Oat Cream India Pale Ale, Tremendous Cream (a ‘bigger’ 10% ABV version of Dollar And A Dream) tucked away its zestful lemon-limed grapefruit and orange tanginess plus tertiary pineapple, guava and mango onrush for mild grassy hop musk, light herbal snips and dank earthen grains.
Peanut butter-candied chocolate caramel nougat creaminess deepened the bourbon vanilla sweetness of barrel-aged Deep Orbit Cygnus, a decadent Imperial Stout with mild espresso, cappuccino and caffe mocha illusions topping a honeyed Graham Cracker base.
ATLAS BREW WORKS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Just up the street from the Washington Nationals baseball stadium in the industrial Ivy City section, ATLAS BREW WORKS had the unfortunate problem of dealing with Covid lockdowns during its March 2020 opening. But entrepreneurial guiding light, Justin Cox, a Vanderbilt grad with a serious jones for brewing, navigated thru the restrictive guidelines and Atlas quickly became a local staple in the Capitol’s Navy Yard.
Glass-windowed overhead doors and an Anthem banner greet patrons to the first 100% solar powered craft brewery in District of Columbia. Set up like a sportsbar, its mid-sized U-shaped central bar sits between three ceiling-to-floor baseball card-laden columns and multiple TV’s are strewn across the bar, plastic-furnished and right side dining area. An open kitchen serves and the brew tanks are stage left.
We sat on the outdoor deck in the light rain sampling a few Atlas suds while the bustling street fair took place, May ’22.
One of two light-bodied year-round ‘core’ beers, brisk lemon fizzing picked up floral earthen grassiness atop delicate pilsner malt graining for popular Bohemian-styled Bullpen Pilsner.
The other easygoing flagship, District Common Draught, placed sharply zestful lemon licks across Saaz hop herbage and vegetal corn astringency over salty pretzel-like doughing.
Sweet Vienna-malted toffee nuttiness secured French bread-crusted Opening Day Vienna Lager, placing herbal hops towards the back end with navel orange snips.
Kulmbacher-styled Czech dark ale, Tmave, plied peaty dark roast grain musk to cocoa-dried date, fig and fennel above mild pumpernickel breading.
Pink Himalayan salting sprinkled the tart blood orange adjunct and mildly acidic lemon limey trail of Blood Orange Gose, a white wheat-based moderation.
Dry white wine esters and mild lemon limed salinity provided light acidity for sour saison, Existential Dread, leaving hay-like barnyard leathering in its wake.
Muddily black malted dark ale, Silent Neighbor Stout, combined dark chocolate, black coffee, espresso, Blackstrap molasses and ashen walnut bittering with wood-seared hop charring.
ATLAS HALF STREET HEFEWEIZEN
Just in time for the May ’22 street fair, briskly clean lemon-candied banana and clove resilience picks up mildly embittered orange-seeded lemon spritz and teasing herbage to contrast sugary cotton-candied bubblegum center and Bosc pear snip.
RIGHT PROPER BREWING COMPANY
WASHINGTON, D.C.
At the trendy Shaw quadrant of Northwest DC, RIGHT PROPER BREWING COMPANY (with a second location, Brookland Production House & Tasting Room, in the nearby Northeast corridor), began as a small neighborhood brewpub during 2013. Known also as the Shaw Brewpub & Kitchen, Right Proper is situated right next to the historic Howard Theatre.
Colorful abstract chalked paintings cover the lacquered cement interior of this rustic wood and metal furnished art deco Industrial site. One abstract mural painting adorns the semi-private red brick right walled Duke Ellington Room.
Classic American pub fare leads the food menu and a gourmet cheese counter located ahead of the two separate 10-seat bars down the narrow hall serves the finest charcuterie delights. Complex, sometimes offbeat, brews, crowd the draught menu. During a rainy Saturday evening, May ’22, discovered six rangy elixirs with son, Christopher (who downed a previously tried Haxan Porter).
The three mainstays for Right Proper include a light lager, souped-up pale ale and kindly witbier.
Classic pre-prohibition styled light lager, Senate Beer, placed buttery corn flaked cereal graining across lemon-licked Fuggle hop earthiness updating an old Heurich Brewing recipe.
Spirited dry-hopped pale ale, Raised By Wolves, brought floral IPA-like grapefruit-peeled navel orange Citra hop effervescence to piney Simcoe hop astringency and mild grassiness above spicy pale malting.
Stylish coriander-spiced orange peel sweetness picked up slight juniper bite and Tettnang/Perle hop herbage over oats-dried torrified wheat for Lil Wit, a well-balanced moderation.
Mimosa-like orange champagne entry guided eccentric blonde ale, Magic Of Music, pushing cara cara orange tanginess thru lemony grapefruit, pineapple and gooseberry fruiting.
Sharp orange-peeled grapefruit bittering and sour white grape esters paced mixed cultured New England IPA, Fear No Art, utilizing leathery brettanomyces yeast to funk up the mildly acidic citric-dried finish.
Lovely Scottish wee heavy nightcap, Go On Wee Man!, coalesced bourbon vanilla spicing, toffee-candied chocolate sweetness, caramelized dried fruiting, milk-sugared coffee tones and cherry cordial snips atop maple molasses-sapped flaked oats.
RED BEAR BREWING CO.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
As the story goes, three pioneering Seattle natives headed east to the nation’s Capitol looking for a cool spot for their dream endeavor. By March ’19, the entrepreneurial trio of Bryan Van Den Oever, Simon Bee and Cameron Raspet found the culturally diverse nightlife of Washington D.C.’s newly renovated NoMa district the perfect spot for an “East Coast meets open casual West Coast style” brewery.
At this bustling industrial office hub (north of Massachusetts Avenue), RED BEAR BREWING CO. began operations. Inside a red brick neighborhood mall near Union Station and close to the elevated trains, Red Bear takes up a medium-sized corner spot down the street-level stairs.
Inside, the rustic cement-floored pub features 20-plus taps (proprietary beers plus seltzers and ciders) at the centrally located bar while the surrounding area offers wood and metal four-seaters and community tables plus board games for the kids. Kettled brew tanks are at the far right. The superb pub food menu and a host of upscale liquors back up the wholly reliable brew selections (of which, I will discover five well rounded and widely differentiated elixirs reviewed below).
At the partially covered outside patio, my wife and I (with dog Roscoe) consume five diverse homemade creations on a rainy Saturday in May ’22.
Floral-daubed ginger cologne, mild carrot-pureed spicing and yellow grapefruit zesting coalesced for briskly clean cucumber-watered saison, 24 Karat, an effervescently offbeat springtime moderation.
Another Maytime endeavor, soft-toned pinkish amber Peak Bloom Cherry Wit, let subtle Pez-candied cherry tartness fade into soap-stoned guava and gooseberry brining over a delicate white wheat bed.
Sweet ‘n sour oated ‘cream pale ale,’ Floof, a glowing sunshine hued New England IPA knockoff, readied salty guava-passionfruit tartness for lemon meringue and peach cobbler confections above lactic acidulated malts.
Dry opaque salmon-tinted fruited gose, The Floor Is Guava, regaled lively guava brining and tart coriander-seeded raspberry sedation as well as white peach, cranberry and crabapple snips over feathery sourdough wheated pilsner malting.
Black malted dark chocolate and mild espresso tones reached the soily earthen bottom of DC Dirt Porter, leaving chalky dried fruiting on the tail end.
Lactose peanut buttered dark chocolate roast deepened by coffee-stained hop char of rich milk stout, Tall Dark & Nutty, picking up latent bourbon vanilla spicing to contrast oily dark-roast mocha nuttiness.
DENIZENS BREWING COMPANY
SILVER SPRINGS, MD.
Off the northern tip of D.C. in the heart of Silver Springs lies one of the more intriguing, multifaceted and sizable microbreweries. DENIZENS BREWING COMPANY, run by wives, Julie Verratti and Emily Bruno, plus co-founder Jeff Ramirez, was a venture taken on in 2013 seeking to galvanize those ‘unified by beer.’ Incorporating an enormous turf-floored, 200-seat, wicker-lounged, mezzanine-level beergarden to enhance the adjoining cement-floored interior bar (an Industrial wood, metal and aluminum-studded space with leather tap handles) and lower level taproom, this rust orange-hued gastropub has become a local staple.
With a second location at nearby Riverdale Park starting production brewing in 2019, Denizens has grown by leaps and bounds since its 2014 Silver Springs inception, crafting over 150 different beers by my May ’22 quest. The varied flavor profiles and boundless stylization explored onsite at the first floor brewtanks match the diversity of Silver Spring’s urbanized civilians.
At the beer garden at noon, my wife and I tried all four core beers (listed below first) plus four more during our rainy one-hour visitation.
Sturdy Czech-styled pilsner, Born Bohemian, combined musky wet graining, floral-spiced Saaz hop herbage, mild grassy astringency and light lemon licks.
Smooth as glass double dry-hopped IPA, Animal, plied zesty orange-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering and lemon-candied pineapple, mango and peach tanginess to pine-sapped herbal spicing.
Dry caraway-seeded rye breading consumed earthier IPA, Southside Rye, retaining moderate grapefruit-orange bittering, resinous pine tones and tingled spicing.
Lovely rounded tripel, Third Party, let coriander-spiced orange peel sweetness, lemon meringue tartness, candied apple sugaring and wispy banana pureeing contrast white-peppered tealeaf herbage.
After these year-round faves, we consumed Hike The Alps, a simple helles lager with lemon-honeyed herbage set atop its doughy barley cracker base.
Flaked rice, grassy hop herbage and lemony orange acridity consumed premium lager, PGC, leaving a mellow honeysuckle-dried respite.
Dewy peat moss and mild herbage draped misty orange oiling for Lowest Lord ESB, a biscuit-based moderation.
Huell Melon hops redirected Macadocious Maibock, trading stylish red-orange fruit spicing for slightly soured floral-backed passionfruit, guava and gooseberry tropicalia.
SHEPHERD’S EYE BREWING COMPANY
FLORIDA, NEW YORK
Inside a gray aluminum warehouse with green awning, veteran-owned SHEPHERD’S EYE BREWING COMPANY opened for biz October 2, 2021. Specializing in German beer but unafraid to dabble into American IPA’s and dark ales, the farmland-situated pub has loads of room for expansion into its adjoining buildings.
A plastic-furnished wood planked porch deck leads to the epoxied cement-floored brewroom where a large capital-lettered Shepherd’s Eye signpost spreads across the top of the 7-seat bronze-sided serving station (with ten copper-piped draught taps and five turbine ventilator lights). Several wood seats fill out the interior and an electronic beer menu shows today’s offerings. Overhead doors to the right of the bar lead to the concrete-floored beer garden corridor. A canning line has recently been installed.
My dog Roscoe and I grab seats in the beergarden to sample today’s generally easygoing fare.
Muskily raw-grained, aluminum straw-hued German pilsner, Prost, let herbal Noble-hopped barnyard astringency and polite lemon licks merge in an easygoing straightforward manner.
Dry grassy-hopped lemon musk and mild herbage welcomed Day Brake, a light-bodied kolsch.
Daintily lemon-candied banana and clove tartly sweetened the front end while wispy white peppered herbage hit the salty wheat bottom of Shep’s Hef.
Dewy Deutscher Hund Dunkelweizen segued mild dried fruiting to lightly floured chocolate breading.
Getting away from the German styles…
Roughhewn toasted grains saddled the dewy mossing and red-orange fruiting of rugged English-styled amber ale, George, leaving caramelized barley sweetness in its wake.
Utilizing a rotating hop bill, April ’22-brewed NEIPA, Mystery Machine hurled floral-perfumed grapefruit peel, orange rind and pineapple bittering plus lemon-limed gooseberry sourness at its pine lacquered grassy knoll.
Flagship Imperial IPA, Shepherd’s Bite, gathered subtle grapefruit, orange, tangerine and peach tanginess as well as sweet floral spicing to contrast dry piney hop bittering.
Nitrogenated chocolate stout, Kariin, plied cocoa nibs creaming to black coffee, espresso and cola nut reminders.
MAGNIFY BOURBON BARREL AGED LOCAL TONGUE
On tap at Taphouse 15, luxurious fudged chocolate sweetness coats sticky bourbon vanilla-spiced creaming for fab lactic milk stout. Confectionery Oreo cookie chewiness, gooey chocolate cheesecake tartness and caramel-sauced dolce de leche sugaring gain a strong foothold alongside tertiary brownie batter, caramel latte, toasted coconut, hazelnut paste and cappuccino illusions beneath the finishing bourbon chocolate warmth.
EVIL TWIN I’D LIKE A TRIPLE, GRANDIOSE, EXTRA SWEET, COOKIES ‘N CREAM IMPERIAL STOUT
On tap at Taphouse 15, decadent full-bodied stout embraces milk-sugared coffee tones, doughy chocolate cookie sugaring, dried cocoa nibs nuttiness, creamy cappuccino frothing and caramel macchiato sweetness while ancillary toasted coconut, marshmallow fluff and black cherry illusions deepen luxuriously confectionery dessert splendor.
BLUE POINT COFFEE CRUMB CAKE STOUT
On tap at Hoover’s Tavern, coffee crumb-caked pastry stout lobs roasted coffee at cinnamon-spiced vanilla sweetness while hop-charred smoked chocolate bittering leads bold mocha finish.
CAPE MAY CHOCOLATE-COVERED PINEAPPLE PORTER
On tap at Hoover’s Tavern, dark chocolate-covered pineapple pureeing anchors bubblegummy fruited porter. Behind its tart pineapple convoy, tidy red grape and black cherry illusions surface alongside glazed hazelnut snips.
