Welcome back, everyone, to the DC Beer Show. We're @DCBeer
across social media. Jordan, what are you drinking tonight? Hello,
friends. I'm having the Harvey Wilder and Third Hills latest
collaboration, our homecoming volume 2. I heavily hopped
with Nelson and, some galaxy in there. So just
drinking delightfully on this beautiful crisp
fall evening. Hopefully everyone is doing well. And also shout out
to all the veterans. Monday was Veterans Day, so I wanna give a a warm
shout out and thank you to all the veterans for their service.
Brandy, what are you sipping on tonight, lady? Let me
just comment real quick about the wonderful release
at Third Hill this past Friday.
We had a great time. Thank you, Third Hill and the Harvey Wilder
Foundation for hosting that event. And, the
the volume 2 was quite lovely. Thank you, Jordan. That is not
what I'm drinking because I do not choose to have a hazy
IPA on a very cold day, but I'm about to
crack open a
a Virginia's porter, the wonderful,
wonderful porter from Dynasty. Hell,
yes. Love Dynasty, Lost Lagers, Mount
Vernon. I'm here for this. So that is what I'm drinking.
Mister Berg Scoops, what, what's he got? I'm
keeping it not local because I was just in upstate New York in
Central New York, and I picked up, from Hamburg Brewing
Company, which is in Western New York, just south of Buffalo, their Lakeview
Lager. A lovely American style lager. Yeah.
Nothing wrong with that. I could drink another, but I don't have
another, which means that I'll be going to Wegmans, next time I'm up there and
grabbing another 6 pack. So shout out to Hamburg, New
York, just off of, I90. I wanna do some shout
outs since you're shouting out some folks. Let me shout out
our new Patreon members. Hello, Patreon
members. We love you. We have so many wonderful
Patreon members now. It's it's actually almost unbelievable.
I wanna cry sometimes just seeing all the amazing folks.
But I want to, especially call out several
new members. So we have Fabio Garcia who joined us
last week. And that if that name sounds familiar, it
should because he's your favorite brewer's favorite brewer. Thank you,
Fabio, for being a Patreon member. We love you. We support you, and thank
you for supporting us. Michael O'Connor. I met
Michael at the Really Local Ale Fest, and,
he's one of our brand new members. And then, Jeff. Hey,
Virginia. Howdy. Hey, Jeff. Thank you for being
our enthusiast member. He just signed up.
So cheers to you guys. I hope to see all of you,
especially the new members at our upcoming beer share
at Atlas on Sunday. Actually, it's this Sunday
17th from 2 to 5. So come join us. This is our 1st
beer share at Atlas, which is shocking, I know.
But we can't wait to, hang out in Ivy city. I'm really looking
forward to the beer share this week. It's not as if we don't have phenomenal
beer every time, but is it just the fact that the temperature is finally
creating some seasonal, varieties. I'm really excited for, you
know, Stout and Porter season, especially just having some more of that that hacks
and and some robust Porter, from some of our some of my favorite local spots.
So really looking forward to that. And it's in time for some
opening some of those wells you may have been, saving and holding onto, especially
ahead of thanksgiving. So definitely come out and support. And,
just to piggyback on on Brandy's, you know, gratitude to our our
Patreon members, please, please, please don't forget to to gift your
favorite beer or local DC Beer nerd some DC Beer
swag. So we have a a ton of swag, available to you guys on the
website. So check out everything, latest articles, latest
swag, and obviously, latest events on dcb.com. And
hats. I love my DC Beer hats, my little beanie.
Yes. Give that give me the coverage. Give me the beer coverage and
the head coverage. So the day before our beer share,
that's Saturday 16th, recall that there were a
couple kegs that NRG, neighborhood restaurant group,
couldn't get through customs. There was, like, a port strike,
and so there weren't any gravity kegs at Stalingaster
this year from German breweries. They're here. They're
in the states, and they're gonna be at shelter
at the roost on Saturday. Nice weather for
just, like, crushing some lagers, 4 gravity
kegs. We got 2 Keller beers, a
Dunkle, and a Maerzen from 3
different German breweries. If Stein were here, I
would let him pronounce them. I'm not gonna try, except
that there's, is one of them, and I can say that because
of former baseball, Yankee and twin second basement,
Chuck Knobloch. So that's easy enough to pronounce. The other
there's at least one more from, Acorn,
and they are also bringing not on a gravity
keg, but their Rauch beer as well. So
happy happy. I think that this weekend could be a very
beer y weekend indeed. It's super cool that NRG actually
followed through and, like, they still got those beers. Obviously, not in time
for Snally, but they're here now. I know where Mike Stein's gonna
be probably on Saturday for that berry weekend.
And speaking of berry, we have The Beery
Godmother back in DC
at the end of the month, November 24th, which is
a Saturday, folks. No. Wait. It's a Sunday. Wait. Wait.
What's November 24th? Is it the 24th? Yes. The Sunday. Sorry
about that. Sunday. It is 1 week after our beer share. 1
one week one week after our beer share, the Biri godmother is
heading back up to the DC area specifically
for this event. So if you guys are have been
following our social media or get our newsletter,
you should. You learned that we did
a collaboration with the Biri Godmother at Wright Proper
Shaw. Super huge shout out to Wright Proper Shaw,
especially Josh Chapman. Lost Lagers, Mike Stein, our very
own Mike Stein, found an amazing old Czech
style lager recipe from this
brewery, and the name translates
into corner. So if you've if you've noticed that we've
announced or released the name of the beer, it's and you're like, why did they
come up with corner Chuck? It's because
of the word in in Chuck. So thank
you, Mike Stein. Thank you, Lost Lagers. Thank you to
Josh Chapman. And of course, Latrice Harris, The Beery Godmother.
The Women's Brew Culture Club, we were also involved, and
we had a wonderful collaboration morning at Wright proper in
Shaw, and that is actually where the beer release party is going to be
on 24th. I really genuinely hope
to see everybody. What a wonderful group this is, and it's gonna
be an amazing beer, check style lager. And honestly,
if Mike Stein was on here, he would be able to tell you so much
more about this beer, but you're just gonna have to
come try it in person. The event is from 3 to 6,
so make sure you swing by. So excited to see you, Latrice.
Jordan, are you jazzed about this collab? I think jazz, he still wouldn't
do it justice. Extremely excited about it, just because,
again, it it was not only a a a superstar cast
of of, you know, just collaborators to kinda bring the
the beer to light. But I just thought it was a, phenomenal way to kinda
connect the East Coast, if you will, because, you know, we've got representation
out of out of my home state of Georgia all the way up to, to
the to Maryland and and the DC area. So so super excited about it.
And also just how can you not be excited about a dark,
Czech dark lager being dropped in the middle of November. So It's not a hazy
IPA, Jordan. Sorry. Well, see, here's the thing. Here's the thing.
You know? I I I'm a man of many hats and taste buds,
and I I do make room for my for the Czech dark lagers. But, Jake,
what else is on your mind, sir? What you thinking in terms of beer? Yeah.
So, I mean, I'm I'm always down for a Czech dark lager. This is
this one's coming in at, like, 5.2, I think, is what it's
gonna finish at, which means that yeah. Really,
you know, if it were 75 and sunny, you could drink it. It's 45
and cloudy. You could drink it a beer for, you know, 4
5ths of the calendar year. But since Latrice is a beer
educator, I was gonna bring up one more event on my radar.
That's about beer education. And it's, Neil
Witt used to work for Boulevard Brewing in Kansas
City. He's gonna be at Churchkey on Tuesday
19th, teaching an off flavor class,
which I think is really, really useful. One
of the few times I've ever sent a beer back was at
Churchkey, because of a buttery a
butterscotch diacetyl note in a beer,
and Greg Engert and Naheem Simons,
now in Hawaii, ex Churchkey NRG beer
person, both took sips and agreed, and that was,
you know, one of the ways. So I was like, oh, I might actually
know something of what I'm talking about here. But yeah.
Check out our site, dcbeer.com/events.
It's on there. Learning about beer that way,
drinking a bad beer, drinking what the beer is supposed to taste like side by
side. Very cool. It should be eye opening. I know we've done
educational classes. The Women's Brew Culture Club did an off flavor
class, which was so so informative. And, like,
everyone's like, oh my god. When's the next one? Like and because it was women's
brew culture club, they're like, can I bring my my boss or my my dad
or whoever next time? And I'm pretty sure,
as long as everything goes to plan, that Mike Stein,
our resident beer historian educator, and Latrice,
the beer godmother, they are hopefully going
to meet up and give this little mini class
about Czech Lagers right before the beer release. So
this is not confirmed yet, so if it doesn't happen, don't come knocking down my
door being angry with me. But it is in the works, and so if
you really want this to happen, speak up, let us know,
and we'll we'll definitely get the ball rolling on that. But definitely keep an
eye out for our next educational and or, like, beer,
you know, informative events. Thank you to Churchkey for doing
that. I'm excited. I hope I get to make that event. Also, not for nothing.
It's usually easier to spike, like, macro.
Think Bud, Miller, Coors with these off flavors. And so I
have it on good authority that for the first time ever,
there's going to be a keg of macro beer
at Churchkey on Tuesday for the off flavor
class. Interesting. Yeah. Maybe if you're lucky, come
Wednesday, they'll do, like, kill the keg, you know, we can get, like,
dollar drafts of whatever it is. For. It's above light. That's right. Yeah.
We could we can take it back, like, you know, like, we're at, like, the
elk's lodge back in the day. That that's awesome. So November's just been
a chock full of events, and I I think we'd be remiss to not shout
out Hellbender. They just celebrated their 10th anniversary. So,
if you're still looking just for some events or breweries to visit locally, check out
Hellbender. I hear everything is is delicious and
delightful over there, and I'm sure they would appreciate the love of being their
10th anniversary month. Jake, is it true that you
had a conversation today that the folks don't wanna hear about?
It is true indeed. And so we're going a little bit further afield
than, like, DC because I met these folks in
Baltimore even though I first had their beer in
Brooklyn, it's Hagerstown's Thick and Thin Brewing.
We've got Derek Sieward and Jake Beamer here.
Everybody, say hello. How's it going, guys? Hey. Thanks for having us on.
What up? I'm gonna jump right in with a question, and that's
you all actually distribute to DC, and we
don't see a lot of other breweries out your
way, even in Frederick and Montgomery counties. See,
breweries by bypass DC. You all are
here, so thank you. Yes. Well, we we were
in DC up until recently. We've actually, switched
to a different distributor, so but the plan is to get us back
in there as soon as possible. We're just kinda working our way out from Washington
and Frederick Counties, and slowly building
that, that rapport with the new distributor. But we'll
get we'll get out your way again soon. You probably still have some stuff
from our previous distribution contract, if
that's what you're seeing out there on in stores and at bars and stuff.
Yeah. Because I've definitely seen it, one of my locals, which is Warden and
Wines over here in Northeast DC. That's where I've been buying the thick and thin
stuff. Yeah. Definitely. I know day sauce was doing really well. That's
our American style Pilsner, and we were selling the hell out of that
in DC for a long time. So appreciate it.
DC likes itself some lagers. But right now, I
understand you all are sipping on on an IPA. You wanna tell us a little
bit about that beer? Yeah. So, yeah, this what I'm drinking
is our glamp site, our session IPA that, actually
won us best in show with the Maryland Craft Brewing
Association. So, it was, you know,
something we try to do, 4.7% session,
kinda more on your traditional American e West Coast
y side, giving that full body kinda multi, but still
being that low percentage that you could drink all day, if you are
glamping. If I may nerd out for a moment Yeah. A lot of session
IPAs, they come across as a little thin in the
body. Yeah. This one does not. Yeah. What's
what's the secret sauce in there? Like, it's got you know, it doesn't have that
American IPA, like, old school, like, you know, caramel malt beef.
But, you know, there's enough where you can hang the hops on it. Yeah.
For sure. I think, we actually have have tweaked this
recipe over the the two and a half short years, that
we've been brewing. Last year, we won gold for this beer, and
we weren't expecting it because we weren't really done with the recipe yet. So it
felt good to to get recognized again for this beer. With all the
tweaking, we really wanted it to be that special
session. Again, that is whole bodied and and has the
right hop characteristics in combination as well as the
right maltiness and sweetness and and bitterness. So I think we
we kinda, you know, not to toot our own horn, but hit hit the nail
on the head with this one for sure. The first two beers that I had
from thick and thin were glamping, and then another,
reasonably low ABVhoppy ale, but with New Zealand hops. And then
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was our yeah. That was our our
halfling beer. So we actually brew that with it's a
5% session hazy IPA with bergamot. So So we we like
to do those fun traditional styles really well, but then add
our fun flair on it. So we we add a whole bunch of, you know,
fun ingredients into things, but that's one of our favorite beers is
Hafslang for sure. So those are sort of on the lighter side,
the thinner side, if you will. Winter winter's coming down the
pike. What are you all working on in terms of the thick for thick and
thin? So our winter seasonal beer
is our bearskin chocolate oatmeal stout,
and that's also coming in at a lower ABV too. We're
looking atwhat is that? 5 5.6? So
so it's still, you know, sessionable, kind of. It's not a big
heavy imperial stout, but you do still get those big chocolate notes
that you would get, that you would expect from a, a nice
stout. Mhmm. And we also offer that on Nitro here at the
brewery. At the brewery, you all have a, pour your own
system where guests can pour their own beer. That's
right. Do they know what they're doing, or are they getting, like, an awful lot
of foam? We've got we've got a couple of those places, and,
you you can always tell who's poured a beer before and who hasn't.
Yeah. It's always a challenge. You know, it's exciting for
people to kind of, you know, take the reins and and be able to get
in there and pour their own beer, but it is, not always
that efficient. As you said, like, you know, you you
would assume that people know to kinda, like, tilt their glass and,
hold the glass the correct way to not get a bunch of foam, but it's
that's usually not the case, so we just let them have fun, and we kinda
have to clean up behind them almost. Respectfully, of course. So, like, a lot
of our viewing listening audience is pretty familiar with Frederick and
all the breweries there, but less so Hagerstown.
So, like, what you've all been open about 2 ish years now.
What's Yeah. What's the community reception like? What's the vibe been?
Like, when I think of Hagerstown, I tend to think of, like,
you know, a handful of breweries that do sort of like more old world,
German British styles, and then, of course, like, delicious donuts. Well, there's some
awesome breweries here besides us, but, yeah, we just celebrated
our 2 year anniversary in August. We had a big party,
pig roast, and had a special beer release for that. But, yeah, we're surrounded
by, I think, 5 other breweries in the in the Yeah. Vicinity.
I think what I always say is people always do the Frederick beer tour.
Right? It's you always hear about the idiom, you go to Old Mother, and so
on and so forth. But I think Hagerstown has great beer
tour potential as well. I mean, you think about it, there's probably 5 or
6 breweries within 15 minutes of us. So even taking
a bus from here to Cushwa, Upperstem, I mean, you you
name it. There's there's plenty of breweries around us. So I think we're kind of
that untapped brewery tour scene. So someone
people want a new change of pace, I think the Hagerstown Brewery Tour is is
definitely worthwhile. There's some great stuff going on here. But, yeah,
other breweries around us, we've got we've got interchange. As
we said, we've got Cushwa. We've got, Upper Stem.
Antietam. I forget it. Yeah. Antietam. And,
I mean, Potomac Ridge, there's a bunch of breweries, you know, around
us that for sure is is worth the trip to to hit all of.
Alright. So we've talked a little IPA. We've talked a little lager. We've talked
a little stout. You all have any plans to get
into some a bit more in
terms of sours? I know that you all do a
seltzer. You kinda gotta, like, be out there with a a bunch of different
styles. Kettle sours, mixed fermentation, any barrel aging
coming up? Yeah. We've kinda played around with with all those things over the
past couple years. We've even done some barrel aged Brett beers,
some mixed fermentation. We have this beer, quest master, that we've
been putting out that is our, bourbon barrel aged
imperial stout. It's aged in McClintock bourbon
barrels, which is a a Frederick distillery. And, we
also have been messing around with some some fruited sours.
They're not kettle sours though. If you wanna be technical, we're
using Philly Sour Yeast, which produces lactic acid during
fermentation. So we don't have to worry about any of those weird
butyric acid off flavors of baby vomit or something like
that. Nobody likes that. No. Our staple fruited sour
is, we kinda have, like, a a a line of fruited sours that are all
called f bombs, and it's a fruit bomb, by the way, but it's,
we have tangerine pretty much year round, and then we just released
the blueberry f, today, which also has,
cinnamon and clove in it. So you get this nice kind of, like,
pie custard vibe to it. It's really, really
enjoyable. Yeah. Some and some fall spices there as as the weather
turns. Yeah. Yeah. Port City uses a yeast like this as
well, for one of for, I think, really, their only sour. I
think it comes from Lallemand. You wanna talk to us a little bit more
about how this yeast works in terms of, like, kicking off,
lactic acid so that it ferments and also sours?
Yeah. So I guess with a with a typical kettle sour, you're
brewing your wort normally and then leaving your wort
in the kettle and adding lactic acid back,
bacteria. But in this case, we do the whole normal
process of brewing and sending the wort
into the fermenter, at which point we add this yeast.
So this yeast produces alcohol, but it also, in the process
of as a byproduct, is producing lactic acid. So it's
still biological lactic acid, which is better than the
other alternative, which is to just add straight up chemical lactic
acid to your finished beer. So it's we kinda get the best of both worlds
and it's been turning out really well. Yeah. It's worked out really well for us
so far and we've got a lot of positive feedback from even our fun one
offs hours like we do, the blue sharknado. So it tastes
like those gummy blue sharks. So we do all sorts of weird fun one
offs with them, which, you know, we like to enjoy because we get to goof
around and have fun too. Yeah. But a a lot of those, the the the
sillier stuff is kind of we'll do, like, 1 or 2 barrels of it, and
it'll just be available in the tap room. And it's a way to kinda get
our guests, get people to come out over the mountain and, you know, come out
to Hagerstown and River Oaks. Fair enough. I mean, you're also competing with
interchange and their many Kiki style beers, So
Yeah. Yes. Alright. When you've got first time folks coming
in and they, like, they ask what you're about, what do
you usually give them in terms of beer? Yeah. I think,
I always ask them what kind of beer they like to enjoy, and then kind
of give them that full range of spectrum. I don't kind of like guessing
what people like, but, I mean, we have a ton of
different varieties of IPAs. I can give an IPA flight. I think a
couple of my favorites are, the Kaiju.
It's our rice lager, with yuzu. So it kind of gives
that, you know, it's almost a perceived sweetness or
tartness that you get in a Radler, but not quite,
because it's in a rice lager. It it's very interesting, intriguing,
but there we have a lot of those beers that if people just say surprise
me, I can just give them all the fun stuff that that we
like to enjoy and make, as well as our cores are solid too.
So it's it's a fun toss-up. How are y'all looking in terms of
canning, aluminum, getting ready for 2025,
see how that shakes out? Yeah. We've, we kind
of unveiled a a new core. Like,
again, with this new distributor, we're we put out 4 core beers,
3 of which are IPAs, but it's kinda we're gonna start ramping that
up next year and adding some fun seasonal stuff and
some and also some one offs. So we're we have a a
little micro canning line here, and we
produce we can produce about 10 cases an hour. Most
brewery microbreweries are produced can produce 10 cases in,
like, 5 minutes. So so we're we're a little bit slower,
but, we're still making enough and and trying to stick, keep
up with the demand, right now. So What's the food situation
like at Thick and Thin? Yeah. We,
we actually just opened up our food truck, Blue Boar Kitchen. So they're
open Wednesday through Sunday.
Typically, they open around 4 o'clock. On the weekends, that changes for
lunch. But they do I mean, their wings and chicken tenders are
next level. He does all of his own sauces, smash
burgers. It's it is really good food. I wish I was here long enough
most days to eat it. But, delicious food, Scott, our
our chef, he's has some really fun, cool ideas
that also pair well with our beer. So it's really good. Cool. What's that
process like just in terms of sitting down with, Jeff Scott and kind of working
on like, you know, figuring out what he's making and what you're
brewing. Yes. So we did we did have a party, for Oktoberfest,
and we kinda incorporated our Maerzen in by
making a, a a beer mustard for
him to use on his brats, so we use our own beer in the beer
mustard and we try to, like, incorporate our beers
into the food truck recipes and have some nice pairings and stuff like
that. That was also an event that, a lot of other local breweries came
out to and supported. We had liquidity, which was last year's
damn best in show winner and Cushwa,
you know, Bavarian Brother Brothers Brewing and the list goes on
and on. But, that was a really fun event where we did get to help
with the menu a little bit and make the mustard. It was a fun,
fun work activity for a couple hours there to to mix it up a little
bit. This is good to hear. Again, like, you know, like, our listenership
knows, I think a fair amount about Frederick and the community there, but it's good
to hear you talking about Liquidity, like, the the I70 breweries, the
Hagerstown breweries 100%. Coming together as well. 100%. Yeah.
We, you know, we have friends out there, and we like friends.
Who doesn't? Excellent. Alright. Derek,
Jake, thank you so much. Thank you. You, Jake. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah. Appreciate your time, guys. Thank you. Cool. Yeah. And, again, congrats
on your award winning beer. Woo hoo. Yeah. Woo
hoo. Yeah. Thank you so much to Hackardstown's Finest, Thick and
Thin. Please do check them out. Alright, folks.
Thoughts? Parting shots? Stealthy
Thanksgiving pairings? You wanna shout out?
Hear hear me out. Well, first, before I say hear me out, I
want to shout out Urban Garden Brewing, Imani
and Lindsey. I received my thank you card
with a button and some cards or stickers in the
mail today because, you know, we'd contributed to their
fundraising. And, you know, I've mentioned this several times, they will
be opening very crazily, scarily
close to my house. So you know what where I will be. I'm excited
about the new, breweries opening, Urban Garden and
henceforth. It may not even be until next year, obviously, but we are
here. We are so gonna support any updates, information.
You're gonna hear it through us. But as far as Thanksgiving,
you know what I would like to see more of? Table
beers, like, legit good, low a
b z, easy drinking table beers for
folks when they come in the door in between
meals, like, to not overpower any sort of Thanksgiving
meal you're having. I remember Jerry. Thanks, Jerry.
Share a pint brought me a crowler of table beer last year
in from Maryland or Pennsylvania somewhere. I forgot the name. I'm sorry, Jerry.
But it was incredible, and it's so rare to find
a table beer. Oh, I mean, I think that's, I think that's a lot to
look forward to. I mean, personally, I'm just looking forward to the food,
looking forward to increased fire pit weather and having some
checked our lagers around the fire pit. So, yeah, just looking forward to
kicking it with some, friends and family and eating until
my heart's content. And also, you know, shout out to to Mike
Stein, we definitely miss you today. And a big thank you to our
producer and friend, Papa Beer. Richard, thank you for all
that you do. I hope he's enjoying his holiday season down in the in
the south, in the good old south. But, Jake, any takes for
thanksgiving? Deep fried turkey. Speaking of the south I like it. I like
it. The turkey answer is always, it always Saison DuPont.
Now available in cans. You could buy it at Whole Foods. I know that it's,
like, 6 a half percent, so it comes in bigger than table beer. I hear
you on table beer. And then for pie Oh. Imperial
stout, a nice, like, creak or something. You know, like,
you get a little bit of fruit and acidity. Kinda cuts everything
in, lets your stomach, you know, helps helps the the stomach acid add a
little bit more more in there. But yeah. Thank you, everybody. We are
at dcbeer across social media, and we'll probably
see you out and about this weekend, if not the weekend after. Alright. Be
well. Collard green pie. Cheers. Woah. Say more
say more about Right? Collard green pie. Pie. What's collard green pie?
Pie with the cheese crust. Yoss. Give me a side of
ham, country ham. I'm just all about the collard greens and ham. Fuck
turkey. Sorry, y'all.