Dry-Aged Fish and Special Lady Friends: Jailbreak Brewing & Foodworks

Welcome back to the DC Beer Show! This episode, DCBS-106, is brimming with beer buzz and culinary delights as our hosts Brandy Holder, Michael Stein, and Jacob Berg dive into the vibrant beer scene with esteemed guests Chef Janny Kim and head brewer Rob Fink from Jailbreak Brewing Company. 

First, the hosts catch up on their latest beer escapades, with Brandy sharing her love for Other Half's boxcar and Mike toasting with a Dovetail pils. Jacob takes it up a notch with the Sunrider Imperial Pilsner from Dynasty Brewery, gearing up for their anniversary bash in Ashburn.

The convo shifts to Jailbreak Brewing Company's exciting blend of top-notch beers and gourmet cuisine. Chef Janny Kim spills the beans on joining Jailbreak and elevating their food game with Michelin-quality dishes in an office park setting. Meanwhile, Rob Fink elaborates on how impeccable food influences his brewing creativity, making everything from everyday wings to dry-aged tuna sing in harmony with their beers.

The hosts can't help but gush over upcoming events, like Snallygaster, and local brewery happenings, including a festive October Forest Fest in Powhatan, Virginia, and a big beer release party at Penn Druid in Sperryville. They stress the importance of connecting with your community brewers and indulging in these awesome local celebrations.

The episode rounds out with a heartfelt thank you to the Jailbreak team for their hospitality and a reminder for listeners to support their local beer scenes. Plus, a special shout-out to their Patreon supporters—because the love of beer is best shared together.

So, grab your favorite pour, settle in, and let's toast to another fantastic episode of The DC Beer Show! Cheers!

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Creators & Guests

Host

Brandy Holder

This southern girl got a late start in the beer world, but with such a bold and intoxicating personality behind the name, booze was destined to be a part of her endeavors.

Host

Jacob Berg

Jake’s beer education began when his dad brought home a 6-pack of Brooklyn Lager in the mid-90s. It was love at first sip.

Host

Mike Stein

Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence.

Producer

Richard Fawal

President of DC Beer Media LLC and Publisher of DCBeer.com and The DC Beer Show

What is The DC Beer Show?

The official podcast of DCBeer.com! This is a show about breweries: the business, the beer, the craftspeople who run them and the drinkers who love them. Join us as we speak with brewers, brewery owners, and all kinds of folks involved in the craft beer scene.

Jacob Berg [00:00:05]:
Welcome everyone to the DC Beer Show. We are at DC Beer across social media. Snally has their VIP tickets. Almost sold out. Get yours today. Brandy, what are you drinking on this almost crisp fall light evening?

Brandy Holder [00:00:21]:
Well, I was at Other Half earlier, enjoying the beginnings of trivia with our very own Jordan, And I drank a, Boxcar from Other Half. The Boxcar is back. What about you, Mike?

Michael Stein [00:00:37]:
Well, Brandy, to your Helles, I raise you Pils.

Brandy Holder [00:00:42]:
Nice.

Michael Stein [00:00:43]:
Dovetail Pils. Yeah. So when Dovetail launched in our DC market, Pils wasn't actually out. But in the last month, 2 months, 3 months, what is time but a flat circle, We've come into Pills, which is a dynamite beer, 4.6 percent ABV, right in that sweet spot under 5% ABV, and Dovetail actually just brewed a wet hop beer. Our good friend JP, Jenny Pfafflin from Dovetail Brewing, documented the wet hop beer, which is definitely out of the sort of stereotypical range. When you think of Dovetail, you think of German, Austrian, Czech styles. They brewed a wet hop beer with all these whole cone hops in their cool ship. Jake, we've got lager lager.

Michael Stein [00:01:27]:
What's in your glass?

Jacob Berg [00:01:29]:
By the way, just casually throwing this out that Dovetail will also be at Snallygaster. Well, Mike, I see your Pils, and what's bigger than a Pils? Why, it's an Imperial Pils.

Brandy Holder [00:01:43]:
Oh, shit.

Jacob Berg [00:01:44]:
Yeah. So I have here Sunrider Imperial Pilsner, which is from our very good friend, Favio, and his brewery, Dynasty, which is celebrating their anniversary this weekend. You should go out to Ashburn. Brandy, I believe you will be there. Anyway, this is it's a dynamite beer. It's just

Brandy Holder [00:02:05]:
It's so good.

Jacob Berg [00:02:06]:
Huge grassy, piney blast of liberty and Laurel hops. It's pretty, pretty cool. It's like if a Pilsner and a Stiek Alt had a baby. It's just like it's it's a really interesting beer.

Michael Stein [00:02:20]:
I like to call it

Brandy Holder [00:02:21]:
It's phenomenal. I love it.

Michael Stein [00:02:23]:
I like to call it Pilsner Bock because it imitates the bock profile where it's sweet up front and dry in the finish, but unlike most bock you have this wonderful, like you said, Jake Liberty and Laurel hops. So it's beautifully hoppy, it's got a wonderful aroma, and it's just American hops being their own. I actually had this beer with Favio last night. So tomorrow, Saturday, DC Beer will be there. Dynasty will be there. Will you be there? 6th anniversary at Dynasty.

Brandy Holder [00:03:00]:
Yeah. They have live music, and they're gonna, like, have 3 different live music bands. And the little Taco Town food truck is gonna be there. And they're the the hot wing chicken truck is gonna be there. And they're doing a hot wing challenge, and they made hot sauce with the fast bender beer. And they're they're dropping a collab beer with Ocelot, tomorrow for the anniversary party as well. So you know I'm gonna be there. Come on out.

Brandy Holder [00:03:26]:
Steiner, are you coming? Are you able to come?

Michael Stein [00:03:28]:
My plan is to be there. Sweet. Of course, Favio spoiled me, and I got a chance to try the Souprettes, the double IPA from Ocelot last night.

Brandy Holder [00:03:38]:
Well, let me

Michael Stein [00:03:38]:
tell you, it is a beautiful mash up of the Ocelot style and the Other Half style. I tend to think Favio's hazy IPAs are kinda leaning eastward towards the the dank, juicy, lovely stuff coming out of Other Half's Ivy City location, and I tend to think of Ocelot as going a little drier. Absolutely aromatic, juicy beer for sure, and I think this one really kinda split the difference to represent Dynasty, what Favio's been doing for a while very well. So I'm very excited to share that with everybody.

Jacob Berg [00:04:14]:
Keeping it ocelot and Virginia and also keeping it drier. Be on the lookout. Ocelot was just over in Sperryville at Penn Druid brewing out there a collab, and that will also be very hoppy and very dry. I'm hoping it kinda kicks off some of those, like, green flash rayon bear or Orval style vibes. Because as druid, I assume you will see it in 7 fifties. Again, maybe we'll see it at Snally. Alright. The big event next week post dynasty is savvy fans of imported beer know the sovereign.

Jacob Berg [00:04:57]:
They're getting rid of the last of their Westy 8 and Westy 12 bottles. So that's on the 28th. They don't appear to have any plans to bring them back, so I would say show up in Georgetown and, drink them out of doubles and quads.

Brandy Holder [00:05:14]:
I think the night before at at, Shelter Roost, the halfway crooks is doing the big takeover too. So, like, you know, hit up all the NRG places next week.

Michael Stein [00:05:27]:
And if you wanna get out of the city, a few days after that, Saturday, August 31st, Penn Druid is going to have a Saturday lagers and goat roast, so they'll actually be pouring Blue Jacket beer at Penn Druid Brewing in Sperryville. Not to be outdone, they have Mars Boy, the famous Franconian producer Live Oak Brewing, a beer who makes a lost lager's beer in Austin, Texas and they make wonderful lager there they're also gonna have Oxbo beer from Oxbo out of Maine, the Schenker beer, out of New York they're gonna have Schonrammer, which is another famous Bavarian brewery out of Germany, and then The Veil will also be at Pendrude in Sperryville, Saturday, August 31st.

Brandy Holder [00:06:15]:
I think that Upweller, which is Josh Chapman's new beer, the name of his new beer place or not a place yet, I guess. But I think he announced that they're having an October Forest Fest, and I'm so bummed I'm not gonna be there because I would definitely make that trek, that drive out there. It's in Powhatan, Virginia. I think it's kinda near Richmond, but we have a wedding that we get to go to. But it looks fantastic, and what a great lineup. So, I'm curious, if if anyone any of us get to go to that.

Michael Stein [00:06:52]:
I'm gonna do my damnedest. We have locals represented with Lost Generation making I think they're doing a sorrel deer.

Michael Stein [00:07:01]:
They

Michael Stein [00:07:01]:
forage from don't quote me on that. Mieza, our friends in Alexandria, that's Alex Lynch, his wonderful brewery spontaneous, fruited, beautifully sour, sometimes funky, sometimes hoppy and phenolic, and not sour beers, but so we're gonna have the locals from Alexandria, Mieza, the locals from DC, Los Jen, check out October Forest Fest beer, which always supports the Nature Conservancy in Virginia, and we're actually gonna have beers brewed with ingredients from around the state. It's a wonderful sort of spreading out When you think of Virginia, you got ingredients way up in the North, way down in the South, so we have both sort of mountainous ingredients and then foraged, I think, seagrass or eelgrass, something, don't quote me on that one, but we're gonna have great time in Powhatan, Virginia with Josh Chapman. The Chapman's new, brand, Upweller.

Jacob Berg [00:07:55]:
We've shouted out Virginia a lot. Our guests are gonna have us shouting out Maryland. Jailbreaks intermittently kinda in and out in DC. I'm not not actually sure if they distribute at the moment in DC proper, although you may see a few stray cans. Justin, Jailbreak owner. You should fix that. We should talk, but you should go out to Laurel and hit Jailbreak. And it's not just because of the beer, It's because of the food.

Jacob Berg [00:08:29]:
And so we all sat down with not only the head brewer, Rob Fink, who's been on the show and is no stranger to this site, but also their chef, chef Janny Kim. He's worked at Michelin starred restaurants like Pineapple and Pearls and Roses Luxury. He's worked at Himitsu. He's worked at Bourbon Steak. And what Jailbreak is doing with both beer and food is really very cool. Laurel is like a half an hour away from most of where we are. It's kinda weird to sit in an office park and eat dry aged tuna and just absolutely delicious Wagyu ribeyes. But if we're talking food and beer in the area, they're really knocking it out of the park, and we thank them for their hospitality.

Jacob Berg [00:09:20]:
And here's our interview with them recorded at the source at Jailbreak. Hi, everyone. We're here with Jailbreak director of brewing operations, Rob Fink, and Jailbreak head chef, Jailbreak Foodworks, I believe. Chef Janny.

Michael Stein [00:09:40]:
Good morning. I think you are having us here.

Jacob Berg [00:09:42]:
Thank you again so much for being here, for making time.

Brandy Holder [00:09:45]:
Breweries are starting to amp up their food programs because they've realized that people will stay longer and have more beer if there's good food available. And, you know, that's why there are so many food trucks at breweries. You need to have food, but you guys just leveled it up. And I'm just interested and curious how you did that. Like, what whose idea was to bring Janny on?

Chef Janny Kim [00:10:12]:
Well, it's been a little over 3 years since I joined the team. I, met up with Justin, which is one of our winners here at Dobrik. And he had mentioned that, there was a empty gap in terms of our food works, department. And, he wanted and was interested in me filling in those gaps and offering something that is unique, satisfying, but, more importantly, delicious. The thing that really invigorated me joining the team was, first of all, the space, and the opportunity to be build a culture here. And not just the food, but more so the team and, creating a team where we can, create an environment where our staff is excited to come to work. And if we have a happy staff or more integrated and goal oriented staff, they will be cooking happy food. So that is something that we've truly focused on here at Gilbrecht on the food side.

Jacob Berg [00:11:17]:
Thank you. And I think that shows. To get into some details about the food, it seems like you're doing things that Laurel, and that's whether it is Prince George's or the Howard side, you know, we're about half a mile into Howard, haven't really seen before. When you went about creating this program, how did you go about that? Like, did you notice the void and you're like, oh, I'm going here's what we're going to do.

Chef Janny Kim [00:11:44]:
So at Jailbreak, we try to really emphasize on offering different options. Everything from, like I said, the good, better, best. If you want some wings or a burger, we'll put in the time and creatively, create a recipe and SOPs to create something very delicious. Now if we want something better or best, we will offer a 5, Japanese rib eye or dry aged beef steak, or it's a sit from Japan or Hawaii. And, yeah, we just tried our best to let the quality of the ingredients speak for itself. So it makes our job a lot easier.

Jacob Berg [00:12:26]:
So, Rob, how does what you're brewing affect the food?

Rob Fink [00:12:32]:
I think in terms of what I threw, that necessarily hasn't changed. But the way in which I approach recipe formulation probably has certainly evolved into a degree because of Chef's level of sophistication when it comes to things that would be normally characterized as conventional. He mentioned burger and wings. The level of thought that goes into those seemingly conventional items, I think, helps provide me with a platform to iterate on beers that we've that been around for a long time that I might wanna, like, oh, how can I improve upon this? It, sometimes in the production space of a brewery, the creative component is taking preexisting things and manipulating them, but not to the extent that it becomes something else. And that is part of what, I think the food has done for me in terms of how I think about approaching new beers and preexisting ones.

Jacob Berg [00:13:37]:
One of the things that I've noticed here and that we don't see it in see an awful lot is dry aging Fitch. Do you wanna talk about how that came about?

Chef Janny Kim [00:13:48]:
Well, dry aging has always been practiced as a source of preservation, and that's something that, may have become very popularized in social media, the past coming years. But it has been something most predominantly practiced in our industry for quite some time now. The Japanese culture and sushi, they age their fish, most of the times to capture, perfect window of time where that ingredient and fish will be the most delicious. And that's all we're trying to do. I think there's a strong misconception of dry aging beef running parallel with the same qualities of dry aging fish. It's actually sometimes quite opposite. So for us, we don't really, refer dry aging fish, for anything under 28 to 15 to 20 days. At that point, we are just conditioning the fish to, like I said, capture the quality of the fish in the window of time where it's most delicious.

Chef Janny Kim [00:14:52]:
The only fish that we have taken a lot longer, taking 20 days has been gluten tuna, especially the belly portion, which we call as saguaro and or the king war salmon. So due to the high fat content, it allows us to, dry it a little bit longer, and, it doesn't really give you the blue cheese notes that beef gives you when dry aging. It just concentrates the flavor and alters the texture of the slime.

Jacob Berg [00:15:23]:
Since you both sort of work in parallel sort of spheres that don't normally intersect, I feel like there's a commonality here sort of between pulling a pin out of a barrel,

Chef Janny Kim [00:15:34]:
doing a little taste. I think we both employ significant time and energy in a in a scientific sense, but at the same time, I think we ultimately rely on our palates. And when something is ready, it's this kind of in intrinsic unconscious thing that we just know. And that's when we kinda pull the trigger on something, like, let our palates decide.

Jacob Berg [00:16:00]:
I get the sense that, like, within, sort of the deer and food communities, there are classic pairings. What are some of the food and beer pairings that you've done here that I think, you might consider a little unconventional and surprising?

Chef Janny Kim [00:16:15]:
Well, to answer your question, when I first joined the team about 3, upwards of 3 years ago, one of the main priorities and goals was to create food pairings with the beer. So there was a point where we were, the kitchen team that is, were pairing, intentional dishes and creating these dishes for showcasing, these new beers that were being produced almost on a, I believe biweekly basis, sometimes weekly. So for example, one of our most popular, seasonal beers are Spoville jalapeno IPA. So that is honestly kind of on the easier side. So we just kind of incorporate some sort of jalapenos. I believe the one of the first renditions that we did was a, almost like a ceviche with shrimp and, jalapeno. So to answer your question, we, have done in the past. We've kinda stepped away from it due to production, You know, for us to create on a weekly basis a new dish is quite demanding, and so we kinda utilize that time to focus on other priorities and the operation.

Jacob Berg [00:17:23]:
Do you guys think you would ever get into the business of, maybe doing some pop ups?

Chef Janny Kim [00:17:29]:
We've discussed pop ups many times, more importantly for the sole reason of creating a platform for my colleagues and other partnering chefs that servicing their talents, but more importantly, my staff. So I have a couple of staff members that would love to showcase their talents, whether it's pizza or, soul food or anything of that nature, pupusas. And, you know, we always love and try to invigorate our staff and having that conversation at least and stating, hey, this opportunity is here.

Rob Fink [00:18:01]:
And we have a few interesting things coming down the pike. So, Jake, you mentioned this earlier. Yes. I'm a big fan of, Barrel Agent Beers. We have a, English barley wine collaboration in barrels right now with Sapwood. We brew the exact same recipe, one here, one at their facility. We will be taking the best of each brewery's respective stock and blending them together as a singular release. There will also be a release that there will be a double barrel aged version.

Rob Fink [00:18:34]:
So we're going

Rob Fink [00:18:35]:
to come up with

Rob Fink [00:18:36]:
a singular blend that volumetrically will allow for a singular release and then, subsequent double barrel aged release. Those are my passion projects that if I could do that and be, you know, financially, solvent, then I would do nothing but that. But, I understand the reality, of the industry.

Jacob Berg [00:19:01]:
We've talked a bit about the back of the house, in the kitchen, in the brewhouse. What about in the front of the house in terms of sort of training the staff, in terms of recommending beer pairings, or perhaps, given that this is Jailbreak and Justin Bonner, comes from a wine background and is also a big bourbon guy, those pairings as

Chef Janny Kim [00:19:23]:
well. So for the front of the house, I think that our staff does a magnificent job in, being the ambassadors to, Rob's products and, what we do at FoodWorks. And our industry has always been a work in progress in training as finding staff to begin with is already very challenging. So to keep our staff and invigorate them with knowledge and challenging them, has always been our focal point in just trying to be better each day. So making mistakes is is gonna happen, but it's up to us managers and leaders to, guide them through the process of not being able to make those mistakes again. So pairing them and, you know, flavor notes and tasting notes, these are all things that are in the vernacular of our staff, and they're well equipped with this knowledge. At this point, I think a lot of the variables that goes into answering what you ask are the customers, and what do they want? How can we make them happy?

Brandy Holder [00:20:21]:
Where do you see this going in the next year or 2 years? Or where where do you want the veer and feed program to go?

Chef Janny Kim [00:20:30]:
It's very important for us to forecast what should be happening for the, next coming months. In order for us to do that, we need to really focus on the present. And that is the biggest priority for me each and every day. If we continue to, focus on the future, the the present will slip away, and it'll be the cycle. So to answer your question, we really, really try to focus on the present. And in the future, we would love for us to be at a place where we can offer our variations and, inventory of wine, since Justin has this vast collection. And for us to pretty much be the glue to the industry standard of beer and food is this new thing. But we want to introduce and make it a normalized Entity where we're a while to Create something new and different, something comfortable, but more importantly, somewhere where staff is just really excited to be there.

Chef Janny Kim [00:21:33]:
That's the most important thing because at the end of the day, if the staff is knowledgeable, they are the ambassadors to the customers. We are not out there talking to the customers. Rob, maybe sometimes that, you know, but at the end of the day, our staff is the ones that are putting in the work, that are talking to the customers that here late at night, closing, cleaning, putting in the work, and they make our job extremely easy.

Jacob Berg [00:21:57]:
So chef Janny, Rob, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time.

Chef Janny Kim [00:22:02]:
Thank you for having us.

Rob Fink [00:22:03]:
Thank you.

Jacob Berg [00:22:04]:
Thank you so much to all the Jailbreak staff, to chef Janny, to head brewer Rob Fink, to the owner Justin, much appreciated. Also, shout out to Matt Heffernan, who just happened to be there with his kids during a little league game. That was super cool. You may know Matt Heffernan, ex Smoke and Barrel, 3 stars, Narragansett. Very, very, very cool stuff. Alright, folks. Take us out.

Brandy Holder [00:22:31]:
I had a brilliant time at Jailbreak. And to the point where when I visited initially, I was live texting you guys saying, oh my god. Oh my god. This food is orgasmic. And I'm so glad that we were able to get out there because, you know, it had been a while, I think, for a lot of us to be able to Jailbreak. And we had just a a fantastic time, and thank you to chef Janny and and to Rob for being so kind and coming in on a on a Sunday and hosting us. So cheers. Definitely go check out Jailbreak and obviously your local breweries.

Michael Stein [00:23:09]:
Yeah. If you are not able to get to Jailbreak, go see who's been making beer better in your immediate area for a while. We love Justin and chef Janny. What I will say about mister Rob Fink is that he has, for many years, been striving to make the beer in DC and now in Maryland better. And he's worked very hard at it, and it's an endless pursuit. And so I am endlessly inspired by Rob Fink. He never rests, he never takes, that's good enough as an answer,

Jacob Berg [00:23:44]:
he just keeps progressing.

Michael Stein [00:23:44]:
And so in that spirit, we wanna grow, grow, grow, we wanna get better ourselves, we wanna see you do better, if you feel you're ready to make that next step, we're here for you. That being said, come join us on patreon. That's patreon.com/dcbeer. We'd love to have you support like some of our brilliant friends, Julie Verratti, Alyssa of Lyon Hall, shout out to Chuck, shout out to Mike, you know who you are. We appreciate you all so much and to our new followers, thank you for joining us. Come support. We love doing what we do. We'd love to have you join us at a DC Beer Share.

Michael Stein [00:24:29]:
We look forward to continuing the conversation offline, IRL. We can't wait to see you at the next Women's Brew Culture Club or the next DC Beer Share.

Jacob Berg [00:24:40]:
Which, by the way, save the date, is at city state on Sunday, September 8th. That is the weekend after Labor Day. Also save the date for the 1st weekend in October, the week before Snallygaster. We might be doing a little Oktoberfesting with our good friends over at Metro Bar. Alright, folks. We're at DC beer on the socials, dcbeer.com. Check out the events. Check out the beer trails.

Jacob Berg [00:25:08]:
Check out the articles. More coming soon. Alright. Be well, everybody.