The 2024 Beer In Review with Phil Runco

Welcome back to the DC Beer Show! In this episode, our hosts Mike, Brandy, and Jake dive deep into the heart of the DC craft beer scene with an engaging conversation and a touching farewell to a local brewery. The gang kicks things off with their beverages of choice—Brandy's savoring some leftover Prosecco, Michael is classily sipping on Schönramer Hell, and Jacob is enjoying a pre-Prohibition lager from Lost Generation.

The episode takes an emotional turn as the hosts lament the closing of Hellbender Brewing Company, a neighborhood staple that's been a haven for beer lovers for the past decade. Brandy shares her heartfelt sadness, emphasizing the community's loss and the brewery's triumphant journey through various challenges. Michael takes a nostalgic trip, reflecting on how brewery closures impact the local craft beer landscape.

But it's not all gloom and doom! The spotlight turns to Phil Runco, the mastermind behind the highly anticipated "2024 Beer In Review." Phil discusses the meticulous process of collecting insights from local brewers and industry insiders to create a comprehensive snapshot of the year's best beers, trends, and breweries. With 20 contributors from Maryland, Virginia, and DC, this year’s review promises an enthralling read with standout mentions like Blind House Brewing in Roanoke, Virginia.

Jake and Mike quiz Phil on his personal favorites and his editorial adventures, including wrangling up-to-date photos of each participant. Through shared laughs and stories, Phil reveals some intriguing trends like the resurgence of craft lagers and the ever-evolving style of West Coast IPAs. His insights spark a lively discussion on whether the local beer scene is rebounding post-pandemic.

As we sail into the end of 2024, Brandy and Jake look forward to upcoming beer events, including Denizens' holiday karaoke night and a cozy beer share at Right Proper Brookland. Plus, they're organizing a winter clothes drive in collaboration with the H3 Project, reminding us all of the spirit of giving.

This episode celebrates the resilience, passion, and camaraderie that define the DC craft beer community. So cheers to another year of great brews and even better friends. Grab yourself a cold one, settle in, and enjoy this fantastic episode of The DC Beer Show!

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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! Everything you need to know about the people, places, and brews that make the DMV America’s best beer scene, including the best local places for eats, brews, trivia, live music, and more! Learn about the latest trends in craft beer – from the beers, to the breweries, to the business – from the editors of DC Beer.

Jacob Berg [00:00:13]:
Welcome back to DC Beer Show. We are @DCBeer across social media, including on Bluesky, where we're there with Port City and Android Theory, and hopefully you. Brandy, what's in your glass this lovely evening?

Brandy Holder [00:00:25]:
I was just drinking a Dying Moons from Lost Generation. I was at Lost Generation for a private event, a stolen bread, not s t o l e n, but stollen with 2 l's, which is a type of bread that Chris, my very dear friend and owner of Ravenhook, was instructing a class on how to make it. But right now, I am drinking some leftover Prosecco that I opened on Sunday morning that I'm like, I should probably drink it before it gets not fizzy. I'm lame. Anyhoo, mister Stein, what are you drinking?

Michael Stein [00:01:01]:
It's so funny. I thought Prosecco made one classy AF. Didn't know it made you lame today, I learned. I'm having a champagne of beer, Schönramer. Hell, it's back in town. The Schönramer out of Germany. Delicious pale lager. I've got some for you. I've got some for Jacob Scoops Berg. Mister Berg, what are you having?

Jacob Berg [00:01:27]:
You know, if you're drinking German lager, that's Jakob Berg to you. I also have a pale lager, but it comes from down the street. It's Lost Generation's Call The Owl. They're pre-Prohibition lager. Just a lovely lager, a little bit more ish. I do have another one in the fridge. I might open that one too. It's just a a nice way to go out for our last podcast of 2024. And what a year it was.

Brandy Holder [00:01:53]:
It was. I love how Call the Owl is really an ode to Jared's great grandfather. Is it great grand grandfather, Jake?

Jacob Berg [00:02:03]:
It is great.

Brandy Holder [00:02:05]:
Great. Who owned a car body shop who that souped up cars to be rum runners and whiskey runners during prohibition. It's a wonderful ode to that since we are in the twenties. So I'm looking forward to having more Lost Generation beer and hopefully not seeing many more breweries closing in in 2025. Here we are. But I had a wonderful year, and I had a wonderful year with you guys. Thank you so much for being my DC Beer fam. I had a lovely time.

Jacob Berg [00:02:43]:
Everybody, make a point of going to go visit Hellbender at some point in the very near future.

Brandy Holder [00:02:50]:
I think I am the most butthurt about all of this news than probably anybody else because it is my neighborhood brewery, and I have been going there since I've lived in this house for 10 years. And they've gone through such turmoil, and they've still come out of the other side. And it really bums me out because I see every single day all the new construction going on over here at Fort Totten. It is blown up. In my opinion, I really just wish that they could wait, like, one more year just to see, because Urban Gardens gonna be opening on South Dakota, literally, 2 minute drive down the street. And the Aldi just opened. There's so many businesses and new residential, buildings being built. There's more people come. There's a huge influx coming in, and I feel like Hellbender just would have benefited from that. But I totally understand the issues, and it my heart breaks. So this one hit close to home, literally.

Michael Stein [00:04:04]:
Yeah. It's it's a hell of a time to be a beer drinker in the US and then more specifically in DC today. And the reason I say that is because we're seeing another brewery go. In January of 2023, I wrote an article for city paper about 3 Stars closing. In a perfect world, every single draft line of 3 Stars Peppercorn Saison would have been taken over by Hellbenders. I think Southern Torrent was the name of the saison. Whatever their saison was. Right? And it doesn't matter if saison, white ale, farmhouse beer, doable. Even the dark Belgian style Franco spicy effervescent beer. But that's not how the world works, and I feel broken and heartachy that this is the case. In the perfect world, my heart would have broken for 3 stars, but then we would have seen Hellbender shore up business by working with a distro to get all those lines.

Jacob Berg [00:05:08]:
I wanna give credit to Ben Evans and LT Goodluck, the taproom staff, and the community, because and this is the nicest way possible. My goodness was Ben Evans stubborn. He could have thrown in the towel long before they reached their 11th anniversary. Just this last year, there was a boiler issue. The local community showed them love. Where we showed up, they donated their beer. DC Brau either donated or at low cost tank space for them to brew more Ignite IPA. But before that, there was a patio issue. There was a licensing issue when one of the previous non Ben Evans cofounders split. I just it's been a lot. Hellbender was one of the first breweries on the East Coast to use a Belgian mash filter that you see over there, much more efficient in terms of extracting fermentable materials. That was always part of their ethos. They're working with Casey Trees around the brewery. They're metro accessible. Obviously, the Hellbender is DC's it's not a state, but it's our state amphibian. Yeah. It sucks. What are you gonna say?

Brandy Holder [00:06:29]:
Well, I know all my neighborhood folks. I'll still see you somewhere around the neighborhood, but it won't be at our watering hole. We'll figure it out.

Jacob Berg [00:06:37]:
And shout out to our producer, Richard Fawal, who's Brew Daddies podcast that turned into the DC Beer Show. Their very first episode was recorded at Hellbender with Ben, and that was in 2017. Alright, Brandy. What are you looking forward to over the next week or so?

Brandy Holder [00:06:57]:
Actually, this current week is my busy beer week for a seemingly the month because it's the women's brew culture club that will have happened yesterday, going to Denizen's holiday karaoke night.

Jacob Berg [00:07:09]:
Just like 3 or 4 hours after this podcast drops, we've got our final beer share of 2024, a Friday night beer share at Right Proper Brookland, which is great because it means I can walk to LT. And also because Right Proper is dope.

Brandy Holder [00:07:25]:
And we are going to be doing a fundraiser, which the with the h three project, and they are gonna be dropping off a donation bin for winter clothes and such items for the displaced and, victims of domestic violence. All of our friends and beer fam, when you come to the beer share tonight at Right Proper at Brookland, don't go to Shaw, then please bring some winter clothes to donate. That would be awesome.

Jacob Berg [00:07:55]:
But if you can't make it to Right Proper Brookland, go to Right Proper Shaw anyway. You'll have a good time. They have a collaboration beer on, although, fingers crossed, they have that on at Brookland as well.

Michael Stein [00:08:06]:
Just for clarity's sake, if you're listening today, Friday, December 20th, we are at 920 Gerard Street Northeast. That's right. In the Brookland neighborhood, come on down to Wright proper Brookland. If you are listening on multiple streaming platforms, we so appreciate you. Check us out on Patreon. A little bit later, we do talk about Julie Verratti in our interview with Phil Runco. And just to remind y'all, Julie is a Patreon supporter. Come support us DC Beer on patreon. Patreon.com/dcbeer, and you can support us the way that we support the beer culture in our brewing city. So check us out on dcbeer.com. Follow us on socials. You'll get a good idea of which events are coming this week. And, of course, we have to be grateful for Brandy for keeping us in the know. Thank you, Brandy, for letting all of us know.

Brandy Holder [00:09:06]:
I know that our dear friend, Phil Runco, does a yearly beer and review, which is extremely popular, one of our highest rated articles and, podcasts of the year, and we're very thankful for that. We love you, Phil. Thank you. But I thought I've always wanted to do kind of our own one, but I don't wanna take away from Phil's thunder. So I wanted to ask my fellow DC beer fam, you know, what really, what their highlights were of 2024. And we sent it out in the newsletter, and I've randomly been posting it on the Instagrams. So if you're interested or even care about what we care about, come on over and read about it. But I actually wanna say with sincerely, thank you to all of those social media folks, at the breweries who tag DC Beer because that really helps me and allows me to share any and all beer related events on our social media. So tag DC Beer if you have an event going on. Submit them to our website. It is our gift to you. It's the gift that keeps on giving, guys. Do yourself and us a favor and always tag us. Jake?

Jacob Berg [00:10:20]:
If you don't do it right now, make it your New Year's resolution to do so in in 2025, which will be here in just about a week. But before we get into 2025, let's get a take a look back at the year that was with, as mentioned, Phil. Welcome. We're here with Phil Runco. Phil, what's in your glass tonight?

Phil Runco [00:10:44]:
I have a, West Coast Pilsner, which is a bit timely as it was one of the the bells of the ball of what we are soon to be discussing. And that particular West Coast Pilsner is from Sapwood Cellars, and it's called, Frivol, if I'm saying it correctly. It's with Citra and Wakatu.

Michael Stein [00:11:04]:
Nice. Phil, we're super excited to have you. We always look forward to beer and review every year. By my math, in 2021, you had 16 breweries and brewers you talked to, 20 in 22, 21 in 2023. Are we expecting bigger and better for the beer in review in 2024?

Phil Runco [00:11:26]:
I took it back down to 20. I like a nice round number. I wish there was a greater logic than that, but I'm more concerned with sort of the makeup of the of the participants. I tried to do 7 from Maryland, 7 from Virginia, and 6 from DC, and that got us to, 20. 21 seemed, even though it's one larger, just a little too many, just mentally.

Jacob Berg [00:11:50]:
So what's this process like for you? Do you start in November? Do you start in October? Are you striving to go and visit all 20 of, these interview subjects in person?

Phil Runco [00:12:04]:
The actual answers are all completed by them online. Right? Compiling it is already a fairly onerous task once you add in the live going to each place to get a a fresh photo. If I had to transcribe all of these interviews, I'd probably lose my mind, probably lose my marriage. I already pushed the the boundaries of it, compiling it as is. But, yeah, this year was probably the earliest that I've had in the back of my mind that I wanted to try to not be put in a position of knocking everything out in 2 weeks, which I think is what I had done, the previous year in terms of the photos. And for and for those who might have have not seen the article before, as soon as I started doing it, maybe the last year, I used to do it on a website called Brightest and Things. Maybe the last year there and every year I've done it for DC Beer, which I think has been the last 4 years. Could be 3 years, but I think it's 4 years. Yeah. I've wanted to get a fresh photo of everyone. I think it just adds sort of a kind of a fun yearbook quality to it. And then beyond that, I also feel like it's kind of my only creative contribution to the article because, you know, I get that I get to pick the the participants. All of the work is done by the people who are filling out these answers. These aren't my these aren't my answers, but they are my pictures.

Michael Stein [00:13:22]:
I have to say they're great scrolling through them, and it's always great to me when I see somebody I see couple times a year, once a quarter, once a month. And I'm like, who is that guy? And it's, oh, it's Jennings or it's Mike Tonsmeier, and they look so svelte and well pictured in their photos. Last year for the 2023 beer and review, you asked Emily Brown best of out of town beers, and she wrote too many forget about it. What forget about it moments have come to light this year that you can share with our listenership that really struck you?

Phil Runco [00:13:58]:
Yeah. It's funny because when you don't know a brewery, it's just some words on a page. You know? The new the ones that are new to me, one of them is in our backyard, and you guys may be well familiar with them, but I had not heard of Blind House Brewing in Roanoke, which, a lot of people mentioned as being, one of the standouts it sounds as if they're a brewery that's doing a lot of mixed fermentation or bread fermentation saisons. They seem to be quite popular. One of the other sort of breweries, Old Hellbender out of Pittsburgh, was one I hadn't heard of that I looked up. In terms of humorous, Emily's sort of writing is always so fun, and she's always such a joy to to I wouldn't say to edit, but to just add some punctuation to because she brings such life and excitement and, like, verve is really the way to put it to her sort of writing and opinions. Sometimes some of the the submissions can be a little more formal be the way to put it. And I wish everyone wrote like Emily did, which is, like, you're excited and you're at a bar and you're telling your friend about something that that you are excited about. Because I always wanna encourage people to write like they speak because that's what people wanna read. They don't wanna read your term paper writing.

Jacob Berg [00:15:18]:
Right. And so I think one of the other guests who I like who also has a voice, and this goes again to the sort of the out of town beer scene, is Giulia Verratti from Denizens because she never drinks anything from out of town ever. You'll never see her at Churchkey or the Sovereign or like a beer bar. She's at some neighborhood place and she's either drinking Denizens or Port City or Atlas. And really that's that. And you ask her like, what are your favorite out of town beers? She's just, I don't do that. There's enough good beer here. I support the locals. And that's that. Some people will write very floridly Phil words about favorite out of town beers, and Julie's got one sentence, and that's it.

Phil Runco [00:15:59]:
Yeah. If there was, like, a local beer mob, then Julie's in it. Right? And then she's taken the Omerta, and she is not going to drink outsider's beer, and I I respect that.

Jacob Berg [00:16:13]:
You facilitate and you compile and you edit. Let's put these questions to you. If someone were to say Phil Runco, favorite local beers, favorite out of town beers of 2024, favorite places to drink, what would Phil what would the 21st entry? What would Phil Runco's entry be?

Phil Runco [00:16:33]:
As you 2 know, I spent half the year dealing with some cancer, and I can tell you that during chemo, I did not want to drink. I just didn't want to I didn't have any desire to drink beer, you know, and, yeah, sure. Phil focus on drinking on water. But I always said I'm really looking forward to not only I'm looking forward to drinking beer, I'm looking forward to wanting to drink beer. And by, like, June of this year, once that kinda came back, it was awesome. As I know in the article, I help Ocelot brewing with some of its social media and with some of the collaborations, that they do, particularly the the the music collaborations. And so when I think about sort of, like, beers that I have been a part of that I'm particularly proud of, that's towards the top of that list. Getting to make Verratti and Sheer Mag and Montreal, Bad Moves. Tomorrow, you know, beer with Eleanor Friedburger and the Fiery Furnaces, which has 2024 Anchovy in it, which I'm excited to try. Those are, like, in the category of beers that this is a rare instance where I actually can speak to beers that I tried that I'm proud of. This is from a conceptual standpoint. Obviously, Jack Snyder and his brother, Rich, make the beers at Ocelot. And as much as I can lob any ideas towards them, they are the ones who actually make them delicious. In terms of other beers locally, I moved to Ekington at the beginning of the very beginning of the year, and having lost generation, 4 or 5 blocks down the street. I have long waited to have a great brewery within walking distance, of me, and I assure you that I have not slept on the opportunity. I'm also much closer to Blue Jacket. And anytime that a friend wants to meet for a drink and there's much food involved, that's where you'll find me. I I love their low ABV lagers are really a staple for me, Chimbley Sweep. The German dark lager, I wanna say, is a a beer that I order every single time that I'm in there. It's low fours, I wanna say. Just so much flavor. I think about best local beers, that's sort of top of the the list for me. Yeah. Those would be that's my rambling answer. Out of town beers? I don't know. I don't know if I have I'd I wish I I wish I had thought about that a little more in advance. I tend to drink, a lot of Oxlopat and the Lost Gen and Blue Jacket, and I don't often find myself buying 4 packs of out of town beers.

Jacob Berg [00:19:06]:
See, it's a very Julie Verratti answer.

Phil Runco [00:19:10]:
you know how to keep a nose.

Michael Stein [00:19:11]:
I see the continuance of the Omerta is alive and well. You didn't mention De La Sam, Cantillon, Ridgeway, Coniston, or any of the English, Irish, Scottish, Belgian, French. So respect to the locals. I'm gonna simultaneously bust your chops and say, well done, sir.

Jacob Berg [00:19:32]:
You already mentioned Blind House, who's available in in North Virginia, bottle conditioning, mixed fermentation beers, so they've got some buzz there. I like to use your beer review piece through Trendspot. If a brie, 3 or 4 brewers or 3 or 4 beer buyers, bottle shop owners mention something, then it pops up on my radar. And so, Blind House is one of those this year. They're down in Roanoke. They distribute into DC proper. Maybe we'd see a couple of kegs pop up at the Sovereign. They'll do when you meet the brewer evening at some point in 2025. What are some of the other sort of commonalities and things that you got out of reporting and collecting for the Bureau in Review?

Phil Runco [00:20:16]:
Yeah. It's always fun to see what does repeat. And there definitely were a a number of threads that I found popping up less in the, like, recommendations of breweries, but there definitely were industry trends that kept repeating. One is the return or golden age of craft lager appreciate appreciation that we are, you know, seem to be living in, although I went back to that 2016 article, and people in 2016 were saying, vloggers here, baby. And so every single year, it seems that people are are saying that. But I think perhaps in 2016, it might have been a little bit of wish casting. And now you have, Crooked Crab saying, you know, we did a full batch of dark lager, and it was one of our bestsellers. A lot of people talking about West Coast Pilsner, as poppy lagers generally. And as I think some people mentioned, a lot of it is just how it's how these beers are positioned, how they're presented to people. And it seems as if West Coast Phil was the thing that got people to, quote, unquote, get LT, whereas, like, IPL as a term, India Phil lager might have been a little bit clunky. You had people advocating for low ABV beer, which I was put in that sort of area type brewer category along with lager love. And I think one thing interesting there is Rich Snyder of Ocelot sort of mentioning that West Coast IPAs are back, but they're not necessarily back as they were. They're back taking some of the lessons of hazy IPA and and incorporating them into how you approach a a West Coast IPA, which honestly for me fits with my own sort of consumption preferences. But one other sort of common topic, and I'd be curious to hear what you guys think about this, is there seem to be sort of a debate, a conversation about people returning to bars. Some people seem to say, you know, it's happening and it's great. And some people seem to be fretting about it and saying it's not happening. I had invited Steve Jones, legendary brewer, now brewing at the Brewers Arc, and, she he had a Verratti dark comment about how he saw the state of the industry and people not drinking beer. At the same time, you had other people. Emily seemed pretty upbeat about it. Emily Brown again. You know, you guys are are immersed in the scene, and I'm sure you hear a lot from some sort of people about how they Phil about the state of the industry and take

Jacob Berg [00:22:54]:
Yeah. I mean, my understanding of this is that draft sales, in DC kind of cratered during the pandemic, and they're they've been very slow to pick up. Seeing more cans, but the margin's better on draft, both for breweries and for bars and restaurants as well. I've seen breweries, bars and restaurants absolutely slammed on a Wednesday and I've seen them deserted on Thursday Friday. I can't really make heads and tails of it nor do I wanna bring gloom and doom. Having edited this piece and in the process of posting it, I have seen Steve Jones comment. And his pessimism is, I think, probably more well earned than any optimism that I've seen.

Michael Stein [00:23:46]:
Yeah. I would echo that and say it's a wild world in which we live where I had a sacred and profane dry hop pale lager today at LT, you know, at the roost. And then they had Knobloch and Eichorn, all these German lagers on that they'd never had before. So we're getting a ton of very interesting beer on draft. I don't know if we hadn't had you know, for example, the mayor of DC shut down drafts, arguably responsible thing during pandemic times in 2020, if we'd be seeing beer from Franconia or Maine at a tank pub that in theory only serves tank draft beer in Maine. So I think both things can be true where we're excited to see people back on premise. And then a brewer who has been brewing in Baltimore for, I don't know, a couple decades. Maybe it's more well earned than any other brewer. But, Phil, we're so grateful for you, and we're we're very eager to rip into, beer and review. As we say this now, of course, this will be out today, and we're so grateful for you.

Jacob Berg [00:24:50]:
Phil, thank you so much for joining us.

Phil Runco [00:24:52]:
Thank you.

Jacob Berg [00:24:53]:
Thank you, everybody. Have a happy, healthy, safe holiday season and New Year's and such. You can celebrate at any number of breweries or neighborhood restaurant group spots, or you can do what Brandy and I do and sit at home and drink a very effervescent beer if we make it to midnight.

Michael Stein [00:25:12]:
Thank you so much DC Beer listenership. We'll see you and you will hear us on Friday, January 10th 2025.