The DC Beer Show

Pop open a brew and settle in with The DC Beer Show! 

Special guests Julie Verratti and Jeff Ramirez from Denizens Brewing Co. join in to chat about their love for beer diversity and the return of the Winter Cask Classic.

After a hiatus, Brandy returns, sipping and sharing her latest beer indulgences. Michael and Jacob aren't far behind, extolling the virtues of the DC Beer / Strange Fruit collab  People's Pale Ale and debating an unconventional sour IPA.

Hold onto your hats because Denizens Winter Cask Classic is rolling in with 15 unique cask ales from 11 breweries and a mead maker, promising an unmissable explosion of flavors. The conversation bubbles over with excitement for the cask ale fanfare and a reminder from our hosts: even if you think cask isn't your glass of ale, give it a chance—you might just fall in love.

The podcast feature rounds out with insider scoops on industry moves like Dave Dellaplane's switch to Blue Jacket and Jim Bachman's leap to Elder Pine Brewing.

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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 [00:00:06]:
Welcome to DC Beer Show. We are at DC Veer across social media. Brandy, what's in your glass?

Brandy Holder [00:00:12]:
Hey, Jake. It's good to be back. Let me tell you. I I feel like I've been stuck in my house for a month probably because I had. I've been super sick. So thanks for holding down the podcast for me. I at stopped by Downtown Crown today. I'd actually never been in there, so I was so excited.

Brandy Holder [00:00:31]:
I wanted to go stock up on some brown beer because at There was literally no brown beer at my house, which is a travesty. I don't know how that happened, but we snagged, I'm probably gonna butcher this, but it's miss Mephistopheles Mephistopheles from Commonwealth Brewing. It's a Bock Logger. It clocks in at 7% on the dot. This is so good. Shout out to Commonwealth. I love that. Mister Stein is here.

Brandy Holder [00:00:59]:
At How you doing? I miss you. What you drinking?

Michael Stein [00:01:03]:
I'm doing well. I decided to have a Denison's Brewing Company third party triple at Given the appropriate nature of our guests this evening.

Jacob Berg [00:01:14]:
Right. Denizen's gonna be on the show in a little bit. At I have here, courtesy of Brandy and Matt, a very weird one. It is amulet. It is a sour IPA at with blueberry and hibiscus. Here's the color of it. For those of you listening at home, I would describe it as somewhere in between magenta and red. It's pretty, pretty weird.

Jacob Berg [00:01:45]:
At would not identify as an IPA to me as opposed to just like a kettle sour. But, hey, it's an IPA. It's got lactose in it. At weird, weird stuff. I'm going to drink it. I don't really know why. Much in the same way, like, you eat a pack of sour Skittles, and it kind of tastes like burning on top of your mouth, but you still eat them. I'm probably gonna stick with this beer, at But it's really, really weird, and it's been a couple years since I had a Hudson Valley Sour IPA.

Jacob Berg [00:02:16]:
That's what they're doing for.

Michael Stein [00:02:17]:
Color, Jake. You've at Got a gorgeous color going for you, and I really think as an as an empiricist, a fellow empiricist, EMP. You should withhold judgment until you try and work your way through it.

Jacob Berg [00:02:31]:
Alright. Before we get to Denizens and their winter Ask Classic, The Return, the first since pre pandemic. We've got an event coming up for you, actually, 2 of them this weekend. Mike Stein, we all brewed a beer at dynasty with Strange Fruit. You wanna give us your tasting notes on the People's pale ale?

Michael Stein [00:02:56]:
The People's pale ale, which is at Certainly pale and certainly hazy. Outside of the mild haze you'll see in your glass and the pale color, at You'll get a lovely array of what I would call citrus fruit and Welch's white grape. At if you've ever had that juice, but it's got that nose to it. Not quite minty, not quite lemongrass, but a little at herbal to round out those otherwise sort of tropical fruit flavors. Like, you know, when you bite into a kiwi? If you've ever had a kiwi, try to stretch your mind all the way back to when you were maybe 10, 8, 5, 6, 4 years old, and you're like, oh, I'm gonna rip this thing like it's an apple. At And you expect sweetness and you get tartness. That's kinda how these hops are. They smell sweet in the nose, but then there's a little bitterness, a little at herbal, lemongrass y herbal kind of, yeah, Welch's white grape at in my palate that I get.

Michael Stein [00:03:59]:
It's got some nice character body from the oats. It's just a well rounded pale ale, and I usually don't drink at pale ales, and, obviously, I'm biased because Fabio texted me after the What's in Stein stein with the strange fruit Pilsner. At but we've set about now making this beer, and I have to credit Brandy for, getting my ass in gear. At Because we've been talking about doing a DC beer collab, and this was not a collab with 1, but a tripartite. Three parties in this collab. So at So I am just thrilled with how people's pale turned out. Brandy, will you corroborate, or, would you disagree with my assessment? At

Brandy Holder [00:04:42]:
You know, Mike, I've never been a grape fan. I don't like grape flavored things. I've never at Enjoyed grape fruit grape juice. Like, I so it's hard for me to picture an enjoyable at flavor that was grape no matter if it was white or whatever.

Michael Stein [00:04:59]:
Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:05:00]:
So for me, personally, I I can't do that, at That comparison. But for me, when I cracked the the pail people's pail open, the aroma, I do agree that it smells Sweet. It's it's a very inviting it tastes like a like a super juicy, at Like, hazy IPA, but for my taste buds, it it just comes across as, like, crisp with just a little bit of It it it is a little bit bitter, so I I understand what you're saying, but, I don't know if I could compare it to grape juice. But, Yes. I completely agree. I think it's so, so fantastic. I'm so excited about this collab beer, And every everything's just kind of gone pretty well with it, and, I'm glad that we're kicking the year off with the CALAP beer. And then on Sunday, at as Jake previously mentioned, we have a double it's a double feature weekend for DC Beer.

Brandy Holder [00:06:01]:
It's our monthly beer share So thank you so much, Sovereign, for hosting us. We're so excited. But, yeah, I definitely want everyone to come out to at To Dynasty this weekend on Saturday.

Jacob Berg [00:06:13]:
So it's I

Brandy Holder [00:06:13]:
know Jake's Jake will be there.

Jacob Berg [00:06:15]:
Yeah. It's 2 PM. 2, on Saturday and it's 2 pm on Sunday at the Sovereign. If you're a a Patreon member, dcbeer.com/patreon, and that also gets you in to Dynasty earlier at noon on Saturday, so join us.

Brandy Holder [00:06:39]:
I would wanna get there early for sure. If if this were me at And if I had wasn't, you know, associated with DC Beer personally in the way that I am, I would 100 at percent sign up for, like, a $5 membership just to get to this one of it early and then go to the beer share the next day, at For sure.

Jacob Berg [00:06:58]:
Alright. So we've done events for Saturday and Sunday. The week after February 3rd is gonna be a little bit action packed too. And we've got the chief brand officer, Giulia Verratti, and the chief beer officer head brewer, at Jeff Ramirez from Denizen's, and we're here to talk the winter cask classic, the triumphant return of the winter Ask Classic. Julie, Jeff, welcome back to the show.

Jeff Ramirez [00:07:24]:
Thanks, Jake.

Brandy Holder [00:07:26]:
Thanks for having us. 1st question is, can you say that 5 times at

Michael Stein [00:07:32]:
fast. With the cask

Jeff Ramirez [00:07:33]:
classic? Classic.

Julie Verratti [00:07:36]:
Yeah. Probably not.

Brandy Holder [00:07:37]:
Not after some cask beers.

Julie Verratti [00:07:40]:
Yeah. Right?

Michael Stein [00:07:40]:
At So as an introductory, can you tell our listeners what is the winner, Cask classic? At

Jeff Ramirez [00:07:49]:
You want me to take that? You want me to go, Julie?

Julie Verratti [00:07:51]:
You it's all you, Jeff. This was your this is sort of your baby that you kinda came up with

Jeff Ramirez [00:07:55]:
at many years ago. Well, you know, at our original location, in Silver Spring, we always had 2, at Different cast beers pouring over time through our Ingram system, and a lot of our customers enjoyed it. But I feel like a lot of customers didn't know what it was, So we wanna kinda showcase the style of serving beer in cask, which is different temperature, you know, different at Carbonation level and a more traditional pour, so that's kinda why we did it, and we wanted to showcase our local friends, at And there's some that have been doing it since the beginning. And we also showcase mead this year, so that's also fun.

Michael Stein [00:08:37]:
That is exciting to have.

Brandy Holder [00:08:38]:
Say mead or mead? Mead.

Jeff Ramirez [00:08:40]:
At Mead. Honey, honey, what?

Brandy Holder [00:08:42]:
I was like, because both sound very appealing to me.

Jeff Ramirez [00:08:46]:
They are hot dogs as well.

Michael Stein [00:08:48]:
What can winner cast at classic ticket buyers expect at this year's winner, Cask classic.

Julie Verratti [00:08:57]:
Fun. That That's numero uno. Lots of delicious beer. We were going through I realized I've been putting out social media posts on all the different cask beers and mead that we're gonna be featuring, and I realized I had not at done any of that for the beers Denizens is pouring, so I'll let Jeff talk about those. But, we have there's gonna be 12 different breweries. At Well, 11 breweries and 1 meadmaker at Maryland Mead Works will be there, and there's gonna be 15 different cask beers for people to drink. And so from 1 PM until 5 PM, you'll have unlimited cask beer that you can drink. 5 ounces at a time.

Jeff Ramirez [00:09:38]:
To add to that, this year, there's only 1 duplicate style where literally everything that is being poured is a unique style compared to the rest, And 2 porters is not a bad thing. So I think it's Especially yeah.

Julie Verratti [00:09:52]:
Especially when those porters are coming from, at city and DC brow, so this should be pretty interesting.

Michael Stein [00:10:00]:
Yeah. Well, that's a a World Beer Cup gold medal winning porter from DC Brau and a multiple World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival, at Etcetera, etcetera from Port City Brewing. So the cask lineup, as I see it, is, of course, denizens. You also have Atlas. Brewers are Checkerspot, Manor Hill, Maryland Meadworks, Oliver Brewing, Pubdog, Port City Franklin Street at Car 80 2 and DC Brow. Some of these breweries aren't normally available in DC. I know I usually have to get into Baltimore to get my hands on brewers' art, the same with Pub Dog. Tell us about some of these breweries.

Michael Stein [00:10:43]:
Are you particularly excited for anyone? Obviously, at Marilyn MeadWorks is like, and now for something completely different. But tell us a little bit about some of these exciting options that that, asked classic goers will get to try.

Jeff Ramirez [00:11:00]:
I mean, I think these a lot of these breweries have participated since the beginning, Whether it be, you know, myself or Julie, or Emily has mentioned it to, either brewery staff or owners, and they get excited about it. And they've kept coming back, so we wanna make sure that we invite the original crew and then anybody else that wanted to participate that at been there before, but, you know, we appreciate it because they're, you know, providing beer for us to pour to at Our customers, but probably some of their customers as well. I guess what the question was, what will we expect, or what's at the what's

Michael Stein [00:11:39]:
the replay? Exciting? What what what turns you on and sets you free?

Jeff Ramirez [00:11:42]:
Oh, I mean, you get to drink beer with people that are excited about it. So I mean, that's always fun. And brewers, customers, DC beer crew, at the Women's Culture Beer Club, I believe, is coming as well.

Brandy Holder [00:11:57]:
Plus. Yeah. Women's culture club. You almost nailed it, Jack. At

Jeff Ramirez [00:12:02]:
It's the microphone. Remember?

Michael Stein [00:12:03]:
Oh, yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:12:04]:
Oh, yeah. It's totally the oh, Richard keeps getting mad at me. At Now I look like a like a giant. I have a I have a question.

Julie Verratti [00:12:14]:
Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:12:14]:
Now that you are Solely Denizens is solely in Riverdale. How is this event going to be different at

Michael Stein [00:12:25]:
this year because this is the 1st

Brandy Holder [00:12:25]:
time that this event is going to be at Riverdale, as opposed to your original location, which is now, not Tennyson's. At How do you think it's be different? Like, this mace, the layout, and everything.

Julie Verratti [00:12:37]:
I think I mean, we'll find out. I mean, the one of the benefits of the building in Silver Spring, there were lots of other things about that building, but we don't need to talk about that tonight. But, one of the benefits is that you had these separate spaces. And so when we've done this event at Before other events like it, we could sort of be like, okay. The lower tap room is gonna have this thing and and or the beer garden will have this thing and everything else is open. At but in Riverdale, if you've not been to the spot, it's just 1 big open floor. But there are some sections, like, there's sides of the taproom that we can kinda close off to it. At The really, the difference is everyone's gonna be in there, and we the taproom will be open as well.

Julie Verratti [00:13:16]:
You know, we like to one of the things that we try to do when we do events like this is, I mean, obviously, we wanna sell tickets, and we wanna bring people in the door. And we want it to be, you know you don't necessarily wanna lose money when you throw an event like this. But at the same time, we try to limit ticket sales at some level because we want the people who are at the event to have a good experience, so you're not at Constantly waiting in line. You know, things just get out of control and whatnot. And so there there will probably be other people in the taproom that are not participating in it, but I actually think they're gonna see so much fun happening on the one side that they might try to join. So that's one difference.

Brandy Holder [00:13:56]:
The goal.

Julie Verratti [00:13:57]:
At Yeah. I mean, that I guess that's the biggest difference. I do also wanna answer that other question about what I'm excited about. One of the things that I at When I was looking at the list of the different types of cask beer, and you guys should follow us at at Denizens Brewing, at on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter if you wanna learn more about these details. But the range of styles, has anything at From 3.4% ABV all the way up to 16%. So there's really and everything in between. So there's just kinda this really Cool variety of beers that are and be that are being poured, and it's all different flavors, different at levels. It's I think there's just gonna be something for everyone, and I'm I'm pretty excited about that.

Jeff Ramirez [00:14:42]:
And, honestly, with the with the setup, It was fun in the lower taproom. I really enjoyed it. That was part of kinda what created the event was the setup down there, but I at I think the location we're gonna pour in Riverdale is gonna make it a lot easier. So for customers to literally get what they want, also just enjoy the space. I think it's gonna I think it's gonna have a nice flow. I mean, we'll see, but I think it's gonna be fun. I'm excited to see events at Coming to our Riverdale location. What's that?

Brandy Holder [00:15:14]:
Do you think it'll overflow into the brewhouse?

Jeff Ramirez [00:15:17]:
Well, in the brewery is probably where we're gonna at the hockey shootout. So

Brandy Holder [00:15:22]:
Oh, that's right. Okay. Yep. To talk about that. Totally forgot about it.

Michael Stein [00:15:26]:
Well, I at Yes. I'm curious if there are any ringers. I know that Julie is known to just pop up on the golf course. At She's the lone wolf, you know, like, oh, hey. Playing through, can I do from 9, back 9, hole 18? There's a lot of NHL stars that are known for their at their golf prowess. So I'm wondering, Julie, if your golf prowess translates into hockey skills. Have you got a wicked wrister at or a wicked slapshot.

Julie Verratti [00:15:55]:
I mean, I I have not played with a hockey stick in a long time. I did street hockey a lot as a kid, the, you know, the neighborhood or whatnot. At But no. I I wouldn't call myself a, like, a hockey star at by any stretch, but I know Jeff was mentioning. There's some brewers that are really into hockey. At

Jeff Ramirez [00:16:12]:
Millhouse was 1, from

Julie Verratti [00:16:14]:
Millhouse for Manor Hill, apparently.

Jeff Ramirez [00:16:16]:
Be on the lookout for that guy. Ring stuck on his hand when he was a goalie one time. At I don't know. Someone skated over his hand. Okay. Woah.

Julie Verratti [00:16:24]:
That's enough.

Michael Stein [00:16:26]:
As long as long as it wasn't a Stanley Cup ring, I at I feel pretty good about our,

Julie Verratti [00:16:33]:
Yeah. No. The shootout should be fun, though. That's just, you know, messing around, having a good time. Jeff still has on his list to do of, building sort of, like, the target, like, how what we're gonna be aiming at.

Jeff Ramirez [00:16:46]:
Anything I did today? At Is

Jacob Berg [00:16:47]:
that what

Julie Verratti [00:16:47]:
you did today? Great. Yeah. I, checking off the list. Yeah. So, I mean, we're you know, I think This is the 1st time we've thrown an event like this since COVID. And in fact, this was the last event we threw before COVID. It hap the last time we did it was at In February of 2020, and we haven't had it since. So I'm I'm excited to bring it back this year.

Julie Verratti [00:17:09]:
I think it should be fun. And I've been I've been eyes at the number of people out there who are really into cask beer. We've had a lot of really positive response to it. Already sold more tickets than I was expecting at this point, which is pretty cool. Mhmm. But, obviously, we still wanna sell more tickets. So if you haven't bought yours, please please grab yours today. Yeah.

Julie Verratti [00:17:28]:
Come join us. It should be a good time. And there's gonna be if you don't like cast beer, I mean, I think you'll enjoy it anyway, but you'll, there's gonna be other things available to purchase. We have other beers on tap that are, at You know, like, drink drink like the American way. Yeah. Carbonation, with c o two. But, also hot dogs. We have lots of food to eat, at to order off the menu, and then we'll have we have nonalcoholic options on our menu as well.

Julie Verratti [00:17:55]:
So Danley. Yeah.

Michael Stein [00:17:57]:
I'll just say, at If you think you don't like cask, question yourself and try. And and here's and here's and here's why. At Here's why I'll say this. I was at The Brew Shop, wonderful, woman owned, small, independent business.

Julie Verratti [00:18:14]:
Yeah. Those guys are awesome.

Michael Stein [00:18:16]:
At Julie and Beth were there. We're we're talking about you, Julie. So if your ears were burning around 3 PM today, you know why. So I was looking for a Denizen's beer, at And I said, you have Cool Breeze opening up style, my favorite Denizen's beer. Of course, there's many other favorites that, you know, have gone the way of of brown ales and amber log, at lagers, all those beers that, you know, aren't the, go gangbusters. But I'm trying third party triple, which in an election year feels very appropriate. At And I remember third party triple being too strong for me back in the day, and I was like, well, let me just go in on it. It's 9.1%.

Michael Stein [00:18:51]:
And Beth actually reminded me. She was like, as far as local triples go, it's kinda sort of the o I was like, it's one of 1 at Because your triple is so it's it's always there, but it's always in good condition.

Michael Stein [00:19:07]:
At

Michael Stein [00:19:07]:
And it's just not the case when some local brewers are doing, like, one offs or seasonals, and you never know. Like,

Jacob Berg [00:19:12]:
is

Michael Stein [00:19:13]:
this from last at spring. Are we early for the spring 24 seasonal? Mhmm. And so I just challenge you. If you think you don't like something, at Really try it. Right? We're we're trying not to yuck anybody's yum

Jacob Berg [00:19:24]:
Mhmm.

Michael Stein [00:19:25]:
And to broaden our minds and be critical thinkers and and critical drinkers. Brandy, did you wanna add to that?

Brandy Holder [00:19:32]:
I was I was literally gonna say the same thing, and because this is this is something that I really push, at Especially with the women's brew culture club because we've had some women, and nonbinary folks who have come to at To, like, gatherings. Denizens is ex the perfect example, actually, because at least 2 folks at Came to the win the women's brew culture club that we had, at Denison's with Julie. Thank you again, Julie, for hosting us. Yeah. Google, They they they don't like beer. They're like, I don't really like beer. I don't really like beer. Like but by the time they left that day, They because they tried.

Michael Stein [00:20:16]:
Mhmm. All of

Brandy Holder [00:20:17]:
them. And by the time they left, they're like, oh, this one was good. At Oh, I like that one. They left they left liking at least 2 beers when before they walked in, they didn't like any.

Julie Verratti [00:20:27]:
That's great.

Brandy Holder [00:20:28]:
And it's about out trying, and especially, like, a lot of people get turned off by the the temperature that cask ales are served at, but that's kind of the whole thing. You get more flavor a lot of times when when you do that. And if you have how many cask ales are 11? How many are there, guys?

Michael Stein [00:20:45]:
15. At

Brandy Holder [00:20:46]:
15. If you if you don't if you miss this opportunity to at least try to see, oh, well, maybe I do like cascades, then that that's you being dumb. So, like, at Don't be dumb.

Julie Verratti [00:20:58]:
You heard it here first? Thanks.

Brandy Holder [00:21:00]:
That's right. Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:21:02]:
Take it

Michael Stein [00:21:02]:
take it.

Jacob Berg [00:21:03]:
We're both fans of insulting our our discussion. I like it. But, yeah, it's

Michael Stein [00:21:07]:
a 20 piece. Yuck your Yum, but we will call you Yum.

Julie Verratti [00:21:10]:
Don't be a dummy, guys. Come on. At I have to say, it's a testament to Jeff and his team and their talents putting stuff together. I mean, our one of our, ethos as a company is that, you know, we always like to say, we have a beer for every pallet, and everyone has a seat at our table. And I I don't I never expect you know, we have 20 taps in the tap room. I never expect asked somebody to walk in, even someone who just absolutely loves beer to walk in and try all 20 and be like, every single one of those beers is a banger for me. At No notes. Right? Like, not not everyone is gonna like every single beer you make, but I do we do guarantee that if you walk in and you try at The beer.

Julie Verratti [00:21:49]:
You're gonna find a couple that you will really, really enjoy. And to us, that is a huge success. That's why we make the wide variety that we do, at And that's the experience you're trying to

Jacob Berg [00:21:59]:
go for with people. No. It's really well said. It's it's 2024. I'm drinking a sour IPA, a like a wise man once said in Rocky 4, if I can change, you can change. Right? We can we can change.

Brandy Holder [00:22:14]:
So outside of your comfort zone.

Jeff Ramirez [00:22:16]:
Yeah. A little bit.

Jacob Berg [00:22:17]:
Even if what you're drinking might taste a little bit like stomach acid and burning the roof of your mouth. It's, you know, life's risk pat life's rich pageants

Michael Stein [00:22:25]:
Dennis.

Jacob Berg [00:22:26]:
One more experience out there. So, Jeff and Julie, at Dennis and Silver Spring, you all had a beer engine where you could hand pull Ask Ailes. I assume that the far majority, if not the entirety of these over in Riviera Park are gonna be dispensed via Isaac Newton's favorite gravity. At correct?

Jeff Ramirez [00:22:46]:
Mhmm. Correct.

Julie Verratti [00:22:47]:
Yes.

Jacob Berg [00:22:48]:
And so earlier, you mentioned people you know, there's there's interest, at but also kind of like discomfort around cask ale in United States sometimes. So how do you all feel about the additions of, like, adjuncts at perhaps more hops, ancho peppers in cask ale.

Jeff Ramirez [00:23:09]:
At Honestly, if it tastes good, why not? But I'll tell you this. There's a lot less of that this year and more just styles that are unique. At If anything, Denizen is heavy on adding something to the cast. Yes.

Julie Verratti [00:23:22]:
True. You're the one who put all the weird stuff in there, man.

Jeff Ramirez [00:23:25]:
It's not even weird. It just it was just laying around. Yeah. But

Jacob Berg [00:23:30]:
at No.

Jeff Ramirez [00:23:30]:
Honestly, it's, I was very surprised and very happy that Yeah. People put things like a dark mild, at Bohemian Lager. Yep.

Julie Verratti [00:23:39]:
That was Atlas and Franklin's. Those 2.

Jeff Ramirez [00:23:41]:
Yeah. Yeah. There's, like, there's all these it's literally at the range from, like, a 3 a half percent alcohol dark beer to you're saying 16%. Was that the meat? Or is that Oh, that's definitely the meat. Yeah. Yeah. At There's a lot of different stuff. And one of my favorite ones that we had years ago, which we actually have on draft now from Oliver's, is the cider.

Jeff Ramirez [00:24:02]:
At They put their cider on cast, and it tasted great. Yeah. I don't know. Everybody's gonna find their single one that they want that they really like, and they're gonna go right Actuit, and that's fine. We need to kick most of the cast. So Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:24:18]:
Is

Brandy Holder [00:24:18]:
Catalyst doing special themed hot dogs? I know That he is

Jacob Berg [00:24:23]:
the

Brandy Holder [00:24:23]:
hot dog, extraordinaire. He makes some fantastic hot dogs, at I'm so excited. I will definitely be there, and I will probably eat at least 2 hot dogs. But are there are there, like, special hot dogs for the day? I know this is beer related, at It's hot dogs.

Julie Verratti [00:24:40]:
No. No. He has but you know what? If I I guarantee you the trip says, hey, Chris. You have something up for us. He would absolutely do that. If you guys have not been out to Denizens in Riverdale Park since we started partnering with Catalyst Hot Dogs, we started we actually, Started working with Chris in January of 2023, and we actually just we we doubled up on the, agreement with each other. So he's gonna be around for the next year and a half at least, working with us. His food menu is awesome.

Julie Verratti [00:25:11]:
At It's like a New Jersey style comfort food menu, and it is tons of different hot dogs. He's constantly adding new specials, doing crazy stuff with it. He actually just added what he's referred to as a West Virginia dog. I don't know where he gets these ideas from or what they are. I'm not really a hot dog person, but

Jacob Berg [00:25:28]:
Chili and coleslaws. It's it's the way to go. It's all

Julie Verratti [00:25:30]:
That's totally what it

Brandy Holder [00:25:31]:
is. Yeah.

Julie Verratti [00:25:32]:
That's what he's gone on there, man. Quality's done. No. It's great. He's wait. At You're gonna find something you're gonna like there, but I'll I'll talk to Chris. Maybe he'll come up with something special for the maybe we'll do, like, a a lukewarm hot dog or something.

Brandy Holder [00:25:45]:
Doesn't that sound like that?

Jacob Berg [00:25:47]:
This this hotdog vehicle carbonation kidding.

Michael Stein [00:25:49]:
I do think I do think smells.

Brandy Holder [00:25:51]:
They're they're the wings. I I love the wings.

Michael Stein [00:25:53]:
I you could do a lot of year ago, January 2023, when I had my 1st catalyst

Jacob Berg [00:25:59]:
Mhmm.

Michael Stein [00:25:59]:
At Denizen's.

Julie Verratti [00:26:01]:
Nice. You

Michael Stein [00:26:01]:
know, it's coming. I I saw you. I saw Jeff. And being, you know, the a boring, absolute mid grade lover of all things classic. I just had, like, a classic dog. Yeah. With the born bohemian, of course.

Julie Verratti [00:26:15]:
Do my did you do, mustard or ketchup on

Jeff Ramirez [00:26:18]:
that thing? Of

Michael Stein [00:26:18]:
course. Of do you think I put ketchup on my glizzy? Listen.

Brandy Holder [00:26:22]:
At I don't know why.

Michael Stein [00:26:24]:
No. I know. Sometimes I do get down with ketchup, but only when I'm having your pub fair, like, fries or, at Tom. You know, potato based fair club fair. But but the the catalyst glizzy with the born bohemian was, like, at Right before a share, we had a DC Beer share. I wanna say it was January 23.

Brandy Holder [00:26:43]:
I was

Jeff Ramirez [00:26:43]:
just trying

Michael Stein [00:26:44]:
to see you and Jeff, and I was like, you know what? At I've

Jacob Berg [00:26:48]:
only had, like, a hard

Michael Stein [00:26:48]:
boiled egg and a banana today. Like, it's just It's time for a glizzy.

Jacob Berg [00:26:52]:
So I

Michael Stein [00:26:52]:
think it was sauerkraut, maybe sauerkraut, onion, mustard, some variation

Brandy Holder [00:26:55]:
of that with at the Pilsner.

Michael Stein [00:26:57]:
And I was like, is this Pilsner that good? Is this hot dog that good? Or is there, like, a gestalt where

Jeff Ramirez [00:27:03]:
it's I just energy. At Yeah.

Michael Stein [00:27:06]:
It was some of the all parts better than any part. No.

Julie Verratti [00:27:10]:
We're You, you didn't you weren't at when we started our, dogging in the daytime lunch special, which is just super dumb. But it you should look that up, what that means as a slang term in, at The UK. We did not know that when we put this out in the world. Oh. It's pretty funny, but you basically get, born Bohemian Pilsner and a hotdog for, like, a at Pretty cheap price for, for lunch if you come in from 12 to 3.

Michael Stein [00:27:36]:
Classic.

Michael Stein [00:27:37]:
Nice.

Jacob Berg [00:27:37]:
Is this a bad term, Julie? Are we gonna get in trouble?

Julie Verratti [00:27:40]:
Not in the United States.

Jeff Ramirez [00:27:42]:
S I

Julie Verratti [00:27:42]:
apparently, in the UK, it's got a it's it's it's got a term. It's like a it it it means something different that nobody understood.

Michael Stein [00:27:49]:
At We're we're clear. We're in the clear here in the DMV. So outside of the classic, at What are some exciting things coming down the pike at Denizen's, or what are you coming out with? What's rolling down the line at Denizen's that we can expect to see in the market?

Michael Stein [00:28:06]:
At Well market.

Brandy Holder [00:28:08]:
Go for it.

Julie Verratti [00:28:09]:
We, this is not really an announcement, at So to speak. Well, you know, every year in the beginning of the year and sort of the end of the year before, you kinda talk about things that you might wanna add or take away from the lineup. At We've been having some discussions about potentially adding a new seasonal to the lineup in distribution that would eventually become packaged. This is a big maybe. We don't know if this happening, but that is a more recent conversation. We've also talked about, potentially adding more events in 2024 like cast classic. So be on the lookout for potential other festivals that we're gonna be throwing or festival type larger events this year. No.

Julie Verratti [00:28:49]:
No, Jeff, if you had any other

Jeff Ramirez [00:28:52]:
Me? No. I think honestly I I think it's honestly having the one location we're trying to at Bring back events that bring people to the tap room. They're very low, what's the word, impact for people. They don't they don't really think about it, at Come out and have a, you know, unique experience at our taproom that's always our taproom. And then for, you know, the summer, I personally would like to utilize the outdoor space and hold a certain festival that Yeah. Is there to be date and include at All the municipalities, all the communities around it because it's, you know, it's a lot of small towns, if you will, that are very close to where we are. So That's not been structured, but that's something that I would like to do.

Michael Stein [00:29:36]:
No. That's not Yeah.

Julie Verratti [00:29:37]:
We, the mix so we're in a mixed use development. Right? And so we do have a pretty large at area in Riverdale Park. It's nothing like what we had in Silver Spring, but you can fit with the amount of tables and space and the length at Of the front we have, you can fit at least, I think about a 100 people out there, based off cable space and whatnot. But there is green space in the development that we have access to if we wanted to throw an outdoor larger type festival event. So that's again, you know, we opened Riverdale in 2019 in the summer, like, early summer, and at They never got a chance to utilize that because COVID happened, and we all know what happens from there. So really looking at 2024 to try to, Yeah. Like Jeff said, take advantage of some of this stuff. So, yeah, those are things that we're thinking about doing.

Michael Stein [00:30:28]:
That is super exciting, and I I love that. I'm I'm looking forward to drinking outside with y'all. Julie Baratty, chief brand officer, Jeff Ramirez, chief beer at Denizen's Brewing Company. Thank you so much for joining us on the DC Beer Pod.

Julie Verratti [00:30:47]:
Thanks for having us.

Brandy Holder [00:30:48]:
Be here. I'll be there on 3rd. At Sam Raley. Tickets. February

Julie Verratti [00:30:53]:
February 3rd from 1 to 5 PM. And if you don't buy your tickets in advance, I'm sure we'll have a available at the door. Thank you, guys.

Brandy Holder [00:31:01]:
Thank you.

Jacob Berg [00:31:02]:
Cheers. Cheers.

Michael Stein [00:31:02]:
See you at the classic.

Jacob Berg [00:31:05]:
As it turns out, at February 3rd is action packed with events. You can view them all dcbur.com/events. But In addition to the winter cast classic, Port City's 13th anniversary is featuring colossal, at Which I think is sort of being billed as an old ale, strong ale designed to be sellered. They're gonna be releasing, at just on draft only, so you gotta be at the brewery, a whole bunch of barrel aged goodies, which they don't do very often, as well as at Il Pollo, an Italian Pilsner. So look for Italian Pilsner from Port City. I think Wright Proppers is going to be coming online shortly thereafter. Also in Virginia, dynasties get the lead out. I know we talk a lot about dynasty right now.

Jacob Berg [00:31:58]:
At event this weekend, event next weekend as well, 8 guest breweries pouring strong ales, again, on 3rd. At And then in DC proper, Atlas is going to release the precious one, their apricot IPA. So at February 3rd. An awful lot going on. Dry January is over. The beer events are coming back. Very nice to see. At a couple other interesting moves with brewery and beer related personnel.

Jacob Berg [00:32:31]:
Dave Dellaplane, at Formerly of Roofers Union is going to go to Blue Jacket, a very another very nice hire for a neighborhood restaurant group. At You're gonna see him at Blue Jacket soon. Go say hi. Good people. Nice to see him still in beer, and we don't know what's going to happen with that roofers union space, at stay tuned. Jim Bachman, formerly of the Bruce Association of Maryland and their PR firm Grow and Fortify is going to be operations director up at Montgomery County's Elder Pine Brewing and Blending, a very good hire there. Nice to see Jim also sticking around still in beer. At Although it's not an event, it's an event for Brandy.

Jacob Berg [00:33:19]:
Other half actually has right now 2 brown ales, so not 1, but 2 on tap, other half Ivy City. One of them is a collab with the Love A Bond project, which you may have seen online. It supports DEI efforts, inclusion, from underrepresented groups in brewing. So it's a good cause. It's not a style you see very often, at let alone very often at other half, but that's certainly worth checking out as well. Brandy and Mike, any parting at shots, thoughts.

Brandy Holder [00:33:59]:
Well, I'd like to shout out real quick, the fine folks who donated to, at our raffle that we're gonna have at Strange Fruit on Saturday. For each 4 pack that you buy, you get a ticket automatic at Raffle ticket, and Wartman Wine. Other half, DC, The Brew Shop, Bike Lane, Mile 20, at And Lyon Hall slash Liberty Tavern have all donated gift cards. So if you buy 4 pack or a case, you'll enter to win and, maybe win something really cool. So hopefully, hopefully, you'll come see us and and win something and drink beer.

Michael Stein [00:34:38]:
At I'm so excited for our People's Pale release at Dynasty, and I can't wait to see you all at Denizens. Winter Caskfest.

Jacob Berg [00:34:47]:
At cool. We're at DCB across the socials. Be excellent to each other. See you all out there. Alright.