Welcome, everyone, to DC Beer Show. We are at DC
Beer across social media. Mike
Stein, what are you drinking tonight? I am having Live
Oaks Grzewski Pivo,
a Polish style 100% smoked
wheat beer. It's a wonderful beer, 3%. I
got it at the brew shop. Shout out to Beth and Julie.
The brew shop in Arlington also recently just got cans of
dovetail, and we're gonna talk more about that later. But, Jake, what
are you drinking? I am drinking the end of
an era. It is a Soul Mega Worldwide
Pale Ale contract brewed in Upper Marlboro,
Maryland at the now-closed Calvert Brewing
Company. Elliot Johnson, sole mega proprietor,
is going to move over and contract brews
worldwide as well as rhythm and beauty, dark lager,
at DC's very own DC Brau. And
so curious to see how that goes,
but, you know, a nice 60-degree day calls for
just, you know, a classic easy drink in American pale
ale. It's got, like, a little bit of that juice, you know,
juicy hops to it, but it's not hazy. You got a nice little bit of
malt, gives you that biscuity toasty bread stuff.
So good times. Yeah. Mike, so you've already mentioned
Dovetail and Live Oak. Have you seen Notch
cans around at all? Or do we think that
Notch was a one off over at Shelter? I
have not seen Notch cans around
town. I was in touch with Notch, and I do
believe that they had only sent kegs.
So when I last talked to,
Julady Pena, the brewer up a notch, it was Alt Bier
day in Brighton. Bless
them and their all beer day. And so they had just sent
draft out. So the question is, will we get cans?
Unclear at the moment. It may just be
kegs for now. And, you know, like, we are
blessed with abundance of beer here. I'd be a little sad if we didn't
get cans because then that meant that I can't drink it at
home, but we've got Dovetail. We've got Live
Oak. We've got Port Cities, excellent lagers. The
Italian Pills, if it's still available, you all should
definitely go get it. Could be cans only at the brewery.
Yep. Il Palio, the Italian style Pilsner from Port
City. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Adam Reza and Bill
Butcher of Port City and there'll be an article forthcoming on that because we have
not one Italian pilsner but we have 2 with Right
Proper recently releasing theirs. Jake, you have
a can for me. Supercarina, what was your take on the Right Proper Italian style
pilsner? So the Right Proper one,
soft and a little like, the, the Port City one has this sort
of a soft roundness to it. And so
we've been seeing more West Coast pills around
and New Zealand pills, and a lot of that really just depends on the
hops that you use with a Pilsner based beer
and lager yeast. And I think this Supercarina
probably fits more in line with those.
I know that Tipo pills and the Italian pills
hasn't been around all that long, but I would
describe port cities as a little more rustic and old
school and traditional, and Right Proper's as a little
more modern and new school, sort of keeping with
people's hoppier palates.
Drinking them both side by side is absolutely fascinating. It's just
kinda cool to see this style take off here too.
Yes. I can't wait to do the Pepsi challenge. Should I blindfold
myself before I do it? It will be very obvious to
you which is which. One is very much more
in the tradition of raised by wolves. And I think to me,
that's the giveaway, But it's super cool to have these beers
come in, you know, under 5, 5 a half percent that are
identifiably lagers and then sort of play with that a
little bit within the parameters. Oh, woah. This is a
Pilsner. What can we do in terms of the hopping and
treat it as such? Absolutely. Well, what
other news has come your way? I do wanna shout
out a couple events this weekend. Main one is it
is the 5th anniversary over at Red Bear, and they're gonna throw
a Friday, Saturday, Sunday party. It's gonna
include a 5-Hop IPA, drag shows, all the cool
things that we'd come to expect from Red Bear, and, of
course, peak bloom, their cherry blossom beer will be there.
We'll have more about that over at dcbeer.com soon.
And the the Women's Brew Culture Club is going to invade Baltimore. I
believe they're hitting check Checkerspot on Saturday, and so that's pretty
cool. If you're a dude or dude identifying, then
I would say give the ladies and the nonbinary folks their space, but
you can still come. And then, we could all kind of
join up and have ourselves a little Baltimore party. It's fun to get up there.
And then, of course, Sunday, the bottle share at Red
Bear. Hellbender. Oh, I said Red Bear, didn't I? It's Hellbender. I
had Red Bear on the mind. So 2 to 5, it's open to everybody.
Please RSVP over at dcbeer.com/events.
One reason you should be there is that our friend Jerry over at
Sharer Pints is gracious enough to pick up
the last four bottles of Sam
Smith Stingo in the mid Atlantic as far as I can
tell. And we will certainly pop one of them. And so if you're
curious as to what a stingo is, kind of like
a porter, but also kind of not, You should
come through. I think Beef Space Barbecue will be there. That's
Isaac's spot. You might know him from City Brew Tours. It'll be a good
time. Yeah. So Hellbender DC Beer
Share. While you're on the dcbeer.com website,
click that link to become a supporter on Patreon.
Because for a measly $5 you will get
access to our private DC beer chairs where we will
have not just worldwide renowned stingo from Sam Smiths
brewery in England, but we'll have, dusty bottles, fresh
bottles, things I promise you you have never seen
before. So come support us on Patreon for,
you know, for $5 you gain access to all these private shares,
happy hours, special drink deals. There's a lot going on, so check us
out on Patreon. Well said. That is dcbeer.com
/patreon. We do depend on the support of listeners
like you, viewers like you, readers like you, social
media, peoples like you. Little bit goes a long way, so that's
much appreciated. And, again, $5, you come to a beer
share. You bring some beer. You get some beer. You buy some
beer. It practically pays for itself.
Your support, much appreciated. And we
also wanna call attention to Women in Craft Beverage
Excellence in Industry Panel. This is happening
March 21st. It's goes from 6:30 to
8:30 PM, and it's taking place at other half DC.
There is a number of very talented contributors on the
panel, Jamie Winden, Judy Neff, Crystal Fraley,
doctor j Jackson Beckham, Maureen O' Prey, Amy Burke,
Julie Drews, Jasmine Dill, and Latrice Harris.
Now Latrice was just on the podcast last month, but our very
own Brandy Holder has done a wonderful job of putting this panel
together. It's a wonderful event. You can purchase tickets.
You'll get some food and drink at Other
Half Brewing Company. So that's Thursday, March 21st from
6:30 to 8:30 PM. I've already bought my tickets, so
you will see mister and missus Stein there. Come see us
on March 21st at other half DC. And
a gentle reminder, if you're a DC beer member, you get
a discount on those tickets. Dcbeer.com/patreon.
Again, we have goodies for you. One other
event to mention is the 12th at Lyon
Hall. They did a sold out blackberry dinner,
and they're gonna do 1 women owned on 12th.
So nice sort of middle of the week, pregame
pie day. Should be a good
time. I hear nothing but good things about about the last one. It's very
cool that Alyssa, GM over there is putting this stuff
on. It's nice to have these beer dinner events
back in the area. At one point, that was a cool thing to do that
kind of, like, dwindled during the pandemic and such, but nice to have them
back. Yeah. You know, it seems
that beer dinners are back and they're back in a big way.
Talking to Alyssa at Lyon Hall, it sounds like, the beer
dinner featuring all of the local black owned breweries,
DC proper, Maryland, and Virginia, they sold out and
they had to add seats. That's how well it was doing. So people
are eager to hear directly from the producers and get
more in intel behind the scenes at the beer
dinner. So check out Lyon Hall. Check out, what
Alyssa's doing there. It's definitely solid work with reason to be proud
of. Yeah. And this comes on the heels of Franklin's
under new brewmaster Jeff Hancock doing a series of beer
dinners. We record the show on Tuesday. Those beer dinners are
happening Wednesday, Thursday, which means you're listening to this on Friday.
They already happened, but they'll be bringing them back a little a bit
more again. And Francis is also gonna do a firkin' Friday
more often. So nice to see some real natural ale.
And, occasionally, a lager and a
and a firkin, that'll be a good time as well.
Alright, Mike. We big up Dovetail already. We
have. We have. But who's our guest for this
evening? We have a very special guest coming
to us from Chicago. It's JP.
JP is a brewer at Dovetail. She also
her proper title is marketing and creative manager
slash brewer. So we're putting marketing and creative managing first, then
we're putting, the brewing second. But, JP
is an advanced Cicerone. Outside of
being in the beer world, she's also in the beer and food
world very much so. She's always bringing new
insights to our favorite ancient beverage. She's
responsible for all these interesting events that happen at the
brewery in Chicago. And then she was the reason, we
were so excited and all around town last week
when Dovetail dropped, and she's gonna oversee
Dovetail's excellent care in the DMV.
And she's a fan of brewing in DC. She's been here a
number of times, so she's knowledgeable about the area. JP,
thank you so much for joining us. Can you introduce
yourself to the DC Beer listenership? I am one of
the brewers at Dovetail Brewery, as well as their marketing and creative
manager. I've been with the brewery for
8 years now. I was employee number 1,
outside of the family. And if people aren't familiar
with Dovetail, we are a brewery that
specializes in continental European styles while using traditional
methods. That's a great introduction. I'm wondering since
you've got 8 years under your belt,
with Dovetail, if you can tell us some of your memorable beer
or cider or macchioli moments in the DC
metro area? Obviously, you know, you've had a a wonderful journey,
but you've journeyed to DC proper. And I'm wondering if you tried some of
our local products or had some stuff, you know, maybe
imported stuff, from around the world in DC
proper. Oh, sure. I think one of my
most vivid beer memories of DC proper was I was
there and it was a rainy day. And I was just
solo walking around Georgetown and I walked
up that alley into the Sovereign and,
had a bowl of water zoy. I'm probably
butchering that water zoy, which is just like a Belgian stew, a really
hearty Belgian stew, and, had myself a Belgian
beer. And it was it was just one of those, like,
perfect, just beer drinking moments.
Just like the, you know, the you were cozy, you were warm, you were in
a place that, you know, like people really cared about
the the beer that they were serving and and the food that went
along with it. And, yeah, just it's just when I think
of beer in DC, that's one of the first things I think of.
I've also spent a lot of time, you know, just bopping around. The Church
Key, obviously, very influential. If anyone's familiar with
Chicago, there's a there's a bar here called the Hop Leaf, which was also
very influential to me as I, you know, came through
my professional beer journey. So just going to Church Key and being able to drink
there, and of course, like, the the beers that you get in
BC are sometimes beers that we don't, you know, necessarily get in
Chicago all the time. Of course, there's Right Proper,
which I would like because they sometimes it would do these
really esoteric historical styles, which is right up my
alley. And then Port City Brewing, in Alexandria,
they're, you know, they're also smoked beer
enthusiasts as well. Again, just very like
minded in in the way that we approach beer at dovetail. Well,
we missed you over the weekends and
I, you know, not only enjoyed the beer, but really enjoyed
meeting Dan and Bill. And it just seems like such
a wonderful familial feel to dovetail.
And it seems like that was brought to DC
even just for the short amount time that you guys were here this weekend. And
you guys aren't really anywhere else other than
Chicago and then now DC and Virginia. And
so now that Dovetail has been introduced to the beer drinking
community of DC and Virginia, who may have not been to Dovetail,
I'm curious how much of the Dovetail beer we're going to
get in DC. Like, what kind of, like,
special one off? So our entry into DC and
Virginia was very intentional, and it took 2 years.
Right? It took 2 years of meeting the
right people who got us on the right track with the right
people in DC and Virginia. Yeah. And what I mean by that
is they shared our point of view when it comes to
beer, and most people being, Justin and Allied and his team,
Allied being our distributor. And then, you know, people like,
Greg Engert, who, you know, as you know, like Bluejacket,
Sovereign, Churchkey. I'm sure I'm missing one. And
what is important to me is that that
we stay intentional in the places that we put
our beer. So it is my hope that, you know, this
isn't the last you're gonna see a Dovetail. And I think that happens a lot
with certain brands that come into new markets. Like, they'll do a big
drop, it's a big splash, and then then there's no
connection to beer drinkers in that market. And it's it's important
for me. I know it's important for Dan, and I know it's important for Bill
and Hagen that we keep that connection because that
connection is a lot has a lot to do with, I think
the way that we're able to talk about our beer
and really just share our beer, with with
with beer drinkers. But to answer your question, to
start, you'll see a lot of our core 4, Vienna Lager.
Like the Hellas Locker? Yes. The Hellas Locker.
So a pale a pale ale, our pale lager. Yep. Kolsch,
which is, you know, technically a pale ale, and then, a Hefeweizen.
So for dovetail beers, like, we make beers
that are to be enjoyed round after round.
So nothing, you know, too high in alcohol that, you know, it has, like, a
nice, malt character to it. It's got a a
balanced bitterness, and it usually finishes
dry. Like, for us, we want you to sit down and just enjoy a couple
of rounds of cocktail. So what you'll see is mostly core 4
to start. I'm think a majority of it's gonna be on
draft. We also are very fond
of our bartenders. There is a check saying that goes,
it's the brewer that makes the beer, but it's the bartender that completes
it. So it's it that entire process
isn't finished until that that beer is in front of
you. And we have a ton of of
admiration and respect, for the people that are behind the bar as
well. So we make a beer that's just simply called
lager, and it's only draft. It's only in bars and
restaurants, and that's our way of kind of
saluting, those people who are completing our
beer. And and for the and for the folks listening, when when I said
Hella's Lager, I held up the can, and the podcast screen. You you
don't see anything, but you hear. So hopefully you heard the clank of the the
beer can. I'm curious since, you know, it is Women's History
Month, and you have some
incredible credentials, behind your name. And I'm just
curious, you know, what have been some of
the hats that you've worn in the industry? Well, I guess, you
know, I I I've always been interested in beer, but,
my I guess my professional path into beer
started with the Cicerone certification program.
So that feels like another lifetime ago, at this point.
But if people aren't familiar with the Cicerone certification
program, it's a it's a certification for people that sell
and serve, beer. The the easy
way to describe it is like, it's a it's a sommelier for
beer. And again, like going back to
what I said, where where the beer really
isn't completed until it's in front of you. I think, you
know, beer service is such an important part of
beer culture. And I can nerd out about beer service
traditions all day long. So I started out the Cicerone
certification program. I was an exam manager there. And
during that time, I had the opportunity to to
travel all throughout North America and
some some places in Europe and really get to visit,
other beer culture and really, you know, see how other
breweries were serving their beer, what they were doing, how
they were brewing their beer and and what they were brewing. And that was
very important to me. That was like my observational
education. As it so happens, there
is there's this there were these train tracks,
next to my office window. And one day I
was looking outside the window and over the train tracks.
And I saw these. What I found out
later were open for banners going into a building. I'm like,
that's interesting. What's going on there? So I ended
up basically inviting myself over, and that was the first time I
met Hog and Abel. And it it was things
that I had never seen in a North American brewery before
when I stepped into to dovetail. One of them being the open
fermenters. That was just something I've never seen in a North American
brewery. The other thing was the cool ship. The other thing was
this 4 vessel brewing system where they were telling me
about how they were going to their beers. Like,
it just kind of blew my mind, and it was something as
somebody who's really interested in beer traditions, like, just
really spoke to me as far as, like, a shared philosophy
about brewing. So yeah. So I invited myself over. They needed
somebody to help serve in the, in the tap room there the
1st couple of months. And, yeah, I never left.
So Scoped it out. You're like open fermentation and decoction?
Yeah. Sign me up. Yeah. I love that. I love
that. So we were at Lost Dog Cafe in Alexandria,
and I was fortunate enough to buy the last Hellas, a 4
pack there. We talked to our
friend, Steve Quartel, and he had mentioned that on opening night, the
Helles keg kicked by 8 PM. So it definitely,
like, seems that the, old Chicago standby
of, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8
beers, held up well. And I love your
description of the core for, representing ethos of
the brewery and the beers you make, which is we want you to have a
few. We don't want them to be high gravity, high alcohol, too
sweet, too bitter, just in that sweet spot. And they all do
play that very well. I bought a 4 pack of all of the
core 4, but I'm wondering the microcosm of just
because Helles kicked first both the keg and and the can sales at
Lost Dog. If that translates to what you see in Chicago with the
Chicago market, obviously, it's too early to really tell what's gonna
do great and go gangbusters in DC.
But I'm I'm just wondering about the brands, how well they sell,
what's sort of the number one seller, and do you think that'll replicate
itself in DC, or do you think DC will be a bit of a curve
ball? Well, you could tell me more about DC drinkers. I
could tell you about Chicago drinkers. And I know Chicago drinkers.
Like, honestly, all of our those core 4, they there's a little bit
of seasonality to it. Like, you might see a little tick of,
Hefeweizen in the summer, and then, a little bit of Vienna
in the fall and winter because it's got, like, the more toasty, caramelly,
warm, comforting, malt flavors to it. But there is
no like clear cut, like number 1 seller. Yeah. You know, you know,
it's not like it was 15 years ago where people are
we're chasing these, these huge personalities
of beers, like the barrel aged out, like the super
bitter, happy, you know, the IBU wars and
whatnot. I think as maybe the
the quote unquote craft beer market matures, I think
people's palates are maturing as well. That's not to say that
there isn't a spot for, you know, I like a good,
big, boozy, barrel aged salad every once in a
while too. Yeah. But it is great to have, you know, we love smoked beer
so much. I have live oaks Grodzinski, a 3% beer,
you know, a smoked a 100% oak smoked
wheat, and then you your brewery makes a Grodzinski as
well, and they kinda stand out not as
opposite, but as a different type of smoke than the Schlenker Law,
the Heller Troop beer from Franconia, Bam Bamburger Rauch
beer, which is world famous in its own right. So,
we're just we're so excited that that dovetail is
here. So thank you. And, you know, 2
years of planning. Right? It really the thoughtfulness shines through. I
think the thought was like, oh, Dovetail just got here, so they must
have just, like, sent some kegs and cases down. But you really took the
time to roll it out right. Oh, I'm glad I'm
glad you I'm glad you, you saw that and and and recognize
that. Because again, like, everything we do is very, very
intentional, very intentional. It might seem a little off the wall sometimes,
but it's it is intentional. And, you know,
I don't wanna be seen as a brewery that just drops off beer and then
leaves. I wanna make sure that we're there as a resource for the people that
are serving our beer, that we're there to connect with the people
that are drinking our beer. And, you know, I have some ideas about
how I can do that, and I hope I get to be in DC, and
I hope we get to do things that, you know,
bring a little part of our taproom to to DC as well.
Awesome. Well, JP, thank you so much for joining us on the DC Beer
Show. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much,
JP. We love that you're repping the right proper shirt.
Again, as as Mike said in the intro, always nice to see,
a fan of the DC beer scene. And, also, for those of
us out there in podcast radio land, the
running joke is that, those of us who
talk on the DC beer show are the main
consumers of Rauch beer in the DC metro area. And so
it's really nice to have the person behind
National Rauch Beer Month, which for us is every
month on the pod. Alright. We're at
DC beer across the socials. Saint Patrick's
Day is coming up. Cherry Blossom Beers are here. Saint
Baldrick's is gonna is coming up at Boundary Stone too.
Everybody be well. Be safe. Mike, parting thoughts. You
wanna take us out? Sure. It's that time of year where
we switch from, Port City Porter weather to Port
City WIT weather, but I have to I have to be
true to my my buddy, Julie, at Arlington
Brew Shop. Every weather is porter weather.
Kinda like how every day is wrapped beer day. You just have to try
hard not. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you out there. Be
well.