The DC Beer Show

In this episode of the DC Beer Show, Papa Beer joins Jake, Mike and Brandy to talk about August events, from the Urban Garden / Red Bear Collab (Peachy Keen) to the Denizens Open House and DC Brau's celebration of Jerry Garcia's birthday.

This leads the gang to demand that local breweries start having Steely Dan appreciation days because STEELY DAN is the best band ever.

Jake has an in-depth conversation with Dynasty Brewing's Favio Garcia, an elder statesman of DMV brewing who's been making great craft beer in the region for over 30 years.

Get all the details about everything happening in the DMV craft beer scene at DCBeer.com or @DCBeer on social media.
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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.

[00:00:00] Jake Berg: Welcome, to the DC Beer Show everybody. We are at DC Beer across social media. Mike Stein, what is in your Stein on this balmy evening?

[00:00:14] MIke Stein: I don't have a Stein. I'm drinking straight out the bottle. Thanks to you, Jake, I'm drinking Two Women from New Glarus Brewing Company out of Wisconsin, only in Wisconsin. It's a wonderful beer. I wish there were more women in beer.

Speaking of women in beer, Brandy, thank you for bringing more women to beer! Specifically DC Beer. What's in your glass, your cambro, your tumbler, your water bottle, tonight?

[00:00:42] Brandy Holder: Uh, Mr. Stein, that was probably the most beautiful segue I've ever heard in my life. Uh, cheers to that. And I'm not cheersing you from a glass or a stein. I'm also cheersing you from a can. I am drinking dynasties rules of civility. Number 99, uh, from a can. It's the Whale Pale Ale. Um, I got home and I was like, man, I got stung by a wasp and I'm feeling pretty thirsty.

It's steamy outside. Is it gonna rain? I don't know. Let me open this beautiful can. And I enjoyed every last drop of it from this lovely blue and white. Can.

Jake, what you, what you got going on over there?

[00:01:25] Jake Berg: I have here, and it's a mouthful, a lager from Ocelot. That's a collaboration with Detroit Post-punk band, Protomartyr, the name of their new album, and the name of the beer are both _Formal Growth In The Desert_ and you should make way for this beer because the album kind of slaps, um, in that like '81 post-punk sort of way.

Uh, and the beer is really nicely drinking too. I would say it's kind of similar to an export lager, um, Jack and Richard the lager brewers over at Ocelot, really nicely done. We also have with us our producer, Papa Beer, Richard! Richard, whatcha imbibing or Ingesting tonight?

[00:02:17] Richard Fawal: I am canning it as well. I'm canning it with, Nanticote Nectar, which, uh, I'm drinking because as, as some of you know and some of the listeners may know, um, I will soon be departing the mid-Atlantic region for Eastern Tennessee.

[00:02:36] Jake Berg: Oh.

[00:02:38] Richard Fawal: And, uh, so I've been sort of going through some of my local favorites lately. Drinking a little more Silver Branch to get all of those beers in, drinking the nectar. Um, really hitting Denizens hard. These are all my sort of neighborhood neighborhoody kind of beers. Um, so yeah, yeah, that's what I'm drinking tonight. And, uh, I have really been digging it,

I'm like getting way back into IPAs. The higher abvs caught me by surprise a little bit. My old, I'm feeling my old age 'cause I have a couple of 7% or 8% without thinking about it the next morning just be like, ah, what's going on?

[00:03:18] Brandy Holder: Oh

[00:03:19] Richard Fawal: do I feel like

[00:03:20] Brandy Holder: After packing all day, you're probably exhausted and you're like, oh, let me just pop a beer. Wait, I'm dehydrated.

We're very, we're very, very, very sad that you are leaving Papa Beer. Very, very sad. Um, I will cry about it, but not right now. I, you know, I was having that, I am having that Dynasty beer, and I know that Jake could have had a cool conversation with Favio.

Of Dynasty and I bet we're gonna listen to that a little bit later. Um, but first I wanna know about some of the cool events going on. I personally will be at the Peachy Keen. beer release, which is a red bear at Urban Garden Collaboration. It's going on from three to 6:00 PM at Red Bear. But not only will there be great beer, but also an art swap from Swap DC and I love swap dc I went the first one that I, I ran into.

Richard was also there and we were at Wright Proper in Brookland and we actually bought art that night from two different artists. swap DC is amazing and it, they always seem to collaborate with Eamoni at her, uh, beer releases. So we're gonna be at Red Bear. this Sunday, um, from three Six Red Bear, I, I will be there. I'm excited. Are you guys gonna go,

[00:04:40] Jake Berg: I will be in Delaware drinking, uh, Probably either Dogfish, uh, something weird and obnoxious that shouldn't be good, but will be good. Uh, it could be a blend of bilin, of ice Ks and something else that is turned into quench this worldwide phenomenon. Or it could a beer brulet chocolate malt and lobsters that sounds absolutely disgusting.

And then ends up winning a GABF, great American Beer Festival gold medal in the like, weird, esoteric specialty beer. Um, and yeah, so Dogfish continually proves me wrong, and if all else fails, um, I'll be in walking distance from Dewey Beer Co for the next couple weeks, which means I will have a hazy and then copious amounts of their Mexican style lager elano, um, because it's like walking through a Delaware cornfield, um, just like clean, crisp lager, yeast, a whole bunch of flake corn.

It's, 4.5% Great beach beer.

[00:05:37] MIke Stein: I will likely be in Pennsylvania on Sunday, Brandy, but I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish I was going to the Art Brew Swap. Um, I'm really hoping Peachy Keen makes it past Sunday, July 30th into August. I have a good feeling it will 'cause Red Bear has a good sized brew house. Um, and you know, there's a bunch happening on Sunday.

There's the brewery open house at Denizen's in Riverdale Park. There's also the Jerry Garcia birthday celebration at DC Brau on Sunday. So not only am I missing Eamoni, um, The Red Bear team, I'm gonna be missing Julie and Jeff at Denizen's. I'm gonna be missing Paulette and Brandon at Brau and I know they're huge Deadheads.

They love, paying tribute to Jerry Garcia. I'm so bummed to be missing out on Sunday, but I'll be sure to check out, uh, Peachy Keen when I get back in town, as well as frequenting, uh, DC Brau draft accounts and denizens on draft all around dc. As well as the various, you know, Montgomery, prince George's and other counties have been known to tipple a draft beer in in Maryland.

[00:06:47] Jake Berg: What is it with breweries and the Grateful Dead and jam bands? How come no one does like a Steely Dan thing at a

[00:06:54] Brandy Holder: Dude

[00:06:56] Richard Fawal: Let's do it.

[00:06:57] Jake Berg: yeah,

[00:06:59] Brandy Holder: Tell me about it. If there was a Steely Dan night, a cover band or

[00:07:03] Jake Berg: get all jazzy and studio weird

[00:07:06] Brandy Holder: with bells and whistles. I would literally wear bells and whistles if that was, if that were a thing. Oh my God, I was so excited.

[00:07:13] Jake Berg: hear that area

[00:07:14] Brandy Holder: Steely Dan?

[00:07:16] Jake Berg: There's untapped market here. Steely Dan

[00:07:18] Brandy Holder: I'll come and sing all the

[00:07:19] MIke Stein: Well, Richard was just telling us he's been,

[00:07:23] Brandy Holder: Shake

[00:07:24] Richard Fawal: I'm reading a book, this True Story. I'm actually reading a brand new book about Steely Dan. That is the, it's the history of Steely Dan, but it is told through the characters in their songs like Charlie Freak,

[00:07:40] Brandy Holder: Jesus. Oh

[00:07:41] Richard Fawal: Fabs and Clean Willie, and like all characters in.

[00:07:48] Brandy Holder: Okay. I need to read that.

[00:07:49] Richard Fawal: Reading this every morning. So I'm in a total steely Dan, like Steely Dan.

This is not the a Steely Dan podcast, but I'm gonna go off for a minute. Um, steely Dan is the first band I ever remem. I remember like really like being like, oh, this is, this is good. This is good in a way that is different than Donnie Osmond, you.

[00:08:14] Brandy Holder: Oh yeah,

I listened to the entire album of Gaucho on the drive home from work today, and it was, I mean, it opens with Babylon sisters. I mean, such a great man, Sorry, not a Steely Dan podcast.

[00:08:31] Richard Fawal: you're looking for a thing to do, I recommend a Steely Dan day.

[00:08:35] MIke Stein: let me tie it back to beer history here for a moment.

[00:08:39] Brandy Holder: Thanks,

[00:08:39] MIke Stein: It was it, it was, it was July, 2012, so literally 11 years ago this month when I wrote about DC Brau and Brian Barrow's brewing _Your Favorite Foreign Movie_, which coincidentally your favorite foreign movie. Uh, table beer, Belgian Small, pale Belgian Small Beer one. Pat's beer, if you will. Uh, one at the Great American Beer Festival. So it is. With that, I leave you this DC Beer bit of history DC G. Your favorite foreign movie was actually a great American Beer Festival Winner, and so we're back on track here with the DC Beer theme.

[00:09:24] Brandy Holder: On Thursday, August the third, I'm gonna be grabbing for an IPA because, did you know, that that is National IPA Day, how and where and what. What will you be doing in drinking and celebrating National IPA Day?

My friends, my beer friends?

[00:09:43] Jake Berg: Brandy. We don't need a National IPA Day. you are a craft beer fan, every day is National IPA Day, and so I'm gonna be the obnoxious contrarian. I will probably be, I'll definitely be drinking a lager. It'll also probably be smoked. Um,

[00:10:02] Brandy Holder: Oh,

[00:10:03] Jake Berg: there should be a, yeah.

[00:10:04] Brandy Holder: me a smoked.

[00:10:05] Jake Berg: Yeah. IPA doesn't need a day. It's like having white history month.

Right. We need, it's just,

[00:10:12] Richard Fawal: Oh, oh, oh.

[00:10:14] Jake Berg: point, right? Like there are, there are historically underappreciated things out there. You don't need IPA day, like, it's like a fish in, if you like craft beer, you're like, you're a fish in water.

[00:10:32] Brandy Holder: I feel like this is gonna segue into a story.

[00:10:35] Jake Berg: we need smo, like shark week, smoke beer month, whatever, Mike, you were saying.

[00:10:39] MIke Stein: so,

[00:10:40] Brandy Holder: Jake only, only a thin man would, would want. Uh,

[00:10:43] MIke Stein: It's

[00:10:44] Brandy Holder: sorry.

[00:10:44] MIke Stein: Rauchbier month. Um, And technically June was also Rauchbier Month and technically August is Rauchbier Month. If you go by the wonderful calendar set forth by the Dovetail Brewery out of Chicago, they have a wonderful calendar and sure enough, 12 months out of the year or Rauchbier month, Yes, Jake, to your point, uh, IPA has no problem selling and I, IPA day came about, I wanna say like a decade ago when IPAs, you know, weren't the, the leader for the last decade because it was 10 years ago.

And yeah, to your point, it's kind of redundant now. Um, it's like selling water. To fishes. Um, so yeah, have, have some smoke beer. Join us if you will. Um, I'll say this, Brandy, you are drinking whales. Um, Wales Pale Ale was a beer originally brewed by Andrew Wales, who was a Scottish immigrant, and he sold his beer to George Washington. George Washington obviously didn't want. What is today the US to be colonies. He wanted it to be, you know, a sovereign nation. Andrew Wales, his brewer, who sold him beer, was like, no, no, no. I'm a loyalist. I'm a Tory a k a. I want the Virginia colony to be under the English crown, the British monarchy.

So even in the 1700s you have the president and the brewer butting heads, and I still think that holds up really well today. Even if you butt heads with somebody, they're still commerce, they're still trade. We live, thankfully in a beautiful city in DC where we get to disagree with people, hopefully over a beer. And at the end of the day, we can all be safe and maybe agree to disagree, right?

You say, IPA Day, I say, Rauchbier Day, let's have a beer.

[00:12:39] Brandy Holder: But IPA has its history, so as a historian, it's okay to celebrate. Uh, IPA day for one day. I mean, a lot of us do drink IPAs, but if you're a beer nerd, yeah. There are probably some styles you don't love, but there are, you love more than you don't, most likely. And I think it's because you can appreciate them.

And thanks to Mike Stein, we can appreciate them not only for their taste, but for their history, um, which is fantastic. So I bow down to you, Mr. Stein, the, the knower of all beer things.

but I wanna know, have you guys heard of, uh, the Mieza, blendery in Alexandria?

[00:13:22] Jake Berg: Favio and I just talked about it.

[00:13:25] Brandy Holder: Oh, did you? Oh my God. I mean, I met the owner, actually Richard and I were at Astrolab right before they shut their doors. RIP. And I haven't, I haven't made it out there yet, but, um, my friend Frank went, who said was great, but I'm just curious. I'm interested in the concept. Um, I'm not overly familiar with like build, building a whole. Like brewery around it, but I'm, I'm curious to go, so I can't wait to listen to this, uh, interview.

[00:13:55] Jake Berg: Yeah, we'll be talking a little bit of sour beer, and I think Brandi, you and I are gonna be hanging out with Alex Lynch over at me as a at some point in the pretty near future.

[00:14:05] Brandy Holder: Dope. I'm there.

[00:14:07] Jake Berg: Speaking of beer history, our guest, director of brewing operations, founder of Dynasty Brewing, Favio Garcia, has been brewing in Virginia for almost 30 years now. Professionally.

[00:14:22] Brandy Holder: He doesn't look that old!

[00:14:23] Jake Berg: He doesn't.

[00:14:24] Brandy Holder: beer keeps him young.

[00:14:26] Jake Berg: yeah, his, his, his skincare routine hanging out. Um, with like, with Steamy Tanks, it's like, it's like a Neti pot for like, you know, 12 hours a day.

Dynasty's fifth anniversary is upon us and so Favio was nice enough to sit down and join us on this here DC Beer show.

Favio, what do you have planned for the fifth anniversary?

[00:14:48] Favio Garcia: Hey, I'm Jake. How's it going? Uh, fifth anniversary. Yeah. Five years at, our little brewery in Ashburn. Well, we have a party planned on the 26th of August. Um, Saturday, starting at noon. We've got some people coming over.

Uh, we've got lots of music really focusing on, heavy on the music. This year we got, uh, four different bands starting at three, you know, so 3, 4:30, 5 and then eight o'clock we have, uh, the black minivan finishing out the night. So it should be pretty good. And of course we have a anniversary beer, a Coincidental IPA, our fifth anniversary beer, another one of our hazy IPAs.

If we can't get away from those, we love them. So we're gonna make another one.

[00:15:29] Jake Berg: Are you doing a, uh, a five theme, like five different hops, five different, uh, grains in the, in the bill?

[00:15:36] Favio Garcia: Kept it pretty simple, kept pretty simple. Uh, no theme except for we like, uh, to use Nelson and Citra. That's pretty much the, the big thing about it. Um, kind of kept a little bit for us. Obviously our anniversary beers, at least last year was pretty big over eight, so we kind of more like a 7% beer, seven and a half percent. we'll see how it turns out. It's kind of brewed it last week. It's still fermenting. Did we do multiple dry hops? And that was the first dry hop is, uh, today.

[00:16:04] Jake Berg: So speaking of big beers last year at ssn, I saw you and you had a cask of Tiny Dictator, or at least let's say you had a firkin,

[00:16:15] Favio Garcia: That's correct. Yeah.

[00:16:16] Jake Berg: gravity pours of Tiny Dictator, which is, uh, an imperial stout. I think it was 12%, but it might have been a little bit more.

[00:16:26] Favio Garcia: bit more. Yeah. Uh,

[00:16:28] Jake Berg: Uh, you, you may have poured me like six ounces of it and sent me on my way, um, which thank you and I hate you.

Uh, what do you have planned for Snallygaster this

if it's not too early, I.

[00:16:39] Favio Garcia: No, no. Uh, I definitely like the idea of something light and something dark. Uh, so we did a pilsner uh, last year, our supremo pilsner, and then we had the, the imperial stout. That was a pretty heavy duty stout 'cause barrel aged with blueberries and chocolate. So there's all kinds of things going on. Uh, maybe a little too much sometimes, but, uh, especially for a festival with nga, where's like lots of flavors going on. But, uh, we have fun pouring it. Uh, we are planning. To do a collaboration with Ocelot in the early fall. And I'm hoping that it's a dark lager. We've done it in the past and it'll be return to that.

But, uh, uh, it was a good, it was, uh, Mike Stein, um, inspired collaboration. Um, he's actually, he was looking through the list of collaborations.

He inspired quite a few of them. But, um, so it's a historic dark beer, uh, dark Lager K Barker. Uh, so he convinced, uh, uh, Jack and I, Jack, the brewer for Ocelot to brew this beer. So we plan to do it again, and then, uh, hopefully we can pour it at Snallygaster

[00:17:47] Jake Berg: Cool. that means we might be seeing Love Vigilantes, um, again.

[00:17:51] Favio Garcia: Yes,

[00:17:52] Jake Berg: So you've collaborated with Mike and I.

Mount Vernon Um, so Mike, uh, Pete Jones Lost Lagers on a couple of beers, and I now see them in cans in addition to bottles.

Uh, what's that been like? Just like, are you, are you at Mount Vernon on a semi-regular basis now? Uh, talking with them.

[00:18:13] Favio Garcia: Um, yeah, so it's, uh, the, the, it was great development. We had the beers and cans. Uh, so the last year it was all bottles and just from a brewery logistics standpoint, it was very slow and nightmarish to, uh, to bottle those beers. Um, these are historical beers essentially. So, uh, some of 'em more historical than others.

Some are just ideas of, uh, of beers that are historical in a sense of, uh, some, I, uh, so we did like a Wales Pale Ale, so it named after Andrew Wales, a brewer that had the Scottish brewer that had a place in Alexandria that. Uh, there's some records of George Washington buying beer from him. So we did a, basically an English style pale ale.

Um, so we were able to put that in cans. And the pull through has been dramatic, has been great. So they're selling at the, the Mount Vernon Inn and at the gift shop, uh, with cans, the sales increased dramatically. So that's been a lot of fun to, to be able to produce those. Um, So we do meet with Susan at Mount Vernon, uh, a couple times a year, kind of.

We met at the end of last season to see how they liked everything and what it progressed and said absolutely. So we worked out what beers we're gonna brew again, and maybe got some new ones. So we keep, uh, We keep adding beers and adding ideas to it. Uh, Mike and Pete from Lost lagers are working, on a recipe that we kind of do a double mash.

It's basically a barley wine. Um, we're gonna call it an export ale, but it's a big, heavy duty, uh, English style.

[00:19:48] Jake Berg: I have two follow up questions about that. Uh, the first is that are you gonna make a small beer following the barley wine? Um, that is, use that grain to do something

[00:19:58] Favio Garcia: That's a good idea. You, we didn't actually talk about that, but that's a good idea. I mean, I only done a small beer in the past. I think only once. No, that's not true. I've been brew so long, I forget. But, uh, I have two memories of making a small beer. And the problem with small beer is they can be pretty astringent, right?

Because you kind of get all the sugars out of it.

They can, you pretty thin, right? But,

[00:20:20] Jake Berg: Yeah.

[00:20:22] Favio Garcia: Um, but you know, one of the things of, uh, having a, local yeast lab is Jasper and Travis. Um, and I work with them all the time. I think we can find something that's, that, that could blend well. Right. Um, in the old days, you kind of just had one house strain and you just use your house sales strain for everything.

Um, now we're using basically a new strain almost every week.

[00:20:45] Jake Berg: And you've got a lot at your disposal. like, uh, honey Belgian candy sugar, you know, at attenuated under 80% or so,

[00:20:53] Favio Garcia: Yeah, no, it's a good idea. Uh, we're trying to work out when we're gonna brew this, 'cause I think it's gonna be a nightmarish day. I mean, nightmarish in the, and it'd be fun to hang out with Mike and Pete, but, uh, it's gonna be a long day. It's a double mash.

[00:21:08] Jake Berg: So the, the historical, uh, barley wine question. The second is GW and Mount Vernon came into alcohol at first with whiskey. Is this a candidate to be barrel aged in those barrels? I.

[00:21:23] Favio Garcia: Yeah. We already have, we had that One of our year-round beers for Mount Vernon is the porter. It's uh, basically a London style porter with Virginia ingredients is Mount Vernon's Virginia Porter. We already aged that in, uh, their, uh, rye whiskey casks. So we have some coming out in the next month or so.

It's already, it's in the barrel, it's ready to go. So just matter of getting out. Um, so that'll be, yes, absolutely. That's gonna be something that we can coordinate with, uh, Steve, the distiller over there to, to get some barrels and that'll be, uh, put that in for sure

[00:21:58] Jake Berg: Since. You dated yourself, uh, back to the Bardo and Dominion days. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what it was like operating at Brew Pub Brewing at a brew pub? Here in the DC suburbs in Virginia in the nineties.

I mean, I think that people now know Bardo as the place that was on, Bladensburg.

And then they, they were briefly over by Nats Park brewing outdoors. But there's a, there's a tradition there. There's a history.

[00:22:31] Favio Garcia: Yeah, I mean, uh, Bill Stewart had started Bardo. He was kind of ahead of his time, you know, just taking old, old building car leadership and put a brewery in pretty big brewery brew house, you know, 20 some barrels. He had, I guess, come back from a trip from the Pacific Northwest when he had a bunch of recipes from breweries that he, he had visited and uh, he had people like me brew him.

Uh, I was a very young brewer. Um, I really went from like five gallons home brewing to. Uh, help 25 barrel system, like basically overnight. Uh, it's, it's kind of hard to imagine a very new industry at the time, and there was like small group of people in the industry. It's much smaller than it is now. Right there, you know, there's 40 breweries in non county.

And probably 40 breweries in the East coast at that time, if that. Um, so it's a much, it was a much smaller group of people and you get to know everybody. Got to know 'em pretty well. That's, I think that's the biggest change, uh, from then and now. It was kind of a free for all, at least Bardo is and was.

I mean, I still, I remember it fondly because, it was. Unstructured and, uh, a lot of fun. it was frustrating at times. Of course, I was the there for a couple of years, 3, 2, 3 years. Uh, brewed for like a year and a half, two years and found another brewing job and moved on. And of course, Bardo evolved into some other things.

He was like, he had a farm brewery for a while, way before any farm breweries were even illegal. Uh, but, uh, you know, like I said, ahead of this time,

[00:24:01] Jake Berg: Do people now look at you as something of an elder statesman, elder states person in the, in the Virginia, in the DMV brewing scene? I mean, you, you've done Bardo, Dominion when Dominion was in Ashburn and actually the old dominion as opposed to now what? It's me with Fordham and is in Delaware.

[00:24:19] Favio Garcia: Uh, that's a, I don't know. I, that, I really don't know what, uh, I'm always surprised that I'm still in the industry. It's kinda one of those things like, you know, it's one brewing job, these to the next and then, uh, you know, and you get some kind of, uh, ownership in one brewery and, and then you kind of try to work, make that work and, and that's what I'm still doing, trying to make things work.

Uh, it's, it's kind of one day at a time in many ways, and I'm still surprised and still brewing. I'd still enjoy it very much so, um, every day as a new challenge and every year is different, but, um, you know, it keeps evolving for sure.

[00:24:54] Jake Berg: I was gonna say, like you, you seem like you have adapted and grown and yet still learning, um, more so than others. Um, I note that you make something like a pastry stout. Now this, uh, the German chocolate cake beer, um, you've moved from like the West Coast IPAs of Bill Stewart and the Pacific Northwest. Um, all those kind of sea hops with Warrior and glacier in the whirlpool.

Hazy. And now of course with like fo bender back to West Coast as we're starting to see a little bit more of the West Coast pick up. But like, what's it, what's it been like, uh, just kind of seeing the transition throughout the years?

[00:25:34] Favio Garcia: Uh, well that's the thing, that's what I enjoy about it the most is those transitions, right? The, um, the evolution of craft beer and then now it's basically IPA, but the evolution of the IPAs, um, even the West Coast are not as West Coast as we used to think of. It's like stone, you know, we've got those IBU wars.

I dunno when that was, what, 15 years ago, everything

[00:25:57] Jake Berg: Yeah, I was thinking maybe like 2010, 2012 was a Green Flash. Had a beer, I think called Palate Wrecker.

[00:26:03] Favio Garcia: right.

They, they,

[00:26:04] Jake Berg: you know

[00:26:05] Favio Garcia: everything gets pushed back, you know, in the, in the, in the process. So as even the West Coast are not as bitter as it used to be. Um, um, but I'm fortunate that, uh, my business partner, Travis gets to travel to California for work.

So he brings back some. Some fresh, uh, west coast beers and we get to try 'em. And then it did, tended to be trending more toward the bitter. Very clear and crisp and like, oh yeah, we're, we're, we're getting back into this. This is good. we're excited to, to pursue that. As far as IPAs this coming year, um, you know, so anniversaries kind of think of like, you know, this is like every year kind of our, have a new take on what we're brewing for IPA wise.

And then, uh, so I think we're gonna have some more clearer crisper IPAs coming out. Um, trying to try some different knee strains. I hazy still sell.

[00:26:54] Jake Berg: So you all, like, you're doing hazy. You've got at least, a, you know, a couple big stouts. You mentioned Tiny Dictator, uh, with the chocolate and blueberries, um, as well as the, the German chocolate one. there's a lot of hype around fruited sours and I note that you seem to have, um, zigged where others have zagged.

Uh, working with Alex Lynch at Mieza, uh, who at one point was located entirely within Dynasty, but now they have their own top room. I think it's on South Joyce over in Alexandria.

[00:27:26] Favio Garcia: Right.

[00:27:27] Jake Berg: What's that process been like where there's wart being made and then trucked from, uh, Ashburn? From Loudoun over a little bit closer to dc, putting barrels blended with fruit, um, making true actual sours.

[00:27:42] Favio Garcia: Yeah, I think that's, uh, I see how much work Alex puts into it. Um, you know, he is picking the fruit. He is going out. Gathering fruit, picking fruit or coordinating with, uh, growers to pick up some fresh blueberries or, raspberries, whatever is in the season. This is his busy time of year. and, uh, I'd stay, you know, since we we're, we're friends and, uh, collaborators in many ways, we work together on, on some or some things.

Um, you know, he uses our brewery and we, uh, get to get some beer from him. Uh, some sour beer. So hopefully, I think the plan for, to have like a sour beer on tap at Dynasty on a regular would be when he's ready for, for us to have a, our own blend of, uh, za Sour at the dynasty.

That's kind of, uh, the plan. So yeah, we, I mean, I personally have not been brewing that many, uh, fruited sours. I've stayed away from it. And, uh, like I said, zag is a good way to put it. That having Alex do it, um, It's a lot of work and, um, you know, he's doing it. he's got some spontaneous fermentation. He got mixed cultures.

This is not kettle sours. These are, a mix of yeast and bacteria in barrels, wine barrels. Um, it's pretty involved

[00:28:56] Jake Berg: I do note that he's returned the favor. That if you look at, uh, if you go to the ZA tap room, uh, you'll note a pilsner and an IPA, I believe at the moment are actually El Supremo. Um, your, uh, Italian style pills and I think Mosaic vision, um, one of the, one of the Hazies. I

think those are the two that are, that are on right now.

I had asked him if, uh, El Suprimo was, was his shifty, and he just kinda laughed and said, yeah, you know, this is what we do.

Alright, Favio, lovely talking to you. Um, the anniversary is, uh, August 26th Saturday, and, um, you can buy Dynasty beers in both in DC and Virginia as well. thanks for being on the show. Much

appreciated. Yeah,

[00:29:39] Favio Garcia: Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Cheers.

[00:29:41] Jake Berg: Thank you, Favio. Happy fifth. Brandy, we got some beer events coming up. I know that you've, you've shouted out, Urban Gardening Red Bear collab, but we got some other stuff on the docket as well.

[00:29:53] Brandy Holder: There are some August events going on and we are always uploading events and sharing things on social media. So follow D C Beer

um, but speaking of Urban Garden, I am excited to announce that our August Women's Brew Culture Club will be hosted by the one and only Eamoni, and of course Lindsay, I love Lindsay. Um, so it's gonna be featuring their, um, tea and herbal Ford beers, um, at their home base, city state, and some city state Beers will be in the flights as well.

Right now, I mean, I'm pretty sure it's on the books, but it's gonna be on hopefully, fingers crossed, Saturday the 19th. Uh, we'll send the rest of the information as well as the RSVP link in our August newsletter that's going out at the first of the month. make sure you head to DCB or.com to sign up for our monthly newsletters and our monthly, monthly emails and I'm, I'm serious.

When, I mean, once a month, maybe twice a month, like as a reminder, but that's it. Like we don't spam you every day like everybody else. So, um, make sure you catch up on that. Uh, don't miss that event. I mean, there's so many events going on,

[00:31:03] Jake Berg: one event I wanna shout out because it happens the day I get back from Delaware, is that there is a lambic event at the Sovereign on Saturday the 12th. It involves 14 lambic that also have grapes or grape products. Added. And so if you are with someone who might prefer wine, this is I think a really good chance to kind of move them over to the dark side.

Um, there're gonna be some very ous, very tannic beers. Varying degrees of, uh, grape additives. I know at least one of these beers is gonna be like 51% beer and 49% wine. And so like, it's a really interesting way, um, to go about, um, trying things, expanding your horizons, um, lambic and grapes. A match made in Belgian heaven or himmel, as they might say in some of the other, some parts of Belgium.

[00:32:08] MIke Stein: That sounds fascinating. Jake, I've always maintained that that is the most wine like beer because you can't make it without blending and so much of, uh, beer, high quality beer around DC it's one batch. I. It's brewed, it's fermented, it's put on draft, or it's put in cans, and that's that. Um, you know, comparatively to the one, two, and three year old blend, or the blending that's common in a lot of these fruit, Belgian spontaneous beer like cre and beer, or Francois, you know, cherry beer or raspberry beer.

Um, this sounds like a great opportunity. So definitely look out for that on August 12th.

[00:32:43] Jake Berg: Speaking of great opportunity, um, legends, the distributor is going to unfortunately dissolve and right now tillen one of the better, goose houses and blenders in Belgium is a free agent. Um, one of you better pick it up and by you, I'm looking at you hop and wine. You wanna boost up your imports or craft coalition.

You wanna get into that. Um, I do not want to live in an area, um, where there is no Til wind. Um, fantastic, phenomenal, underrated, and also unlike say, canon, almost always readily available, which is I think one of the things that's most important to me is that I can walk into a place like craft beer cellar and buy it.

[00:33:26] MIke Stein: So Jake, why did you mention Tillen By name and not, uh, Duchess d Berg or Saison DuPont, or insert other Belgian here?

[00:33:36] Jake Berg: Um, there are a couple, and you can look for a little bit more of this on this site, in the next couple weeks, um, as we kind of flesh out what happens to legends in their portfolio. Americans aren't buying imported beers the way that they used to. And, you all should start hoarding.

There should be a run like at a

[00:33:56] Brandy Holder: like chart.

[00:33:57] Jake Berg: it's yes, like chart.

[00:33:59] Brandy Holder: I missed out on the chart. Truths run

[00:34:01] Jake Berg: And now how much is chartreuse, right? No, exactly. Brandy, like when's the

[00:34:05] Brandy Holder: they're not making

[00:34:06] Jake Berg: I are gonna get like a last word cocktail. We're screwed. We're screwed. Right? Don't, don't get screwed.

Says And

[00:34:12] Brandy Holder: chartreuse is not even as good as the

[00:34:15] Jake Berg: yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:16] Brandy Holder: stop

[00:34:16] Jake Berg: Look, look,

[00:34:17] MIke Stein: not falling.

[00:34:18] Jake Berg: ones know brandy.

We're talk, we're talking green. Green is where it's at, right? That's, that's what's in the last word. That's what gives you that extra oomph and the kick. And so Cison DuPont is like that. Um, you should start buying it all up because it's a perfect Thanksgiving beer. It's really a perfect beer. Like right now, if you wanted to, um, it's great.

But yeah, there's be more about this on the site. Um, it's not just imports.

Think of say Kyle and Sarah Sher. You used to know them over at Millstone Cider, um, in Maryland now they run graph cider, in New York State. Graft is caught up in this as well. We don't wanna see a lull in those sorts of products that we love and take for granted. So it's gonna be very, very interesting over the next couple months how legends, dissolution, shakes out both for imports and the beers we know and love.

That was a long-winded rant on my part. Thank you all for listening.

[00:35:16] Brandy Holder: It's a rant kind of night, Jake, so it's,

okay. I, I think we, I think we have feels, because Richard's here, we get to see his lovely face and I think we're just, I think we're just kind of going back and forth like the old times. So it's okay. It's

[00:35:31] Richard Fawal: yeah. Hopefully the listeners can keep up with this

[00:35:34] Brandy Holder: Sorry guys. Sorry, not sorry. We love y'all.

[00:35:38] Jake Berg: All right at d c beer or across the socials. As always, let us know. Um, hopefully, uh, in two weeks the socials will still be here with us. If not, you know, DC Beer.com. Um, you know where to

[00:35:50] Brandy Holder: True

[00:35:51] Jake Berg: Yeah,

[00:35:52] Brandy Holder: God.