Bullpen Pilsner! Did you say Bullpen Pilsner? Yes, Bullpen Pilser

In this lively episode of the DC Beer Show, we highlight Atlas Brewing's recent gold medal win at the World Beer Cup for their Bullpen Pilsner. Join us as we explore the brewing process, innovation, and growth of Atlas across DC and Virginia, along with industry challenges and brewing tips.

Main Topics:

• Atlas Brewing’s journey from Ivy City to Anacostia and nostalgic reflections
• The story behind their award-winning Bullpen Pilsner and canning practices
• Innovation with recipe adaptations and new brewing equipment
• Industry challenges: capacity, competition, and market trends
• Tips for brewing, packaging, and entering competitions
• Community engagement and upcoming events in the DC brewing scene

Key Insights:

• Atlas's transition to a larger brewery in Anacostia increased capacity from 3,500 to nearly 10,000 barrels annually.
• The brewery’s success at the World Beer Cup was driven by meticulous canning practices and recipe consistency.
• Usage of California Common yeast in their Pilsner was born out of necessity, resulting in a versatile, high-quality beer.
• The crew emphasizes constant iteration, recipe experimentation, and leveraging equipment improvements to enhance quality.
• Industry headwinds include industry saturation and emerging beverage trends, but growth opportunities remain in regional markets.

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Creators and 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

Jordan Harvey

As a born and raised Georgian, lover of music, and HBCU advocate, Jordan’s affinity for craft beer kicked off after being exposed to the craft beer scene in Pennsylvania and the legendary beer scene in Europe.

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.

JB (00:06)
Welcome everyone to the DC Beer Show. are at DC Beer across social media. Brandy, what are you drinking tonight?

Brandy (00:13)
Well, I just finished a Hellas from Port City. I was just at Port City on Saturday. Shout out Port City. shout out to Wok. I don't know. I love Wok. Love you. Thanks for being cool. ⁓ But after my Hellas, I made a little tiny mini margarita in a mule cup for some fucking reason. I don't know where my brain is, ⁓ but that's what I was drinking. Jordan, what you got?

Jordan (00:41)
Well, I think the Hayes folks will be happy to know I'm back on the train folks. I'm having some beer out of Montreal, Quebec, Missorum. This is a Dippa, a double N-E-A parallel.

It is hopped with Super Delic, Citra, Motueka, Hyper Boost, and it is delicioso. Stein, what is in your Stein tonight,

Mike (01:03)
Well, Jordan, very appropriately for tonight's episode, I'm drinking the gold medal World Beer Cup winner in the American style Pilsner category. It's Atlas's bullpen Pilsner. Jake, what are you drinking?

Justin Cox (01:07)
Thank

JB (01:20)
I want to first take some credit for Jordan's hazy because he texted me, I'm in Montreal. Where am I going? And I slammed that phone down and yelled Messeram immediately because ⁓ you like hazies. think, yeah, that's, that's where you go. They make really good beers. ⁓ Brandy's got a human robot hat on. I have here human robots, ⁓ Dresden Kodak's Mexican style dark lager purchased, ⁓ in Philadelphia, where we also saw our guests.

Jordan (01:29)
Yes, he did.

Brandy (01:31)
You could have asked Frank. Yeah.

Jordan (01:34)
It's true. It's true.

Brandy (01:35)
Yeah.

JB (01:51)
Danielville Ruby, Justin Cox of Atlas. What are you fellas drinking tonight?

Justin Cox (01:56)
got a can here from the submitted batch to the World Beer Cup, both in Pilsner.

Daniel (02:02)
⁓ I'm drinking bullpen pills or also but on draft.

Brandy (02:05)
we're plugging this bullpen pills. I wonder why?

Daniel (02:06)
Yeah

Justin Cox (02:07)
Hahaha

Mike (02:09)
Well, Brandy, there's good

reason we're plugging bullpen Pilsner and it is.

Justin Cox (02:11)
People.

JB (02:13)
No, this is great.

This is the first time that we've had a majority of the people on this podcast all drinking the same beer. This is a DC beer show first. So Daniel, how does this batch hold up given that I assume it was judged many months ago?

Brandy (02:19)
Yeah, usually we drink something else. Yeah.

Mike (02:21)
That's right. That's right.

Daniel (02:31)
⁓ I mean apparently it held up great, but I actually I think Justin had to pull a sample out of our out of our retained samples in the Key C LAN because that batch has all gone out the door otherwise. ⁓ The one I'm drinking is a much fresher one, but it's still fantastic. Apparently it holds up pretty well though because they just want a gold medal.

Brandy (02:52)
Hell yeah, congrats.

Mike (02:53)
Yes. So tell us,

tell us about this gold medal batch. can say to our listeners, you beat out 80 entrance. were number one best thing 79 others. When was this batch that you sent? Was it in cans? Tell us about this batch. When was it canned? If it was sent in cans.

Daniel (03:10)
⁓

yeah, so it was put in cans. It was back in February. The submissions happened in early March, so... Pretty much everything that gets judged in the final round at World Beer Crop is about two months old. also makes packaging a big part of it. But this is the first time we won an award off 12, the new brew house that...

is out in Anacasia, east of the Anacasia River. And so we're super proud of that.

Brandy (03:37)
was actually going to ask you both if you miss the original location. I drive down West Virginia pretty regularly, and it's so strange to see that space empty with a for sale sign on the building. It's because I remember vividly going to Atlas, the original Atlas, when it was not what it looked like.

when you guys closed that location, I remember there being like a long rickety bar in the back and like hot as balls, right? Like it was amazing. And I'm just curious, like, is there any sort of nostalgia that you guys miss from being in the original location? Or are you just like, new shiny, we had a new space.

Daniel (04:08)
Yeah.

Justin Cox (04:14)
you

There's I would say it's bittersweet, right? I mean, that was that was the the founding of Atlas, right? In Ivy City and that neighborhood went through some crazy times and then some crazy times for other reasons. you know, that bar you're talking about, Brandy, I built, ⁓ we built ourselves and it was the wrong height. So we could get stools and you're either like three inches too high or three inches too low because we didn't know what the hell we were doing. Well, yeah, yeah.

Daniel (04:44)
Yeah.

Brandy (04:53)
yeah, yeah, I was there for that.

Justin Cox (04:58)
No, it's great to have a nice new brewery, New equipment with better quality control and more efficiency and it allows us to make the craft of beer much better, but we wouldn't be here without Ivy City, so it's bittersweet.

Brandy (04:59)
Yeah.

I mean, I feel so bad for Ivy City. The only people, I mean, I used to go there every single Friday and Saturday night after I left Green Hat. ⁓ And I spent, I closed the bar down with your staff and I have some very fond memories of Atlas. So thank you for that. ⁓ But Ivy City is struggling. Do you have like that automatic?

motion to like when you're driving to where you're probably gone now, but like the first couple of months where you like automatically going to Ivy City instead of the new location.

Justin Cox (05:44)
Absolutely, and I'm in a

carpool with some friends who live in Trinidad and so I like still turn down West Virginia Avenue and it's still like jerk to turn up the street rather than keep going and of course in like perfect Ivy City thing I think it was like the week after we moved out they repaved West Virginia and now it's like a nice road

Brandy (06:03)
Of course, of course, of course, yeah.

Mike (06:04)
Yeah. Well,

just for context, for the listener who's not familiar, Brandy used to work at the first distillery in DC since prohibition. That was green hat. Justin, you were early in the mix. ⁓ When Atlas Brew Works opened in 2013 in Ivy City. ⁓ So that was 13 years ago. And today you have breweries in Arlington, Alexandria, and DC DC proper, of course,

now a gold medal World Beer Cup winning brewery in Anacostia. What's what's what was one of the hardest parts of the last 13 years that stands out in your mind that that you've trouble shot or overcome in the last 1.3 decades?

Brandy (06:50)
that's a great question.

Justin Cox (06:51)
That's a deep question, Mike.

I mean, we'll just put COVID aside, right? That's a pretty easy answer. ⁓ But honestly, mean, the overarching thing, mean, tying it back in Ivy City, right? That facility was bootstrapped and plumbing didn't work because we did it ourselves. The electric was a little sketchy because we did a lot of ourselves and we were still able to make some good beers coming out of there despite all the terrible infrastructure that we had. And that was just sort of a constant. But I think that

you know, having to deal with those things. And this is much more on Daniel's side than mine, but having to learn how to work around all the issues that that place had and still be able to make good beer. It's probably similar to being in a foxhole, you know, makes you a little stronger and you want you to have nice stuff. And it's a little bit, a little bit easier, like some high altitude training that we did in Ivy setting.

Mike (07:47)
Yeah, Daniel, I'm curious. I'm curious to hear from you. ⁓ what's been easier or maybe even more difficult about opening a brewery in Anacostia when you already had this developed brand, that people were familiar with on West Virginia Avenue, bringing it now to the bridge district just east of the Anacostia river.

Justin Cox (07:48)
Me too.

Daniel (08:08)
So there's, I'd say like a couple of things. The biggest thing was actually getting the place built too. this place feels like a behemoth compared to Ivy city. But it's, but no, think for me, it was challenging but fun to sort of adapt the recipes to fit the new brewery. The process has changed a lot. We went from two vessel brew house to a four vessel brew house.

which helps us increase efficiency, it also means, you know, current brewery, get a lot more control over our match temperatures and our match rests. We get a lot more color extraction, we get a lot more out of our hops. So we get to essentially, we essentially have to change recipes to make the same beer, which was fun, but challenging.

Justin Cox (09:01)
scary.

Daniel (09:01)
But it is

the kind of stuff I live for.

Brandy (09:04)
Yeah.

I'm curious if you, so a lot of brewers who work for bigger breweries, which I actually would technically, I guess, classify Atlas now that you've scaled up and you have multiple locations and your beers distributed so many places, I would consider you a bigger scale brewery. When I spoke to some folks who work at other bigger scale breweries,

They say that they love it, but at the same time, they miss brewing the like one-offs and like having more input and say on like the beers and ⁓ doing small batches of stuff. are you, is that something that you miss doing, Daniel? Or are you guys still doing that, but on a larger, smaller scale? If that makes any sense.

Daniel (09:59)
Well, actually in a very fun way, ⁓ we've been kind of, in very fun way, we're to be able to start doing more of that now, think. At Ivy City, were hamstrung by capacity issues, you know, figurative and literal ceilings. every year we kind of like snuck out a little bit more beer, but we're having trouble keeping up with demand, I think.

Brandy (10:07)
Cool.

Daniel (10:25)
Most of our retailers know about that since like 2019. So this has kind of given us, you know, was like cranking out cooler beers, trying to get the seasonals done and like quantities that people wanted them. ⁓ And now we have a little bit more breathing room, I will say. And we'll be able to play around a little bit more with, hopefully we'll see some more one-offs from us. We did just put out a copy style. ⁓

like this winter. Which we got to do with one of our sales guys, aunt has a coffee shop. So, it's always a fun project. We have a pilot system, which we actually haven't fired up yet, but we're still catching up on what do from the build out. But once that's up and running, I think we'll see a lot of cool fun shit from our track night out here.

Brandy (10:56)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jordan (11:22)
And I guess like.

Brandy (11:22)
That's awesome.

Justin Cox (11:22)
We had

a pilot system at Ivy City. was only, was a very manual. They told us was a three barrel. I'm pretty sure it was like a two and a half barrel kind of thing. But it's like, had to mill into a trash can and then roll the trash can across the brewery and dump it in. And it was pretty, definition of manual. But then since we've, that wasn't dedicated trash. That's true. There wasn't actual trash in there. We took the trash out first. always use a liner.

Brandy (11:28)
Yeah, remember that.

Yeah.

Daniel (11:36)
That's it.

Brandy (11:41)
Yeah.

Daniel (11:41)
It was a dedicated trash can though.

Brandy (11:45)
It was a dedicate, yes, of course.

Ha

Justin Cox (11:52)
⁓ But we, know, and that thing had pretty limited functionality and it would, you know, it'd take way too long to produce a teeny amount of beer. ⁓ But then when we opened up our half street pub and same with Alexandria, those are smaller systems and allows us to play around a lot with that, with there, with those places. So get, design new recipes and experiment with some things. And, but yeah, like V said, we've got a seven barrel pilot system at Bridge District that wants our feed.

Brandy (12:09)
Right. Yeah, that's true.

Justin Cox (12:21)
Once we get our feet under us, we'd like to fire up and start putting out some more cool one-off stuff.

Brandy (12:26)
It's cool you have more tank space for your your you know your season your year-round and you know the things that you have to keep You know, especially during baseball season, you know pound it out ⁓ But you have more take space for that bullpen pill. I bull pill bullpen pills bullpen pills Yes

Jordan (12:27)
you

Justin Cox (12:40)
You can say Bullpen Pills are brandy. I've got a

I've got a bet on polymarket

Daniel (12:46)
Thank

Justin Cox (12:48)
for this podcast, so let's keep it up.

Brandy (12:50)
Hahaha!

Jordan (12:50)
⁓ that's

Daniel (12:51)
Yeah

Jordan (12:53)
that's well done. mean.

Brandy (12:53)
Hey, I'm a silent

neighbor whore, so give me silent neighbor. Yes, I'd love that beer.

Justin Cox (12:56)
You

Jordan (13:00)
So my question for you guys is, know, with the, ⁓ it's not new found because you guys have been winning medals for a while now from what I hear. But with some of those one offs that you guys are producing, ⁓ does that give you more confidence to input like or enter some of the one off styles or some of the, ⁓ maybe not the flagship style into other competitions or are you guys gonna kind of rest on your laurels with the bullpen pills?

Daniel (13:22)
Well, Justin, do you want to take us or do want me to take us?

Justin Cox (13:27)
I would say that, as Vy mentioned earlier on, right, we've really found over the years that the tough part about competitions is the time period between the packaging of the beer and when it's sampled by the judges. so packaging is such an important part. We spent a lot of time trying to dial in canning practices in order to preserve the freshness and taste of that beer as much as we can.

And the one off beers we do are normally, we do can some of them, but normally they're draft only. And that's a real hard proposition, to have that survive in some sort of, Crowler or Growler or whatever vessel we put it in. But no, think, mean, to answer your question, we're not stuck on the kind of core beers that we do. We also wanna have the best chance to win.

JB (14:17)
have a nerdy question about that canning practice because you all are sending out beers. Do you treat a six pack or two specially? Like, do you do like a double purge, anything along those lines? We've certainly heard the other brewers, they have certain tricks and techniques to see if a beer can hold up and show better at two months than normal.

Daniel (14:44)
We don't do anything like that. I will say we do taste through batches. Usually this year we're a little bit rushed, but typically we will like, you know, like I mentioned, we keep out of some of the tame samples out of each batch. We'll like taste through those samples and kind of pick which one we think is the best one, has the best shot at winning. But yeah, in general, I don't think like the double poking,

makes too much of a difference. Like our packaging folks are good and like they're able to keep like the total package oxygen down, like just, you know, on daily runs. So, yeah, they could just kind of, you can't just go with the flow on the actual packaging side, but you do choose which batch you like the best.

Mike (15:36)
Forgive me for being speculative, but I have a batch now from January 23rd 2026 and it tastes fresher than the majority of Pilsners I have that are getting to be 90 days old So it seems like y'all were dialing it in probably even before submission time. Did you have that in mind? Like, okay, we're gonna enter Bullpen pills. We're gonna enter silent neighbor. So we need to be really on our a game here

or is it just part of your process day in, day out?

Daniel (16:09)
That's just part of the process day in, day out. The actual brewing side, we were dialing in the brew house for sure. We only started brewing there back in October. ⁓ But ⁓ the canning line that we've been working with is the same canning line we had at Ivy City. ⁓ And the guys that run that do a great job. They did a great job back there, but I think the beer that's coming out now is even better than it was before. So I think the good pack.

Good packaging practices just like come through a lot more because of that.

Mike (16:45)
Jake, I know you had a...

Justin Cox (16:45)
The goal of packaging,

right? The goal of the canning line is to interfere as little as possible. Right? When you've got that fresh beer that's coming out of the bright tank, it's like, how do we preserve every little bit of this that we can? And that's something we strive for every day and our guys have gotten pretty good at it.

JB (17:03)
Nerdy question about this to second is that I just learned as of like 48 hours ago that Daniel and Justin, you don't use traditional lager yeast in bullpen pills. You use a California common strain from our good friends over in Sterling. You ask for yeast. How did that come about? I like that. This is fascinating to me. I know that yeast and lager tend to be generally.

less expressive and such, but like you just want a gold medal with a California common yeast and wow, hey, what a world.

Daniel (17:39)
Well,

we started using the Calcommon yeast because the first beer that I was put out was a district common, which was a California common. But it's a yeast that performs pretty well at colder temperatures as well. It doesn't put off those kind of cold steams, like pretty steam beer characters. But it does give it a nice, nutty thing.

Justin Cox (18:05)
I think it was born out of necessity, When Ivy City really had so much room, both physically and in our tanks. So like, do you do more with less? And to me, was very insightful, dare I say genius, in figuring out that that use could be used to make a really world-class Pilsner.

world-class bullpen poster.

Jordan (18:25)
Wait, I'm sorry, Justin, did you say bullpen pilsner? Was it bullpen pilsner? I'm make sure.

Brandy (18:26)
Ball pen

Mike (18:28)
Hehehehe

Daniel (18:30)
He said both hand filter.

Brandy (18:31)
Pelsner? Make sure we get the annunciation correct.

Mike (18:34)
Hmm.

Jordan (18:35)
It's

not an IPA, it's a bullpen pilsner. Okay, I just want to make sure.

Daniel (18:40)
He's got his tali sheet going.

Brandy (18:42)
Do

we get a cut of this by the way, Justin? Can we get? Okay, all right, cool, cool, cool, cool, Because I'm poor.

Justin Cox (18:45)
You guys are doing great work. We'll talk offline.

Mike (18:47)
It's the, it's the Cal-Sheep Polymarket

bet, Brandy. You gotta get in and you'll...

Justin Cox (18:53)
Ha

Mike (18:55)
my goodness.

Jordan (18:55)
So

I know the bullpen Pilsner won the awards and I know you guys are having that tonight, but let's say it's not award season. You're just having a great day and you wanna have a great Atlas beer. What's your go-to Atlas beer?

Justin Cox (19:08)
You're not gonna like the answer.

Jordan (19:11)
Is it both hand postman? ⁓

Daniel (19:11)
the

Brandy (19:11)
my God.

Justin Cox (19:13)
Full pen Pilsner, baby.

Brandy (19:14)
my God.

Justin Cox (19:16)
No, and seriously, mean, it's, yeah, you know, I mean, you guys know, right? Beer is, it's very sort of time and date specific and activity specific and community specific. but I do find myself like bullpen is kind of my go-to beer. I will say that I've been at the new brewery. I've been drinking a lot more Ponzi than I have previously, because I think it's turning out even more fantastic out of the new brew house. It's hard to.

Jordan (19:16)
There are no wrong answers.

Brandy (19:40)
was waiting for

that word to come. I was like, where's Ponzi? Okay.

Justin Cox (19:43)
There's Ponzi. ⁓

But yeah, but I mean, it's hard to have three Ponzis and get something done. So bullpen's a nice substitute for that.

Brandy (19:55)
True.

JB (19:56)
No, I like having bullpen around because I just walk in and it's like, I don't look at the menu until I have a bullpen, right? Like bullpen is in hand. That's always the first beer. And then it's like, ⁓ is there something else happening? Is there a one-off? Is there coffee stout? But then sometimes it just turns into another bullpen.

Justin Cox (20:15)
Yeah, our pizza partner Andy, you know, who runs the kitchens at the Alexander in the Navy Yard spots. He's obviously a pretty big pizza nerd. And he told me one time that when he goes to a slice shop, first slice he always has is the cheese slice. Like, let's see what they got. If they can make a good cheese slice, then I'll move on to some of the other ones. That's kind of how I treat breweries. Now when you go and you got to try that, try the Pilsner, try that lager. And if it's good, then all right, now we can move on.

Brandy (20:16)
curious.

I'm curious how your Navy yard location near the Nats Park. I know during baseball season you guys are slammed, ⁓ Off season, I know there's a lot of apartments and people live over there. I'm curious what the, if there is any difference, I'm sure there is, but is it such a drastic difference between the off season and baseball season? ⁓

at Davey Yard.

Justin Cox (21:17)
So it's a little strange that we have a really great group of regulars who live around the neighborhood and that are in all the time, you know, and they tend to stay away during baseball games just because it's so nutty. But like on a nice, you know, a 68 degree Saturday, we actually are busier on a non-game day than a game day because people leave for three hours to go watch the game.

Brandy (21:28)
Yeah.

Justin Cox (21:42)
and then come back. So it's like two pockets of super intensity ahead of it afterwards, but more busy sort of spread out through the day on a really nice day.

Brandy (21:53)
That makes sense. It's funny I didn't think about that because when it's baseball season, I always look at the net schedule to see if I'm going to go over to Atlas or Blue Jacket. I'm like, am I even going to attempt to go over there? But yeah, that's a good point. ⁓ smart. All right. Look for the away games.

Mike (21:55)
Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓ last question

Justin Cox (22:10)
Yeah.

Mike (22:13)
I want to put to y'all. ⁓ I went to, went to the way back machine and I saw in 2012 when you guys were just about to open 2013, reporting said you expected to open with ⁓ a 3,500 barrel annual capacity. What annual capacity are you at today? And do you see it?

Plateauing at that number or do you see opportunities for growth even though there's all this sky is falling Beer is done THC drinks are on the rise Millennials don't or Jen Jen alpha doesn't drink etc, etc

Justin Cox (22:51)
So we, Ivy City, like we shoved as many tanks into that place as we could and we were rocking right around 6,300, 6,500 barrels out of there. As V said, we were kind of at capacity both emotionally and production wise at that place. ⁓ And now at the new facility, we have, I think our kind of theoretic capacity out of the gates here is probably about 10,000 barrels. And with a foot...

Daniel (23:06)
Yeah.

Justin Cox (23:18)
or footprints that we could add some more tanks and things and theoretically get up to about 20,000 barrels. And that's a whole lot of barrels. That's a pretty big brewery. But I mean, we're definitely still in growth mode, which is great. And you're right, there's a lot of headwinds in the industry now and for a lot of different reasons. And not all the breweries are making it around the corner. And then, like you said, Mike, THC drinks are out there. Things in the sky is falling from that.

which I personally don't worry about. don't think that, I think if you're Budweiser, you should be pretty worried about that. But you know, for a ⁓ local craft brewer, don't think consumers are like trading that off as much as the press likes to say. ⁓ But we still have like a lot of room to grow. You know, we're only distributed in DC, know, parts of Maryland and Northern Virginia. And we have been sort of out of beer in those areas for a little while. So we're going to kind of see where, where now that we have production capacity takes us and then

I don't know, we haven't had any serious conversations about expanding any geographic territory. That's always something in the mix. Of course, that's a double edged sword, right? When you get too far away, it doesn't work. And like we started selling beer in Tennessee, where I'm from in 2017, as sort of a, there were some legal changes happening that like beer in grocery stores was about to happen, which was gonna be a big deal. And there was an alcohol or an ABV threshold that our beers were under. And there's a lot of things.

Brandy (24:26)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Cox (24:45)
It was okay for a little while, but there was, you know, in Nashville alone at the time, I think there was like six breweries. And then a year and a half later, there's like 53 breweries. And there's like, who are these carpet baggers coming down here? And I have to go down and throw the accent on and be like, that's not what's happening. I'm from here. But you just lose your relevancy, you know? And then obviously, know, quality is a concern as well. And the further away you go, you know, the more hard it is on the beer.

Brandy (25:01)
You

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'm just super jazzed that Atlas has been around for such a long time now. it's, mean, obviously the staying power is here to stay. And I think that's a really wonderful thing. I love the brewers at Atlas and just what you give to the DC beer scene is really cool. And the fact that you've won, not one, not two, not three, but multiple awards over the years.

It says a lot. I think when I hear a lot of our friends who were regulars at the original Ivy City location, they're like, oh, I miss just going to Atlas. But you are loved. And I think that that says a lot because there are other breweries and people love Atlas. So well done.

Mike (26:10)
Yeah, I want to thank you. Really want to thank you guys for coming on the pod tonight. ⁓ We're super excited. You know, I just saw you guys in Philadelphia at the craft brewers conference for the World Beer Cup. But seeing all these old friends in Philly who have been to the original Atlas, the birthplace of Atlas and West Virginia Avenue, they're all coming to DC over the next three months, next half year, and I can't wait to bring them to the new facility.

Justin Cox (26:10)
Thank you, Brandy. That's very nice to hear.

Mike (26:38)
⁓ I could see their minds being blown as I was like you have to see how much square footage they have the ceilings are massive you You could fit a small aircraft in the new brewery So we're Wow, yeah, I mean No, no expense spared so I'm looking forward to giving ⁓ Brewers and hop suppliers and yeast management folks a spin around the new facility

Justin Cox (26:51)
Show them the floors too, Mike. The floors are really nice.

Daniel (26:54)
Yeah.

Justin Cox (27:07)
I appreciate that. we had a... Absolutely. And we found that a lot of our Ivy City regulars, a lot of Capitol Hill people, right? And a lot of them are finding that we're actually closer to where they live now than Ivy City was. It's just sort of getting over to, you know, it's just across a bridge, which is sort of a mental break to get through. But once you do and they come over, they're like, oh, wow, this is a lot closer to where we were, which is great.

Brandy (27:07)
Maybe we could have a beer share there. Hey. Have us back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike (27:35)
Yeah,

yeah. Yeah, that's what I have found. And it's refreshing how close by you guys are, even though you didn't move that far.

Brandy (27:44)
Yeah. I would love to have a beer share at Atlas coming up soon, especially the new one, because we haven't been there officially as a group yet. But until then, I want to plug our May's beer share. We just had a wonderful Friday night beer share at Third Hill. We always have a fucking awesome time at Third Hill. A huge crowd came out. my God, it was so many people.

Mike (27:46)
Yeah.

Brandy (28:14)
So I'm assuming there's gonna be a bunch of folks come out for our May beer share, which is on May 31st. And we haven't been here. It's DC's newest brewery, technically. Hensforth on H Street, 1335 H Street. We're so excited. It's a gorgeous base if you haven't been. Ben, the head brewer there, the only brewer there, co-owner, he makes amazing beers. He even made a table beer, which you had me a table beer.

⁓ So join us on May 31st. Don't know if it's gonna be a members only share yet or not, so ⁓ check in with the socials. And then the Women's Brew Culture Club event this month is gonna be very low key, chill. So we'll announce that on the social media as we're not doing a huge excursion, but the following month we are. So stay tuned. ⁓ Until then, follow DC Beer on social media, follow Women's Fruit Culture Club on social media, follow Atlas Brewing on social media.

and give them a shout out for winning a gold. Hello? Yes.

Jordan (29:16)
And you know, extremely

well done, Brandy. ⁓ My hat, my proverbial hat goes off to you. ⁓ And you mentioned a word about excursions. For those of you that want to take an excursion up to Frederick for the Maryland Craft Beer Festival, that'll be happening. It happens to be Mother's Day weekend, but it's about a week and a half or a week out from the second weekend in May.

for those of you that are clocking that. So I would love to see you guys at the... I don't know. I would love... See, for the listeners, a brewer's job is never done. See, they're always perfecting their craft. That's why they have so many medals. But yeah, you know, I'd love to see many of you, if not all of you in Frederick at the Maryland Craft Beer Festival. And if you can't make it that particular weekend,

Brandy (29:42)
Why are we shushing?

Justin Cox (29:45)
That was an air hose, sorry. ⁓

Brandy (29:48)
I was like, why are we shushing Jordan?

Hahaha!

Daniel (29:55)
Yeah.

Jordan (30:05)
⁓ This weekend, May 2nd, there's a couple of things happening. ⁓ Keeping it in the Maryland ballpark, Saints Row, we're doing a big sendoff party for Saints Row at Saints Row. come out to, ⁓ come on out to Gaithersberg folks. Come on out to Maryland. ⁓ Don't meet me there, beat me there. And I hope to see you guys there for that. And Jake, I think there's some things happening around the district this weekend as well, right?

JB (30:29)
Yeah, I do want to shout out May is Asian American, Asian American, Pacific Islander month. so Blue Jacket and Lost Gen are bringing back the Szechuan peppercorn saison. It might be May's beer of the month over at the brew shop. Wink, wink, dodge, dodge. So if you're a Patreon member, dcbeer.com slash Patreon, you get 10 % off that.

Brandy (30:48)
I think it is.

JB (30:59)
We'll probably be pumping that a little bit on the socials and the website. And Lost Shem's going to kick everything off with a party this Friday. There will be a lion dance, which is always cool. Yeah. And there'll be some chefs. It'll be a good time. But we're headed into May patio season, lots of outdoor stuff.

Brandy (31:12)
Amazing. Teach does a dope job. Yeah.

Yeah, I want to go back one more one more second. I'm almost done. Jordan mentioned excursion and we are planning a big amazing excursion to Wheatland Spring. I know Wheatland Spring is a hop, skip, jump and a long trek away from DC sometimes. And many of you love Wheatland Spring, but it's a hike to get out there. We have teamed up with City Brew Tours.

And Caleb, who is awesome, he's going to be taking us out to Wheatland Spring for their land beer fest, which is so amazing. I don't know if you've been to this, but you really should come. If you're interested, please reach out. It's an awesome deal. And that's June 13th. So we're planning ahead. So if you're interested, reach out. We're doing a really awesome package deal that is well worth the excursion.

Cheers to local beer, DMV love, and go drink a local beer, especially the gold winning bullpen poos.

JB (32:36)
Alright, Daniel, Justin, thank you so much for being here. Excursions, it's not just a great Tribe Called Quest song, we are at DCB or Across the Socials.

Daniel (32:40)
Thank you guys for having us.

Brandy (32:44)
Hahaha.

Jordan (32:44)
Ayyy Jake

Bullpen Pilsner, Bullpen Pilsner, Bullpen Pilsner. Thanks guys. Full circle, I see that, I see you.

Justin Cox (32:48)
Yeah, appreciate you guys.

Daniel (32:50)
Yes.

Mike (32:52)
We're on an

award tour with Justin and Dan.

JB (32:55)
haha

Justin Cox (32:55)
Hahaha