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Join us in this episode as we sit down with Elinor Reina from The Veil Brewing in Richmond. We delve into her journey managing taprooms, the importance of Safe Bars training, community engagement, and upcoming collaborations—plus, get the inside scoop on the Veil's anniversary celebrations.
In this episode:
- Elinor's background working with Trillium and The Veil Brewing
- The significance of Safe Bars training in hospitality
- Strategies for managing multiple taprooms and community initiatives
- The impact of industry decline and how breweries pivot to stay connected
- Details about Veil's 10th anniversary celebration and surprise collaborations
- The importance of supporting diverse communities in craft beer
- How local programming and food partnerships enhance taproom experience
- Future plans for The Veil Brewing's growth and collaborations across regions
Resources & Links:
Connect with The Veil:
Thank you for tuning in! Follow what's happening in the DC scene at DCBeer.com and @dcbeer on social media. Support us at Patreon.com/DCBeer
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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
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.
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.
Michael Stein (00:06)
Greetings everyone and welcome to the DC Beer Show. I'm your host, Mike, and I'm here with my co-host and we have a very special guest. But first, Brandy, what are you drinking?
Brandy (00:18)
That's a great question. I was just trying to figure out what the ABV of this beer is. ⁓ Long story short, we just had our February beer share at Right Proper Brookland again. Love Right Proper, love you so much. And if you haven't heard the recent very, very, very new and really cool news ⁓ about Urban Garden Brewing taking over the Shaw location of Right Proper, you probably should read some stuff and
Elinor Reina (00:25)
Ha ha ha!
Brandy (00:47)
get catch up on social medias. ⁓ But I apparently came home from Beershare with this beer from Revolution and it is a doozy and I can't find the ABV, but it's called Lumberstruck and it's a black barley wine ale, aged in bourbon, aged in, ⁓ does that say ambrosia? I probably should have better glasses. Ambarana barrels? Ambarana. I'm like, damn, this is, it's.
Elinor Reina (00:50)
Hahaha
Michael Stein (01:12)
And Burana.
That's
a strong beer. That's not a small beer.
Brandy (01:17)
⁓ It smells like I'm going to be drunk.
Elinor Reina (01:21)
But I also wonder
what a barrel full of ambrosia would be like, you know? right?
Brandy (01:25)
Probably pretty good.
Michael Stein (01:27)
Pretty tasty.
Brandy (01:30)
Jordan, I'm so glad you're on tonight's pod. ⁓ What you drinking, boo?
Jordan (01:36)
Well, you know, we're covering a Hayes house on the East Coast, so I was happy to make an appearance. It's also Black History Month, so I also happy to make an appearance. But I'm actually drinking one of the other half anniversary beers, of which there were several. But this is one of the 12 collabs. was the Green Warlocks, it's a Hayes 8-2, Nectarine Tangier Columbus Cryo and Nectarine Cryo.
So yeah, I'm enjoying that and again, happy Black History Month to everyone. Hopefully everyone's doing well and staying warm and icing out because the ice is slowly fading. Although we just got hit with some more snow. But Elinor, our guest tonight, ⁓ what are you drinking? What are you having?
Elinor Reina (02:13)
So I am ⁓ drinking a blonde ale called Little Grey Cells. it was one of the things that I really appreciate about the ale is that we have our heavy hitters. We have our stuff that's pretty regularly in rotation. But we have such a talented team in our cellar. ⁓ And oftentimes, we'll give them the chance to brew something that
is like entirely their recipe, their concept, just kind of like they get to fuck around with it ⁓ on our pilot system. So it's a little bit of a smaller batch, but they really get to dial it in. So Chris Sarnowski, who is ⁓ one of our cellar humans, ⁓ this is his recipe, his concept, and I just like can't get enough of it. It's a total staff favorite right now. It's just like super easy, but really, really like complex and refreshing at the same time. So.
Cheers to Chris Sarnosky. He's such a talented brewery human and I love this beer so much. So that's what I'm at right now. Yeah.
Brandy (03:16)
Cheers to Chris. Cheers to all of our
Jordan (03:18)
Cheers, cheers, nice.
Brandy (03:20)
amazing brewers, cellar people, and back a house, front a house, all of our local beer people. We love you and what would we do without you? We'd be so sad and dry. I'm going to let our host with the most tonight officially introduce our guest. Mike Stein, what are you drinking tonight?
Elinor Reina (03:27)
my gosh.
We'd be so lost, so lost. Yeah.
Michael Stein (03:33)
You
Thanks for asking, Brandy. Before we get into official introductions, I'm having American Pale from Thornbridge. This is actually an English beer which just made its way to DC, to the district proper. This is a beer that is from the Union, so there's an old ⁓ classic style of fermentation called the Burton Union.
Elinor Reina (03:46)
You
How nice.
Michael Stein (04:07)
And a big brewery in England, believe it's Marston's, was bought out by Heineken and it was kind of deemed an irrelevant way for fermentation. Well, Garrett Oliver messaged Thornbridge and was like, Hey gang, do y'all want to save some beer history? And they were like, sure. And so this to my knowledge is the first beer from the Burton union, ⁓ coming from Thornbridge in the UK. So it's a special beer. ⁓ the story behind it is wonderful. It's also just a damn fine pale ale.
5.2 % ABV. It's a very mild beer, full of hops, full of character. It's brewed in Maris Otter, which is a favorite barley of American brewers as well as English brewers and Scottish brewers and brewers the world over. But let's get to you. Elinor Reyna, you are our special guest. You are representing the Veil Brewing out of Richmond. ⁓ You're also unique in that you're a wonderful manager confirmed by...
Elinor Reina (04:41)
Yeah.
Michael Stein (05:04)
by many folks in the Richmond area all the way up here to DC, but also you lead Safe Bar trainings. And we wanted to talk a little bit about that tonight. Tell us about yourself, your work and how things are where you're at in the Richmond area.
Elinor Reina (05:19)
Yeah. Well, so I've been in Richmond for about seven years now, it'll be seven years in June. ⁓ And I've worked for the veil. I was in Boston. No, no, that's okay. I was in Boston actually working for Trillium. ⁓ Yeah, so I was I was with those folks for about two years. I was living in Portland, Maine before that ⁓ industry adjacent, but not necessarily industry involved. But
Brandy (05:29)
Where were you before? Sorry.
Elinor Reina (05:49)
⁓ I feel like I've just been kind of chasing good beer around the East Coast and around the country in general since probably a little bit before I was actually supposed to be drinking really good beers. but you know, don't tell my mom, it's fine. But yeah, so I've been with the Vale for the last seven years and I knew that I wanted to work with them after. ⁓
Brandy (06:01)
You
Elinor Reina (06:15)
you know, working for Trillium and they have such a great collaborative relationship and they always have. And I was a huge fan and I moved down here and the only job that they really had available for me at the time was in the packaging department. And I was just like, let's go dude, like I will do whatever you need me to do. I will wash kegs, I will haul shit around, I will just, I will be like your go-to gal for whatever. ⁓ was working like one front of house shift a week and
Now I'm managing both of our Richmond ⁓ tasting rooms and I feel really fortunate to have one of my coworkers from the early days who also was a front of house person with me. She's our Norfolk tasting room manager, Carling. She's incredible. So it's really just, I feel like I've been so fortunate to work alongside such great people ⁓ since the day that I started and in so many different departments. ⁓
So I've been involved because of that and because of my industry experience in Boston. I've been involved with Pink Boots Society too, which is another really important facet of my career and the time that I spend pretty much every day here in Richmond. I'm the chapter co-leader along with Tasha Dixon, the head brewer at Ardent, Craft Ales. Yeah, dude, Tasha, love you Tasha. Love Tasha so much.
Brandy (07:40)
Love, Tasha!
Elinor Reina (07:43)
I'm
so grateful for her. And yeah, so we're both really passionate about Pink Boot Society and all those initiatives too. yeah, ⁓ about a year ago, I was trained as a Safe Bars trainer, ⁓ which is the other nonprofit that I devote a lot of my time and energy to. We're actually having a fundraiser for Safe Bars.
in our tasting room tonight, so they let me sneak away into my office to talk to y'all. So, ⁓ but yeah, so that's kind of what I spend most of my time when I'm not at the Vale hanging out and working on. So, you know, yeah, it's a busy life. ⁓
Michael Stein (08:13)
.
Brandy (08:13)
Hahaha
Michael Stein (08:25)
Yeah. Yeah. That's a
Jordan (08:27)
And yeah, I mean,
that sounds awesome, but I guess like to the uninitiated. ⁓ So what does safe mean? What does safe entail? And like, how can folks kind of support or learn more about safe?
Elinor Reina (08:38)
about Safe Bars. ⁓ Yeah, so our chapter actually started in 2019. Shout out to Kaylee Smith, who is our chapter leader and coordinator. works for a nonprofit called Safe Harbor, which is specifically, it's a Richmond nonprofit that specifically aims to help women who are,
experiencing the fallout in their lives from sexual violence or assault or human trafficking. So Safe Harbor is a hugely important nonprofit in the Richmond community that has helped so many individuals and their families sort of like come out on the other side of these things. ⁓ And so Kaylee was working for Safe Harbor and came across Safe Bars, which actually started in Washington, D.C.
So shout out to Zach and Amy. They were the two incredible human beings that came all the way down to Richmond on several different occasions over the last like six or seven years, COVID notwithstanding to do some trainer trainings for us. They were fabulous human beings and they are, you know, staples of the hospitality industry in the area. ⁓ But
Yeah, so Safe Bar is essentially as a subsidiary of Safe Harbor aims to provide free trainings to places where alcohol is sold. So hospitality businesses have a lot of different calibers and the trainings are aimed at providing the staff of these places with different bystander intervention tactics and ways to kind of spot potential situations that could escalate into
harmful instances ⁓ where sexual violence might occur. And we basically just want to make sure that every staff member at all of these different amazing spots around Richmond have the tools to kind of be able to figure out when something is happening and to assist when it is and not to put themselves or anybody else in danger in the process. But ⁓ really it's just about de-escalation tactics and recognizing when these situations are happening and what we can do as hospitality workers.
to help alleviate those things. So, yeah, really light, really easy breezy, super, you know.
Brandy (10:58)
Absolutely. Well, it's very
important. I think it's not the first thought that you think of when you think about going to your local bar, but when you're working at these places, you may not think about it, may not be active in the front of your mind, but you will eventually, if not, I mean, hopefully not as often as some people do.
Elinor Reina (11:13)
Yeah.
Brandy (11:28)
⁓ you will come across a situation and I will say from firsthand experience, the training is fantastic and it is a very hands-on. ⁓ You take away a lot and a lot of tools and I think it should be required for any place serving alcohol, bar, brewery, distillery, restaurant. It should be everywhere and whatever we can do to help.
Elinor Reina (11:46)
Yeah.
Brandy (11:57)
promote safe bars training, not only in Richmond, but wherever it's available and hopefully to the places that it's not available right now, let's do that. Absolutely.
Elinor Reina (12:04)
Yeah.
Yeah. And
it's actually, it's pretty great. Like I, I wasn't aware until recently just how many, ⁓ you know, chapters there are across the country, but I think there's like about 30 and, ⁓ which is huge, you know, especially for an initiative of this caliber. And, you know, we, just in the last, you know, six or seven years at this point, since, Kaylee founded our chapter have trained
I think somewhere around 500 individuals that work at all these different places in the Richmond area. And we do recommend that like, if it's been a little while since you or your staff have kind of talked through these, these tactics, we do recommend that you maybe do a refresher training too. So we're more than available for anybody that just like wants to brush up on their skills or has had different experiences in between the last time that we talked with them and, and, that moment when they reach back out, like.
These are just important things that we all feel like really need to be top of mind for people in the industry, especially because alcohol is involved in, you know, 50 % of all instances of sexual assaults. Like everybody always thinks about like getting roofied or something to that, like some sinister, creepy guy in a trench coat, like dropping a pill into your beer at the bar. But it's a lot of times it's also just like somebody that you know, or somebody that you even came to the bar with. And so
How can we as hospitality workers try to spot the signs before ⁓ something happens? And how can we help people feel more safe and comfortable coming into our place as a business and feeling like they even can kind of let their guard down a little bit, know that they're in good hands?
Brandy (13:54)
do think it's ⁓ very welcomed, the conversation. And this is a very specific example. I and Lauren and Matt Splane were at the Craft Brewers Conference in Richmond, last August, was that August or September? Whatever month that was, my gosh. And we were sitting in on a panel.
Elinor Reina (14:12)
Yeah.
September maybe? Yeah.
Brandy (14:22)
with Natasha and several other amazing women were on. towards the end of the panel, you were sitting behind Lauren and I, and someone asked about Safe Bars or it got brought up. And then it was like you were on the panel sitting in the audience, because everyone's like, tell me more, tell me more. so I really think every, it's a very important, but people are interested in it. And I think as long as people
Elinor Reina (14:26)
Yeah.
Yeah.
You
the
Yeah.
Yeah.
Brandy (14:52)
are interested and motivated to be helpful and probably have a different outlook on the rest of the US's climate right now. think that however we could be helpful, think is gonna be the standpoint or the viewpoint of most of the people that I know who work in the industry. So I applaud you for trading and for bringing it.
Elinor Reina (15:03)
⁓ 100%.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Brandy (15:20)
to folks' awareness and I mean, you seem like you're not busy at all. You're not doing lots of stuff, managing two taprooms and pink boots and safe bars. What do you find takes up the most, I mean, how do you manage two separate taprooms? A, ⁓ but B, how do you keep up with all of this stuff? You must be young still, no offense, but like my 43 year old ass is like struggles every day. like, what am I gonna eat tonight?
Elinor Reina (15:38)
Yeah
I ⁓ mean, I'm turning 35 on Thursday, I actually just in New York with my mom this weekend. And she was like, well, this is a milestone birthday. And I'm like, awesome. Yep, I am middle-aged. Very excited about that. Thank you. ⁓ But no, mean, these things, I think we all understand. Managing a lot of different areas of your life, it's
Brandy (16:06)
You
Michael Stein (16:07)
Mm-hmm
Elinor Reina (16:19)
takes a lot out of you, but we all find time for the things that are important to us. And so I think it's just about trying, at least for me, it's about just trying to figure out how to give all these different things that I very much care deeply about, including my staff members at both of the top rooms, including the rest of my coworkers and my peers in the industry in Richmond, just trying to give all these things ⁓ at least some attention during the week.
But I mean, I'm fortunate in the fact that the two Richmond Tasting Rooms are only an eight minute drive apart. And we've got a great company car, the Volkswagen Tiguan, can't recommend it enough. ⁓ So I get to just kind of zip around and we'll run errands and make sure that everybody has what they need to feel supported and feel like they can have a good shift and feel empowered in those moments.
That's the kind of attitude that I also feel like I try to have with my Pink Boots chapter and with our hospitality peers whenever we're in a Safe Bars environment. We just want to make sure that everybody feels like they have the tools at hand to feel supported and to be successful during any of the interactions that they might have.
Brandy (17:37)
You
give a lot and you should be given your flowers. So we all thank you.
Elinor Reina (17:43)
Thank you, thank you all. It's work that we all do because we care so deeply about it and we care about our community. And I think that's the root of it. And especially like with craft beer in general, like it really is such a unique community across the world. Like there's not a lot of people that... ⁓
Brandy (17:44)
Hahaha!
Elinor Reina (18:08)
outside of our industry and our community at large that really kind of understand the tricky things that we have to navigate at any given point in time, especially for folks of color, especially for women, especially for people that might not be what the rest of the population thinks of when they think about the craft beer drinker or the craft beer worker.
Jordan (18:09)
So
Elinor Reina (18:37)
We're just trying to diversify and set people up for success.
Jordan (18:42)
Yeah, and I think you're off to a good start. It's also awesome to hear that you've kind been around two places that I've been fond of, Trillium and The Vale. So you're betting at 1,000 right now. We've got two things for you. First of which, happy birthday, happy early birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. Because birthdays are big and important.
Elinor Reina (18:52)
Yeah. ⁓
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Jordan (19:05)
And secondly, I'm sure listeners would want to know, you've mentioned that you have two taprooms that are eight minutes apart from each other. Are both of them closing based on this recent Instagram post that has been going a bit viral? The tombstone for those that aren't familiar, just go to the veil on Instagram. You'll see exactly what we're talking about here. But Elinor, ⁓ you maybe lower my blood pressure a bit? And maybe those are some of our listeners.
Elinor Reina (19:12)
Yes.
Brandy (19:18)
The tombstone.
Elinor Reina (19:26)
Yep.
Sure, I'm happy to. So just to say it outright, we are not closing. We are very much looking forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary, ⁓ which will be the grand celebration will be happening on Saturday, April 18th across all of our locations. But I think anybody that's been a fan of the brand for a while understands that we've always had a little bit of a flair for the dramatic, I think. ⁓
sort of from the jump, know, I like remembering, you know, back to our anniversary promo videos and our dark days promo videos and where we've kind of just poured a little bit of our slightly darker aesthetic into those things. And I think this was, you know, this was as far along that same path as we could get without like really, really freaking people out from the jump. So, ⁓
Jordan (20:28)
Right, sorry.
Elinor Reina (20:29)
But yeah, I would just want to say if any of my homies are out there listening that texted me, I love you, I appreciate you. Thank you for checking in. But we are very much still, we are still around. We're looking forward to the next 10. And I think for this anniversary, that's so important and so instrumental for us, especially, you know, with the industry, like closures that have happened in recent years, like we just,
We really wanna make this anniversary about all of the partnerships that we've had over the last 10 years, celebrating some of the other breweries that we love so much and are impressed by and have collaborated with over the years. We've got a lot of really good stuff planned for this one. So I think ⁓ the shock factor of the initial post was really just meant to kind of... ⁓
get people listening so that they could be paying attention to all of the other amazing community at large partners and Richmond community people that are gonna be involved in this celebration this year. yeah, we've got some old favorites coming back. man.
Brandy (21:37)
Ooh, let it collapse.
Jordan (21:39)
Well.
Brandy (21:44)
Can you tease?
Are you allowed to?
Elinor Reina (21:49)
Well, I don't know, I should have probably asked
my big boss applesauce before but but I will say there are going to be some that that ⁓ that y'all will be excited to see that are not quite a surprise. But we do have some some new ones for some like recent industry favorites, I think kind of across the board that are going to be making an appearance as well. So it's going to be it's going to be really fun. And I'm really looking forward to
the special draft only options, the special package product that we've got. I just really am excited to celebrate everybody that's been with us along the way for this journey. So we're hoping for another 10 years after this.
Jordan (22:24)
you
Michael Stein (22:29)
So
Brandy (22:32)
Yeah
Michael Stein (22:33)
Elinor, if I, if I can ask you, um, how are the vibes three episodes ago? I'll preface this by saying three. Podcasts ago, we had Jessica Sidman, who's, uh, one of the writers at Washingtonian and she said, the vibes are bad. Uh, and that's in reference to DC, particularly in the district proper. Um, now we've got, you know, about three quarter million folks here. You've got between 200 and 300,000 folks in Richmond proper.
Elinor Reina (22:51)
you
Yeah.
in Richmond proper, but in the Richmond metro area, we're a little, we're not quite that tiny.
Michael Stein (23:03)
⁓ but in the surrounding area, you've got way more than we do. How are your, yeah. So in addition to
Richmond, also have the Norfolk tap room you'd mentioned at the top of the show. ⁓ your friend is managing there. So three tap rooms for the veil. how are the vibes at the veil? Do you see, you know, sustainability and growth or the vibes bad as Ms. Sidman told us.
Elinor Reina (23:22)
Ha!
You know, I think it's a tricky question, I think, across the board, right? Because we are all seeing that there has been a decline, especially with younger people, in their engagement and their participation in the craft beer industry as a whole. ⁓ Gen Z, or at least the younger part of Gen Z, just really isn't.
drinking in the ways that, you know, millennials and upper generations were. And I think COVID had a huge hand in that, right, for a myriad of reasons. so we are all just kind of seeing a decline across the board, right? And some breweries that I really love ⁓ personally have closed their doors in the last couple of years. And so I think even if you just take all of that at face value, that's going to be a little discouraging, right?
And, you know, I think it's not a secret that we had to make some really tough staffing decisions right before the holidays last year in 2024. And we had to do some hard rearranging and we lost like some of our, you know, staff members that had been around since almost the very beginning. And those calls were
really tough, think, for the ownership and upper management to have to make. But we just kind of have done everything that we can to keep going and stay engaged. especially for our Norfolk Tasting Room, ⁓ they've undergone a few different sort of overhauls in ⁓ the food concepts. we have a
amazing cocktail lounge up on the third floor. It's a three-floor building. so we've rebranded some of our different floors and the areas even just within that building itself, just to kind of try and be a little flexible with the people that were looking to get into our building and the people that are in the neighborhood and what they want. And I think that
I wouldn't say the vibes are bad. I think the vibes are hopeful. The vibes are, I ⁓ mean, anybody that lived through like the, like, you know, early 2010s craft beer hype, like that's not really a thing anymore, right? So when you're comparing it to the days of like wrapped around the block, like bottle lines and, you know.
Brandy (25:53)
Slower maybe?
Yeah.
Elinor Reina (26:15)
and things like that, it's gonna look a little sad. But I think the thing that I have loved so much about the breweries that are still kicking, us included, is that people have been really willing to just kind of try new things and involve ⁓ different parts of our communities and our communities at large that maybe we weren't necessarily trying to involve.
Brandy (26:20)
Mm-hmm.
Elinor Reina (26:45)
before and I've actually, I've actually seen a lot of new faces in our tasting rooms ⁓ in the last couple of years. And I hope that that means that we're doing something right. You know, but we're definitely doing something different. And I think that if you want to stick around and you want to be involved in the industry and you want the industry to keep going and your business to keep going.
Michael Stein (27:00)
Hmm.
Elinor Reina (27:14)
you got to be willing to pivot, you know? And I think that a lot of the businesses in Richmond in general have done that really, really well. ⁓ we are all, think, the craft, especially the craft, like the fermented beverage businesses in Richmond, I don't think we've ever felt more connected to one another than we do right now.
Michael Stein (27:17)
Yeah.
Elinor Reina (27:41)
and we collaborate, we share ingredients, we are in a giant text thread with one another. I think that we've all kind of figured out after all this time that if one of us succeeds, we all succeed. And, you know, we might not be getting the younger crowd in as much, but we're trying different things and we're trying to support each other along the way. So, no, I don't think the vibes are bad. I think the vibes are...
supportive and we're taking it one day at a time, you know? So.
Brandy (28:16)
vaguely remember
Tasha saying something similar to that. If we all succeed, if we connect with one another and make sure we are each okay, we're gonna do better than just being solo. And I actually think that should be the outlook for lots of people.
Elinor Reina (28:20)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure. But
I mean, we are, think, to kind of reference a little thing that you mentioned before, it's like, I think the climate of things ⁓ in this country in general at large right now are very fraught for people. ⁓ It's hard out here for a lot. Yeah, the vibes in general are a little tricky to navigate.
Brandy (28:58)
bad vibes.
Elinor Reina (29:07)
You know, I've I think we've all been asking ourselves a lot. What can we do as just any one person? And especially in this industry, the thing that we figured out is like the one thing that we can do is just show up for each other. And, you know, like I've got a whole table full of people in the other room right now that are here to support safe bars, but they work for.
a whole bunch of different industry spots that are like my dear, dear friends that just came out because they knew it was important to me. And they also believe in the initiative and they've all gotten their staffs trained. And I think that's how we're going to get through it, right? It's just showing up for each other and being there. If someone calls, you got to answer it, you know? So, yeah.
Brandy (29:53)
Absolutely. What's your go-to
Michael Stein (29:55)
Ahem.
Brandy (29:56)
shift beer other than the one you're drinking right now? Yeah.
Elinor Reina (29:58)
man, I was gonna say other than this one. No, you know
what, actually, we, ⁓ within the last like year and a half, I think, we started making our own version of like a dry Irish stout. And the, let me tell you, the trial and error process of making sure that that beer is pouring beautifully, like we have gone through.
all like nitro blend, 100 % nitro, different faucets, different settings. Like we all care very deeply about this beer and want it to be great. And I think we have just dialed it in spectacularly with this current batch that's coming up. So it's called Yern. And that's my absolute favorite. And it does not, it sounds like urine, but it's Yern.
Brandy (30:47)
Hahaha
Elinor Reina (30:50)
And I only, I'm saying that to say if you can't like, people are gonna hear that. So it's yearning like yearning.
Brandy (30:55)
Like you and and yearn
or to yearn for something? You and yearn? Like, cause I'm from North Carolina, so you and yearn or is it to yearn for something? Like, okay.
Elinor Reina (30:59)
Exactly.
Yeah. It's it's more I mean, listen, it could be whatever you want it to be branding.
But no, I have a yearning for urine to come back on draft because I love that beer so much. And Guinness is my favorite beer of all time. And this is pretty damn close. So that's always my big my big shifty I get like a big pint of it and I love it so much. So
Brandy (31:29)
You guys should do the, sorry.
Jordan (31:29)
Is is urine ⁓ I'm sorry I was gonna say is urine one of the anniversary beers are we can we get the scoop?
Elinor Reina (31:36)
⁓ we it's no, it's.
Brandy (31:37)
barrel-aged
one. Ooh, sorry.
Elinor Reina (31:39)
damn, that would actually be, that would be great. ⁓ Hmm. ⁓ no, it's not an anniversary beer. Thankfully it's actually a part. It's like one of our sort of mainstays on our menu. ⁓ so if you come into pretty much any one of our three tap rooms, we should have it available. So definitely come down and try it. Cause it's.
Brandy (31:44)
Mike Stein just shaking his head, drinking his beer. Mike Stein's like, my God.
Jordan (31:44)
Just asking questions.
All right, cool.
Elinor Reina (32:06)
Seriously, like one of my favorite beers we've made in the last few years. yeah.
Brandy (32:11)
I was waiting for Stein to ask a question. Go, go.
Michael Stein (32:11)
We, yeah, was going to say we're seeing,
we're seeing a good grip of the veil come up here, ⁓ to DC proper and Northern Virginia. ⁓ have you noticed a change in turnover in the tap room? ⁓ how many barrels you're selling, ⁓ what people are getting into. ⁓ as we look to, to close out the show, give us a snapshot of what's going on now.
Elinor Reina (32:22)
Yeah.
Michael Stein (32:37)
And what people can expect if they come down and see in Richmond or if they come down and see in Norfolk.
Elinor Reina (32:42)
Yeah, yeah, with our increased distribution, know, we've definitely, ⁓ we've had less of the humans that are coming down here, just like for us as a destination brewery, right? It's more available to people than it ever has been, which we are really excited about, because that just means that we have more people that are acquainted with our brand and what we do and the quality that we
really, really try to make sure it's consistent, whether you're getting it in a can in Maryland somewhere or here in the, there you go, or here in the tap room. And I think the thing that I'm the most excited about is like, we've just got really great programming at all three of our tasting rooms. were trying really hard to have a little something for everybody.
um, in a lot of different communities, whether it's a book club or bachata and salsa lessons or yeah, dude. And do, oh my God, it's so much fun. And, um, so that's a little bit different than, than I think the veil that a lot of people remember from maybe when we first opened up where our whole, our whole hook for everybody was like, no, the focus is the beer. The beer is the reason why everybody's here. And
That's one of the ways that we've pivoted that I'm the most excited about is like, we're trying to meet the people in our community and in the craft beer community at large, where they're at and ⁓ give them a little something different to come and do and spend time with us doing while they're in our tasting rooms, because we know the beer is good. We just want to give you a reason to stay and enjoy it a lot longer than you might. So yeah, we've got.
We've got a really great lineup of weekly programming and special events that we are trying to put on every quarter. And we're really excited about being able to feature those things for people. So yes, we do. And yeah, that was, I think, the biggest jump for us in Scott's edition and our flagship neighborhood in particular when we moved from
Brandy (34:45)
and you have food and health.
That's a huge, that's huge.
Elinor Reina (35:01)
you know, our original tasting room into the building that I'm in right now, which was almost three years ago. It'll be three years in April. Shortly after our anniversary celebration, it'll be three years. And ⁓ that was, I think, the thing that I celebrated about the most because I love all of our local food trucks. Love you guys. But, you know, booking food trucks consistently was
was one of the parts of my week that I was just like, okay, what are we working with now? Like who's, who's unavailable on short notice? And you know, so we've got a really amazing burger concept in our Scott's edition tasting room called Remedy Burger. They're a family owned and operated ⁓ restaurant based out of Stanton, ⁓ you know, out past Charlottesville originally. And they've got
Brandy (35:27)
Nightmare.
Yeah.
Elinor Reina (35:53)
vegan options, vegetarian options. They've got great like special features that are limited time offerings. And they're just such a joy to work with. And we've got our mainstay Mexican restaurant in our Forest Hill taproom called Eat Too Mama. And the folks that own and operate it are heavy hitters in the Mexican food department in the Richmond area. And the food is just so wonderful. ⁓
I'm just really, really thankful that we have a little bit of a difference in those concepts too, so that you can get in your car and drive eight minutes in between the two and have a very different experience if you want to.
Michael Stein (36:36)
Yeah. So.
Brandy (36:37)
Before we
get into our events and before Mike Stein wraps this up and asks his last question, ⁓ I want to know if DC Beer can come and do a collaboration beer with Veil or the Richmond brewery. Maybe you can give a good word to your brewers and we can do it. know Tasha is down. Tasha is my, I love Tasha so much. ⁓ Yeah, let's do a DC Beer collab. We did a collab with Blue Jacket recently.
Elinor Reina (36:40)
Yeah.
Jordan (36:52)
Field trip.
Elinor Reina (36:55)
Yeah.
Yeah
Brandy (37:06)
Kentucky Common and we'd love to do more collabs this year. I think that we discussed, we'd love to do more collaboration beers and not just in DC proper. ⁓ That'd be great. putting that out there.
Elinor Reina (37:06)
Ugh.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, Washington, D.C. No, no, that's great.
I, I, Washington, D.C. as a city, I think has always been really important to the veil in general. Like some of the first pop ups that we did, you know, I think I don't know if it was this the same year that we opened like 2016 or if it was very early in 2017. But we were doing pop ups in D.C. and we had like
special branded glassware and DC music scene merch references that as a hardcore kid I loved very much. And we've always really valued having a presence in DC. And ⁓ I think that would be awesome. I would love to host you guys down here and I'll put in a good word for sure. Yeah. Yeah, sounds good.
Brandy (38:07)
Put a good word in. ⁓
Michael Stein (38:09)
Yeah.
Well, Elinor, we want to thank you so much for joining us. ⁓ listeners, if you want to check out some of what Elinor's up to, you can go to the veil brewing.com or you can check out safe bar network.org to get into some of the things that she spent her hard earned time on. ⁓ Elinor, we want to thank you so much. ⁓
Finally, we should just say, if you ever find yourself in DC, please get in touch with us. We'd love to host you, stand you a pint at one of our locals, you know, buy you a cup of coffee.
Elinor Reina (38:41)
Yeah.
Thank you. I actually will be in DC on March 7th for District Beer Fest. So you will see me if you're gonna be there. I will be right behind our jockey box, babe. yeah.
Brandy (38:47)
I have a guest room.
A lot of people are going to that, yeah. ⁓
Michael Stein (38:58)
Nice. Yes.
That's right. We'll see you in March. ⁓
Next weekend is Denizing's Winter Cask Classic. So come see us in Riverdale. ⁓
Brandy (39:12)
I'm so sad I'm gonna miss it, no.
Elinor Reina (39:15)
you're going to be somewhere
nice and warm. It's going to be great.
Brandy (39:18)
I know, but that's
Michael Stein (39:19)
That's true.
Brandy (39:20)
really one of the best events. I love that event every year and I'm really sad that I'm gonna be missing it. So Stein, if you get to go, please say hey to everybody and I love you Julie and everybody at Dennis Ends.
Elinor Reina (39:23)
Sure.
Michael Stein (39:31)
I will, I will give them your best. So everyone follow us at DC beer across social media platforms. Check us out on patreon.com forward slash DC beer. We'd love to see at our next share. It's going to be a blue jacket in March. We'll see you in March.
Brandy (39:49)
and happy early women's history month or women's month. Make sure you come to our fifth annual Women in Craft Beverage panel at Other Half on Thursday, March 19th. We have some awesome women on the panel this year and stay tuned because you know me and I'm gonna do another panel, not gonna be in March, sorry. Time is timing, ⁓ but we're gonna do another one.
Elinor Reina (40:11)
Hahaha!
Brandy (40:15)
really applaud and lift up all of the women and non-binary, all the people of color and beer, because we really all need some extra love and support and women are fucking awesome, especially Elinor.
Jordan (40:17)
Cheers.
Michael Stein (40:28)
We'll see you.
Elinor Reina (40:29)
Yeah. my God, especially
Michael Stein (40:31)
We'll
see you at the Women's Panel. And as you know, every month is Women's Month. Cheers.
Elinor Reina (40:31)
Brandi. Yeah.
Brandy (40:38)
Cheers.
Elinor Reina (40:38)
Thank you guys.