It's a LAGERFEST!

Welcome back to another episode of the DC Beer Show! Today's episode has much to cover, including an exciting new event at Solace Outpost Falls Church. We'll also dive into the upcoming Octoberfest events and beer happenings around the DMV area. 

We'll be joined by Russell Carpenter, head brewer at Solace Outpost in Falls Church, to get the inside scoop on the highly anticipated Lagerfest (Sat., Sept. 16) and discuss the fascinating world of lagers. This event promises to showcase a variety of lagers, from Pilsners to Marzens, from some of Russell's favorite brewers — including a number that are not distributed widely like Quattro Goombas and Black Hoof — as well as Lost Boy Ciders and live music by the talented German band Lost Lederhosen. The street will be closed for this spectacular event, so you won't want to miss it.

But first, Jake, Mike, Brandy, and Jordan tell you all about the upcoming beer-related events like Hellbender's live music series and the Arts and Ale Festival in Hyattsville, both of which have sparked their interest. In addition, they touch on Denizen's closing of the Silver Spring location and the upcoming homebrew competition at Metro Bar.

The DC Beer team also highlights the 10th-anniversary celebration of the DMV Girls Pint Out at Andy's Pizza in Shaw and prepares for the start of  Oktoberfest celebrations.

So grab a cold one, sit back, and dive into DC beer!

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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

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.

Jacob Berg [00:00:06]:

Welcome to the DC beer show, everybody. You're at DC Beer. Across social media. Jordan Scoops Harvey breaking news on Denizens closing the Silver Spring location. What are you drinking tonight?

Jordan Harvey [00:00:19]:

Well, I'm keeping it in Maryland. I'm having a baby cat Keefer's kolsh. Yeah, I know all the hop heads out there are wondering if I'm sick because I'm not drinking a Hazy IPA right now.

Jacob Berg [00:00:30]:

Have you been kidnapped?

Jordan Harvey [00:00:31]:

Are you okay? I have not been kidnapped. I just like to spread the wealth. And on these hot days, hot few days we've had this past week. I wanted something crispy, so I'm doing that. Brandy, what's in your glass?

Brandy Holder [00:00:45]:

Hi, Jordan. I am drinking Alexander from Shilling. I know all of y'all know this beer, and if you don't, I feel sorry for you. You should definitely know this beer. I bought a four pack at Craft beer Seller. Shout out to Erica. Love you. It's a check style pilsner, and it clocks in at 5% right on the dot. So it's an easy drink and beer, and I very much like it. Stein, do you have something in your Stein?

Michael Stein [00:01:14]:

I am drinking straight from the can like an absolute novice, but I have Peckham Cidery and Orchard Reserve 2019 home block, what they're calling an artisan cider of New Zealand. It's got some wild yeast. It's presenting big britano. Myces character no idea if it's Brett positive, haven't given it a PCR, but I can tell you that this blend of wonderful apples from New Zealand are Tom Put, major Harry Masters, jersey Knotted, colonel Dabinet Chisel, jersey browns, kingston Black Porter's perfection, and Ashton bitter. It's a dynamite cider. Absolutely wonderful. Jake. Our fearless editor, Jake Berg. What are you drinking?

Jacob Berg [00:02:05]:

I have here zero gravities Pisolino, italian style pilsner. Zero gravity is out of Vermont. They are, I think, a reasonably new entry into the DMV market. This is an absolutely delightful beer. I really like it's five and a half percent. It is not just a German style pills that they threw, like extra herzbrucker or like Holler tau in naturally carbonated. I like a little bit of the extra hop. Carbonation is delicate. The water is soft. Then again, if you're going to throw a couple more hops in there, nice to have it be like a 5.5% beer instead of, like a 5.2 or sub beer. We have with us as part of our new experiment, the Solace Outpost Falls Church head brewer Russell Carpenter. Russell, what are you drinking tonight?

Russell Carpenter [00:02:59]:

I'm drinking Buzz Magic, actually. This is a new double IPA from the mothership in Sterling galaxy. And Mosaic. Hops 9% has that sweet back end that you want with a Hazy IPA, but also a lot of that fruit forward, passion fruit grapefruit stuff that you expect from Galaxy and Mosaic. Actually, I really like this beer. I just wish it wasn't 9%.

Jordan Harvey [00:03:29]:

Yeah, well, the best hazys are the best hazy, so if they're 9%, they're 9%. I have to chime in about IPA because who else would do it, right? Cheers.

Jacob Berg [00:03:42]:

I know people are listening and not viewing this, but when Russell mentioned Buzz Magic Galaxy Mosaic at 9%, you could see on the screen Jordan's eyes just get like a little bit wider. Like oh go on, tell me more.

Jordan Harvey [00:03:58]:

I am who I am and I can only be myself. So I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry.

Russell Carpenter [00:04:02]:

Unfortunately, I can't tell you that much more because I didn't make it. But we have it on top of the outpost for limited time and some four packs to go in false search.

Brandy Holder [00:04:15]:

I just went to a Solace outpost very recently, the one in Navy Yard. I had a what did I have? There was a brown ale. I had the Broad Street Brown Pilsner there and then had another one. I forgot which one it was, but yeah, pretty good. Not bad. Wasn't that busy actually shrapnel lager enjoyable. There was no game. That's why I ventured down ale.

Russell Carpenter [00:04:44]:

The brown ale at Navy Yard is made by me. It's a very familiar brown ale to some oh shit.

Brandy Holder [00:04:51]:

I had your brown ale. Didn't even know it.

Jacob Berg [00:04:54]:

Brandy, you actually might have had Russell's brown Ale before that.

Brandy Holder [00:04:58]:

I probably did, yeah.

Russell Carpenter [00:04:59]:

And the pilsner was made by me.

Brandy Holder [00:05:02]:

As oh, I had a Russell beer day. I love that. I'm so excited because like Jake said, we haven't really maybe one or two times, but we usually just have the interview with our guests and then we plug it in. But you are actually on the whole show with us, which is kind of I mean, unless you want to drop out at any time, you're probably going to get tired of us. But thanks for being on the show. It's kind of cool.

Russell Carpenter [00:05:28]:

Yeah, I'm already tired. No, we're good.

Jacob Berg [00:05:32]:

He's drinking 9% double IPA on a Tuesday. It's only a matter of time before it gets early and belligerent.

Brandy Holder [00:05:38]:

That's true. Let's jump into events and then we can get going with all the juicy stuff, right? Isn't that how we usually do it?

Jacob Berg [00:05:45]:

Yeah, and we could talk about Russell's event after we talk about other events.

Brandy Holder [00:05:50]:

You know what, we can't talk about it because I'm not going to be here and I'm going to miss it and I'm going to log off because I'm going to be bitter. Real quick, a couple of things that I am into. Hellbender, my lovely neighborhood brewery. They're doing a live music series, so check out their instagram. I will make sure that I share it on the socials and it's free music and they usually have some pretty good people playing, so go support Hellbender. They're tiny little tucked away in the neighborhood, so come give my neighborhood a boost. There's Arts and Ale Festival in Hyattsville. Love me some. You know, we'll talk about the dentist closing. So thanks again Jordan, for scooping that and talking to Julie beer share is this weekend. Hello? Yay, we're back at Wright Proper, Brooklyn. Thank you, Brie. That's my girl. If you're interested in joining, make sure you sign up for our newsletter, reach out to us, and then other than that, I'm looking forward to this DC State Fair homebrew insider competition at Metro Bar tomorrow, on Saturday. And then the DMV girls pint out. 10th year anniversary is also on Saturday at the Andes Pizza in Shaw. So go support the girls pint out. And I'm going to be missing all the Octoberfest the weekend that I'm in Cleveland. So send me all of your pictures in Octoberfest attire, please. I'll miss you all. Jordan, what's going on? I know Third Hill is having an Octoberfest too. Another half?

Jordan Harvey [00:07:32]:

Yeah. It is upon us, or at least it's almost upon us. I think we're about a week out. But before we get to the Octoberfest events, we have a fruit bowl of Lambics Sovereign. They're having an event tonight, so you can slide by good old Sovereign if you're looking for some lambics or any of the Belgian style beers that they offer if you're trying to stay healthy. Before you get into the Octoberfest Shenanigans Noma Run club. They're hosting a Noma beer run tomorrow. They have some participating breweries as well. That's how it ties into the beer. You can choose your distance if you want to do 2 miles or 5 miles. And then we get into next week. That's where the fun really begins on the 14th. That's next Thursday, october Fest at Atlas BrewWorks. That's the Navy Yard location. We also have a Church Key tap takeover, the Great Lakes out of Cleveland where Brandy will be next week. They'll be coming to DC, so you guys will be trading places. They're doing a 35th anniversary party at Church Key. And then we get into the good stuff that I'm sure Russell can tell us all about. The outpost at Solace is having a Lager Fest next Saturday, September 16. So many October Fest going on. I want to call it October already, but September 16, you can stop by the Falls Church location. 30 well crafted lagers and pilsners for all the crispy boys out there will be provided, so definitely keep your eyes open for that. And as always, if you're looking for some trivia, trivia at other half on Wednesday. So, yeah, come and check me out. And yeah, that's what I'm tracking for now. I think we got some other stuff on the horizon like Port City's Wonder Fest, but what else are you guys looking at?

Russell Carpenter [00:09:18]:

Really?

Jacob Berg [00:09:18]:

Like looking at the event calendar this upcoming weekend. It seems chill, and then as soon as you hit Thursday the 14th, it's bam. Go.

Brandy Holder [00:09:31]:

Yeah, it's crazy.

Jacob Berg [00:09:33]:

Yeah. You mentioned great Lakes Atlas. Octoberfest starts on the 14th. And while October Fests are lager Fests, not all lager Fests are Octoberfest Fests. So we're going to discuss that in a minute. Jordan.

Jordan Harvey [00:09:47]:

And I'll be remiss if I did not mention where I will be September 17 with our good friends at Wheatland Springs for the October Fest. So definitely check that one out if it wasn't on your radar. If you want to get out to the farm, that's something else on the calendar. All right. Over to you, Jake.

Jacob Berg [00:10:05]:

So, Russell, we don't see a ton of events over at the Solace Outpost Falls Church. We know that Mad Fox used to do a thing or two, but oftentimes that thing was like a barley wine fest in January or February, and it left everyone nice and warm and toasty. What's up with lager fest? Why do it? Why so close to Octoberfest?

Russell Carpenter [00:10:27]:

Well, because why not, right? Lager are synonymous with Octoberfest. So I figured I would just bring a bunch of my industry friends in to have essentially it's almost like an excuse to have a party with my friends in the industry. Essentially, all the breweries, one cidery Lost Boy that I invited, and they accepted. I either know the brewers and or owners, so it's just going to be a good time. We're going to close down the street in front of the outpost, just like Mad Fox used to do, and we're going to set up outside and pour beer. So it's just going to be a good time. We're going to have Lost Liegerhosen, which is a fantastic German band out for the event, and it will coincide with our October Fest at the outpost. So food specials and just hoggers.

Brandy Holder [00:11:36]:

I feel like that's how all the beer events are. It's just like all the beer buddies get together and shoot the shit and drink all day and party, because sometimes they're coming in from different states and everybody, all the attendees get to feel that vibe from the camaraderie from all of the brewers that are visiting and hanging out as friends. And it just sets the whole mood, and it just makes everything more welcoming and inviting and fun. And I think that's why these type of events are not only fun for the brewers themselves, but for the guests, because there's this air of just fun. And I love that, right?

Russell Carpenter [00:12:23]:

And that's the point of this, essentially, is that there's either going to be a brewerowner person that works on a brewery that I know pouring their beer, and I don't like it when I go to Beer Fest and see some kind of volunteer and I ask them what hops are in this beer or what is this? And they can't tell me. That's the point of this, to have the people there that make the beer or the people that own the business to talk about their beer because they're passionate about it, just as I am about mine. And so all the beers outside at the Beer Fest are going to be available for tasters, but also all the beers inside are available for tasters. As well. If people aren't familiar with Solace, they can come in and have anything. Like one of the 18 beers we have on draft. Most of them I don't make, but some of them I do, so they can sample anything. It's like 50 plus beers.

Michael Stein [00:13:40]:

That's a lot. We're super excited and it's cool to hear you getting pumped on friends who are coming to Pour. I know I'm really thrilled to see Black Hoof brewing there. Obviously you mentioned Lost Boy and the cidery, and they're unique given that they're the sole cider provider there. But who are you most excited or what are you super pumped on? Either because they're usually not on Broad Street or because they're coming with something interesting that you're passionate about.

Russell Carpenter [00:14:14]:

I'm happy that there are a few breweries on the list that do not distribute at all, which is Black Hoof for one. Quattro Goomba is my friend Chris Jakes makes fantastic beer out there, but it's in Aldi, like way out in London County, so not many people from Falls Church or even from Reston where I live get out there. My friend Josh Chapman at Narrows, he has a couple of beers that were delivered today. They're great. I mean, I've had one of them, the other one I haven't had. But I'm just excited about an event that focuses around something. No offense to anybody listening about IPA.

Brandy Holder [00:15:04]:

Everybody has drinking the IPA, right?

Russell Carpenter [00:15:07]:

I mean, that's the only thing I have right now in my fridge. However yes. Touche Brendan. Thank you. Thank you. But it's just I don't know, to bring people out to taste beer, like beer flavored beer. That's the thing. And yeah, maybe a third of the beers are going to be Meritson, Octoberfest style. I think Port City is bringing the Helles and the Mexican Dark Lager, which I've had, both of which are awesome. But we have to showcase something else other than the IPA and we'll talk about how many flavors you can hide behind with an IPA.

Jacob Berg [00:15:55]:

Yeah, this is interesting to me on two levels. One is that when you do a fest, that's a lager fest, how much curation is involved given that it's also October fest season, just assuming that people are going to bring a mares and bring a fest beer. And so is there less direction given to these breweries than there would be at other festivals where you're trying to ensure some more of a quote unquote balance in terms of styles?

Russell Carpenter [00:16:28]:

There was no curation, essentially by my part other than the breweries telling me what they had. And I was like, okay, this brewery has X and X or whatever, so I'll take that and that and there are multiple breweries that had multiple beers to offer. And I was like, well, these other breweries are bringing, let's say, a Hellas and German pills. Can you bring your German pills? Because I've had it before and it's good. And can you also bring your then you know my friend Chris at Quatrogumbas? He's like, yeah, my light lager, I'm going to bring that. And my Meritson, I was like, that's fine. So it's almost like you can taste different, like a bunch of different merits at the same time. Instead of being if you're in Munich, you're drinking the same thing brewed by six different breweries. So now you can be at one place and drink six Maritimes that are totally different even though they're a marathon. So I didn't curate much except for there were a couple of breweries. I was like, yeah, can you bring this because I like it. And that was it. And they were like, yeah, that's not a problem.

Jacob Berg [00:17:53]:

So earlier you mentioned using hops sort of hide flavors, and to me it's interesting because I think that when people think solace, they think Partly Cloudy, that's the number one IPA that's produced and the number one seller, suns out.

Brandy Holder [00:18:14]:

Hops out.

Jacob Berg [00:18:14]:

Yeah. Suns out. Hops out. Brandy you could find it in Costco. And I look at it sort of as like a local answer, local version to a hazy little thing, or like a Firestone Walker in that. This is a locally produced, reasonably shelf, stable, clean, hazy IPA. It's always going to taste really nice and well done, but not all hazy's. Not all IPAs are like that. And there certainly are beers that I think we've all had where people just kind of like, well, throw some hops in there, see if that gets at the off flavors.

Russell Carpenter [00:18:54]:

Right? To your point, if you go to a brewery, like a new brewery, just try their lager, try their pilsner. If it's not great, their IPAs probably aren't going to be great. No offense to those breweries, but when it comes to making lagers and pilsners, there's nothing to hide behind. You can't just throw more hops at it. When it comes to IPAs in this, partly Cloudy is a very good IPA. Lucy juicy is a very good IPA. Mustang Sally makes a good IPA. No falking around. I think what it's called, this is a family show.

Jacob Berg [00:19:44]:

Yeah, I'm just kidding. You say what you want also, but.

Russell Carpenter [00:19:50]:

Yes, I mean, the more hops you throw, if something doesn't turn out how you want it to, you could probably throw more hops at it and it might be okay. But it might not be okay. It just depends on the person that's tasting it.

Jordan Harvey [00:20:06]:

I would say as again, the neighborhood hop head, it's nice to have festivals where other beer styles are appreciated. Like Snallygaster is on the horizon. In previous years of Snallygaster, it's been a bourbon barrel age beer festival, smoothie, sours, hazy, doubles, all these big beers. And it's like, what has happened to the beer? And I'm saying this as someone who I mean, I really enjoy IPAs, all of them. I mean, other half is turning into my new neighborhood haze factory. But I think it's nice to take a break from the haze. Like, I'm having a cold right now. It's nice to have just some of those traditional styles. They're crisp. It's still hot as hell outside. It'll probably still be hot next Thursday, next Saturday when everything kicks off. So this shout out to you guys for doing that because again, if I could just get all my friends together and they'll all be brewery owners, and we all just come together and bring our beer together and drink all day with friends and family. Sounds like a hell of a time to me. So kudos to solace. I have to make my way down to the Falls Church. I haven't been to that location, but I have been to the mothership, as you called it. So it'll be nice to see how the two compare.

Russell Carpenter [00:21:14]:

Well, not to blanket all brewers, but it's what we drink. We drink the 5% pilsners, hellas lagers, whatever. That's what we drink because you can't drink that all day when you brew. Like, you can't drink a double IPA all day when you brew.

Brandy Holder [00:21:38]:

Challenge accepted.

Russell Carpenter [00:21:43]:

I don't know, it's just easy drinking beers and especially right now. Like you said, Jordan, it's really hot today. It was like 98 or something. In resting. I'm in resting. You can't drink an imperial style, that's for sure.

Jordan Harvey [00:22:03]:

You shouldn't.

Russell Carpenter [00:22:06]:

But you should not.

Jordan Harvey [00:22:08]:

Yeah, agreed.

Russell Carpenter [00:22:10]:

But yeah, that's another reason. It's like bringing my friends together and all my friends are brewers and owners of breweries. That's what they drink. They drink hellas. They drink pilsner, they drink lager. So I think the highest ABV of any lager that's going to be there is like seven ish.

Jordan Harvey [00:22:31]:

Wow. Okay. So, Jordan, you're in. I might have an IPA in a.

Russell Carpenter [00:22:38]:

Car for a we have that's the thing is that we have IPAs inside, so you can oh, well, there you.

Jordan Harvey [00:22:44]:

Yeah, yeah, I'll have to get the IPA you just told us about. But one of the questions I do have, I guess with that being kind of the culture for brewers and for brewery owners, have you guys noticed any new consumer trends in terms of do you think other folks are starting to kind of get out of the whole haze craze, like post pandemic? Or do you still think hazy's are what people are looking for? But true beer lovers stay for the lagers and the pilsners. Have you noticed that?

Russell Carpenter [00:23:17]:

I've been on this train for a long time, but it's been clear, like real, in my opinion, IPAs. So just clear IPAs that are crisp, clean, but still hop forward. That's a big thing. At the outpost in False Church, the lager have been great. Artificial Light is a German pilsner that I make that's selling like mad at both locations, both in Falls Church and Navy Yard. But I do see an upward trend in fruit sours. I can't actually keep them on. Got, I got guys calling me from Navy Yard outpost be like, hey, when do we get the next fruited solace? Like, dude, I still have like, do you want some? Like, I'll send you it's. I don't know. Especially people in DC. Down in the yard just tear through any kind of fruited sour from what.

Brandy Holder [00:24:25]:

I have gathered, especially starting my women's fruit Culture Club. When you get people who are, say, going to baseball games or just in the neighborhood. And the Navy Yard and they hop into Solace and they don't drink beer necessarily, but they're at a brewery. They tend to go for sours. And so it's kind of like certain people's gateway know, and I respect know it's different than drinking Bud Lights or know. So that's probably if I could guess why the sour fruited sours are selling like hotcakes down at Navy Yard. It's probably because the the probably not normally beer drinkers who want something refreshing and not necessarily beer tasting, if you.

Jacob Berg [00:25:24]:

Know what I mean.

Michael Stein [00:25:25]:

Yeah, the other piece to it though, as we're seeing more drinkers from Gen Z get into beer or coming into the fold that generation and myself being an elder millennial, we're looking for flavor delivery devices. So there's been all this doom and gloom, and I talked to a lot of the reporters covering this, like Cape Bernard and Brian Roth, and the idea is not that they're drinking less, they're just drinking different. And part of that difference is having fruited sours, many of which aren't actually sour. And I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who have never tried the classics. This is always great fun, right? You've got an imperial Berliner in DC. It's 6% ABV, and it's got 15 pounds of raspberry puree per barrel. But they may have never had Duchess deburgon, they may never have had Rodenbach. And so giving them a bottle of that and then getting their opinion, their take on it has been wonderful because it's like people, they get the hook on stage with the sour fruited beer, but then you can kind of put them onto classics. And I love doing that.

Russell Carpenter [00:26:39]:

I think it depends on what they think they want. It's almost what every other beer drinker thinks that they want. And I think it's like, oh, let me drink the most popular beer. Oh, I should like this because it's four point whatever on Untapped. But they probably don't. They're like, oh, but my friends like it, so maybe I should. And when you talk about like, Rodenbach, that's an amazing beer and it's so complex. It's like a wine, essentially. So maybe some people aren't ready for that. And so they go for the fruited sour that, oh, this is a cherry sour. We have a goza with cherries. And they're like, holy shit, this is awesome. And then they hate Reddenbach because it's five years old once they drink it. But we had that issue when I was at Rocket Frog, the first sour beer I made did not have any fruit in it. It was just a goza. So my son's name is Kai, and Kai means ocean and Hawaiian, so it's Kai goza to the beach.

Brandy Holder [00:28:02]:

Oh, I know that. That was named after your was.

Russell Carpenter [00:28:07]:

Yes, and we had it on tap for, I don't know, nine months, and it was still fine because it's just a gozo. Like, it's just a sour. The next one was Kai Goes to the beach with Pink Guava. And we couldn't even keep that in stock. So it's the same base, but with pink guava. And I think at that time, which was three, four years, mean, that's when people wanted we wanted the Drecker, not to name drop or whatever, but the smoothie sour, the thing that was chunky or whatever, and that's what people wanted.

Michael Stein [00:28:52]:

Yeah. It's hard to imagine that world four years ago where there was no Hard Mountain Dew, where Baja Blast was not an alcoholic option for me.

Russell Carpenter [00:29:04]:

And you don't have a variety pack of Mountain Dew now, like Hard Mountain Dew now?

Jordan Harvey [00:29:08]:

That's right.

Michael Stein [00:29:10]:

What a timeline we live in.

Jordan Harvey [00:29:12]:

Oh, yeah.

Michael Stein [00:29:13]:

But that is really fascinating, Russell, in regards to the goza, straight goza, quote unquote, with the guava side by side. And see that's data that proves the theory that people want at least what they think they want. And in that case, it's more guava.

Russell Carpenter [00:29:30]:

More cowbell, more guava, more everything. Yeah, more whatever it is. And so I would agree to an extent because I really liked the base by itself. It was sour, it was tart, it was punchy, it had coriander, it had salt. But then once you add the guava, it was immensely better, and I agreed with everybody else. And then I did a dry hop version. And at the outpost now, I'm doing various fruits of essentially the same. Yeah. And people love the fruit forwardness of it.

Brandy Holder [00:30:16]:

Russell, I have a question. A, how long have you worked for Solace?

Russell Carpenter [00:30:21]:

I've been at Solace outpost since December of 2021. So a year and what, nine months ish okay.

Brandy Holder [00:30:32]:

Do you by chance know off the top of your head what the top selling beer at each of the Solace breweries are.

Russell Carpenter [00:30:42]:

So the biggest seller at the outpost in Falls Church is flip flopping between artificial light, which is term of pills that I make, and partly cloudy, which is the standard of Solace. At my place at Navyard, they're asking me for sours all the time, so I'm assuming it's a sour maybe. That is probably half and half with the German pills, maybe. And parley Claudia as well. I don't know. Parley Claudia is the biggest seller for Solace by far, for sure.

Brandy Holder [00:31:24]:

Okay, so the same out in the original location, too, I'm assuming.

Russell Carpenter [00:31:28]:

Well, yeah, they make that. I don't make it, so that's probably 60% of their production.

Jordan Harvey [00:31:37]:

So one question I have Stein, you made me think about it because we have lived through some interesting years. Do you guys do any seltzers at Solace or the Outpost?

Russell Carpenter [00:31:47]:

I make a base seltzer is not flavored.

Jordan Harvey [00:31:53]:

Okay.

Russell Carpenter [00:31:53]:

For the Outpost and for anybody that buys seltzer from Solace.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:00]:

Okay.

Russell Carpenter [00:32:02]:

That's in the recent maybe six months or so. So it's like a 7% base. Are you familiar with Crush cocktails? Krsh?

Jordan Harvey [00:32:13]:

I've seen them. I haven't had them.

Russell Carpenter [00:32:15]:

All right, so that base seltzer is what I make, essentially. It's like a kegurator. As you open the tap, it infuses the seltzer with whatever you want.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:31]:

Got you.

Russell Carpenter [00:32:32]:

And so this company makes a syrup. It's almost like a cocktail thing.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:39]:

Okay.

Russell Carpenter [00:32:40]:

You could have a Mojito type. And so I make that now. I don't know what I'm going to do in the future.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:52]:

Yeah, I was just curious. And for the listeners, I'm not judging anyone's selection again. Before I really, I guess, cut my teeth with beer, I just picked the one with the highest ABV. So I'm never judging anybody for seltzer or sours or barrel aged beers or not drinking IPA, but yeah. Jake, over to you. It sounds like there was a I think we left everyone wanting more, so I'll turn it over to you, sir.

Jacob Berg [00:33:19]:

You got I mean, my question was basically how Solace coordinates brewing across three locations. I know that the Navy Yard outpost doesn't brew, but it kind of technically does because for the purposes of DC tax purposes, barrel aging, a beer counts as brewing it in there's.

Russell Carpenter [00:33:46]:

Yeah, there's barrels, but but, yeah, no, they don't actually physically brew.

Jacob Berg [00:33:52]:

Yeah, but if Solace has partly cloudy out all the time, are you under guidance to not do something that is like, partly cloudy, for example, or say that's like beer 30 or the wheat beer, for example? Is there sort of discussion of, like, oh, you actually might be cannibalizing the sales from Sterling if you did something that was too close to what they were making?

Russell Carpenter [00:34:23]:

No, actually, because they don't actually tell me what to do. It's kind of crazy. Which is fine to an extent. I don't like to be micromanaged, but they also know that I know what I'm doing when it comes to making beer and keeping their brand on brand, essentially. But I have not made partly cloudy Lucy Juicy or suns out or a little bit. I have made a little bit sorry, not little bit cloudy. Too legit a couple of times for them because they have the canning line, so they want to can more. They're like, hey, can you make a batch of partly closet or sorry, too legit. We need to can more of it.

Jacob Berg [00:35:24]:

All right. Lager Fest september 16. Thank you, Russell. Much appreciated. I hope that for the listeners, this little experiment works out. And yeah, we're at DC beer across social media be well, everybody, and everybody hydrate because October Fest, lager Fest. And then. Snally. Bam. Bam. Bam. I guess the Battle of Barrels is in there too.

Russell Carpenter [00:35:47]:

I'll see you guys there.

Brandy Holder [00:35:48]:

Get your livers ready this month, y'all.

Russell Carpenter [00:35:52]:

You guys going to Snelly?

Jordan Harvey [00:35:53]:

Yes.

Russell Carpenter [00:35:56]:

I'll see you there.

Jordan Harvey [00:35:57]:

By the way, folks, I don't know if we realize, but this is officially the last pod of the summer. The next pod drops in the fall. So it's been a joyous summer. We still got a couple more summer events to hit. But this will be the last time you guys hear our lovely voices until fall 2023. I just want to throw that there. Because the fall is my favorite lagerfest lagerfest. And the fall is my favorite season.

Russell Carpenter [00:36:20]:

Lagerfest. All right.

Jordan Harvey [00:36:20]:

Lagerfest lagerfest.

Jacob Berg [00:36:23]:

Bye everybody.

Russell Carpenter [00:36:24]:

See you at Lagerfest.

Michael Stein [00:36:25]:

See you at Snowy. Woohoo.