What's So Special About Allied?

Welcome back to The DC Beer Show! This episode is a deep dive into the ever-evolving world of craft beer with your amiable hosts, Jacob Berg, Michael Stein, and Brandy Holder. They're joined by Justin Desmarais, our insightful guest from Allied Beverages, who has some exciting news and industry secrets to share.

Brandy kicks things off by giving a warm shoutout to Justin and the fantastic reputation Allied has earned within the industry. Justin then takes the mic to introduce us to Allied's unique approach to distribution. He explains the notable difference Allied provides by offering release letters to breweries, ensuring they're not tied down to lifetime contracts, a practice that's indeed refreshing in the DC beer community.

We get a taste of Justin's favorite styles—Czech pils and northern German pils—before diving into what he's currently sipping, a special release from Dovetail, one of the many acclaimed breweries Allied distributes. Allied's fine reputation is further extolled through mentions of brands they proudly distribute, like Fox Farm and Schilling.

Amid the chatter, promising upcoming releases in DC and North Virginia, such as Wayfinder and Fox Farm, grab our hosts' attention, promising us exciting new brews on the horizon.

Brandy reveals her go-to beers: Iron Simms, a peach chamomile saison, and Rights of Spring, a ginger honey lager, both from black-owned breweries—keeping diversity and representation in our glass. Michael shares his love for Senate beer, particularly a historical Senate Mertzen that’s soon to be released.

Jacob, not to be left out, describes the eclectic flavors of Anxo's Quince Dry Cider giving us an impromptu tasting note of its tropical citrusy funk.

An intriguing discussion unfolds about the pandemic's impact on keg sales and the refreshing variety of beers now available. And speaking of closures, we bid a bittersweet farewell to Birch and Barley, a beloved beer-centric fine dining spot, giving way to Mallard—a new venture by chef Hamilton Johnson.

Amid the fun and flavorsome discussions, don't miss the heads-up for the July beer share on Sunday, July 21st, with a special request for brown ales in honor of Brandy's birthday. Plus, a tease of potential guest appearances by Brie, Thor, and Josh over at Right Proper Brookland, rounds off the episode on a rather exciting note.

So pour yourself a cold one, cozy up, and join us for an episode brimming with insights, laughter, and, of course, great beer on The DC Beer Show! And remember, for more on events, join us at dcbeer.com/events or support the cause at dcbeer.com/patreon. Cheers!

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Josh
• Ellen Daniels
• Juan Deliz
• Mike Lastort
• James Wisnieski
• Brian Minch
• Chris Frome
• Jon Gilgoff
• Sam
• Chip
• Tory Roberts
• Steven M Quartell
• Chris DeLoose
• Lauren Cary
• Amy Crone
• Clifton B
• Scott Pavlica
• Greg Antrim
• jeffrey garrison
• Joshua Learn
• Alexis Smith
• A t
• Dan Goldbeck
• Anthony Budny
• Greg Parnas
• Frank Chang
• Mikahl Tolton
• Kim Klyberg
• Chris Girardot
• Alyssa
• jeffrey katz
• Andrew MacWilliams
• Jamie Jackson
• Meegan
• Mike Rucki
• Jason Tucker
• Nick Gardner
• Amber Farris
• Sarah Ray
• Peter Jones
• Michael Rafky
• Brad Stengel
• Matt Winterhalter
• Bill and Karen Butcher
• Jordan Harvey
• Justin Broady
• Stephen Claeys
• Julie Verratti
• DFA Howie Kendrick

Creators & Guests

Host

Brandy Holder

This southern girl got a late start in the beer world, but with such a bold and intoxicating personality behind the name, booze was destined to be a part of her endeavors.

Host

Jacob Berg

Jake’s beer education began when his dad brought home a 6-pack of Brooklyn Lager in the mid-90s. It was love at first sip.

Host

Mike Stein

Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence.

Producer

Richard Fawal

President of DC Beer Media LLC and Publisher of DCBeer.com and The DC Beer Show

What is The DC Beer Show?

The official podcast of DCBeer.com! This is a show about breweries: the business, the beer, the craftspeople who run them and the drinkers who love them. Join us as we speak with brewers, brewery owners, and all kinds of folks involved in the craft beer scene.

Jacob Berg [00:00:06]:
Say you can't sleep? Baby, I know. That's that me. That's that us. It's the DC Beer Show. We are at DC Beer across social media. Brandy, what are you drinking tonight?

Brandy Holder [00:00:17]:
Actually, so I drink 2 beers tonight. I drink half of an Iron Simms. And what is Iron Simms, you may ask? Well, it is the collaboration beer that Dynasty brewed for bitter fruit, black brew movement, Harvey Wilder Foundation, liquid intrusion. Andrew of liquid intrusion actually came up with a recipe. Fucking brilliant. Joy Helms Soul Mega, Black Beauty, Black Viking, Urban Garden. It is a peach chamomile saison, and this was my last can. I have absolutely destroyed this beer even though it's not even my go to style of beer.

Brandy Holder [00:00:53]:
Well done. Go support your black owned breweries all year long, not just for Juneteenth or Black History Month. We have many of them in the DMV. Go support them. I also had havesies of a Final Gravity, which is out of Richmond. It is Rights of Spring, the ginger honey lager. It is so perfectly balanced. It's barely gingery, so it doesn't really have all that spice and heat, and the honey is like a wisp of there, but it's there enough for you to taste it.

Brandy Holder [00:01:28]:
It's just this beautiful beer, and then back to back having the peach Kimbile Saison and the honey ginger lager. I mean, I feel like I'm in some sort of bougie spa right now where they serve nice fancy beer. What are you drinking, mister Stein?

Michael Stein [00:01:47]:
Well, thank you, Brandy. I am having Senate beer, the wonderful Christian Heierich Brewing Company, Senate beer, produced at Wright Proper, a joint public history project between the Hyrick House Museum and my firm, the Lost Loggers, the beverage research firm. This is the original Senate beer, the pale lager with corn. So it's a pretty wonderful beverage that I'm enjoying this warm, warm evening. It's delightful. Big fan.

Jacob Berg [00:02:21]:
Say, Mike, pretty soon my understanding is that you're gonna have to specify what you mean when you say a senate. Will it be a senate American adjunct light style lager or will it be a Mersin style lager?

Michael Stein [00:02:39]:
Well, in the words of the Heierich House Museum, Maersen is back, DC. So, yes, we spent years, researching Maersen and pretty soon on August 9th, to be specific, Friday, August 9th, you'll be able to taste, Hi Rick, Senate Mertzen. We're super excited about it.

Jacob Berg [00:02:58]:
Before I give my shout out, Mike, the people have 1 question. Will there be flicked corn in senate Meriden in true American fashion?

Michael Stein [00:03:06]:
No. You know, shockingly, my colleague Peter Jones, who's the other half of Lost Lagers, and I believe that Mertzen may have been the only high rank brewery beer without corn or rice. We know you know, very popular at the time. So from 18 late 1800, early 1900, and even post prohibition into the thirties and forties, corn and rice are the number 1 product. You know? They're huge in American brewing. So when we came across this merits and recipe, we're shocked to find nary 1 kernel of corn nor 1 grain of rice.

Jacob Berg [00:03:45]:
So this is an all malt beer just like it would be in the old country?

Michael Stein [00:03:51]:
You got it. You got it. Alright. Which which was a weird thing for, the biggest brewery in DC, and, you know, we were talking about the biggest brewery in DC on brew day. Heirik brewed sometimes a 100000 barrels or more. Just for reference, I checked the Brewers Association's, site for DC output. They had us listed at 31, 000 barrels last year. So it's, almost about 70, 000 more barrels on average were brewed, you know, in in the 19 thirties around this time.

Michael Stein [00:04:21]:
This recipe's from 1933, so, you know, we need to catch up, Jake. We need to brew about 70, 000 more barrels to hit, the historic 19 thirties level.

Jacob Berg [00:04:31]:
Well, you know, I I appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast instead of, you know, doing 2 or 3 shifts, to on a on a on a 15 barrel system to yeah.

Michael Stein [00:04:42]:
I should've cranked out another 60 barrels. What am I doing? Podcasting.

Jacob Berg [00:04:45]:
That's right. Yeah. Stop stop talking to me. Put put your waiters back on. Put your galaches back on, and, you know, get in there. Start shuffling.

Michael Stein [00:04:51]:
Well, thanks for the voter confidence.

Jacob Berg [00:04:53]:
Yeah. Alright. So keeping it, high Rick or high Rick adjacent, I have not beer here, but it is Ancho's Quince Dry Cider. Oh. 6.9 percent because keeping it under 7 is always nice for tax purposes. That's right. But the Quince adds this kind of nice, like, tropical citrusy funk to it. It's, native yeast from Adams County, Pennsylvania.

Jacob Berg [00:05:17]:
A a lovely cider. I really like just like that nice little tropical addition, and the kinda extra tartness that quince brings.

Michael Stein [00:05:25]:
Jake, here's my question. Yeah. This cider Mhmm. Typically, it's with apples, fermented apples. This 1 also has, quince, fermented quince. Is it a sweet cider, or is it a dry cider?

Jacob Berg [00:05:36]:
It is a dry cider as most on show ciders are. They they let that native yeast rip, and so the finish is dry. But it does have this, sort of distinct, kind of summery vibe upfront. Because if you bite into a quints, raw, you're a psychopath because they are incredibly tart and often hard. But in a side yeah. It's just it's kicking off this, like, this lovely, almost like kind of like persimmonie, pineappley, bready note. It just you know, that it adds, like, a little more of a tiki summertime vibe to the cider while still, you know, Quince being, a cousin of apple, keeping it in that cider family. You know, it's not a passion fruit cider.

Jacob Berg [00:06:22]:
It's not a pineapple cider. It's not a dry hop cider. It's just Apples with a little bit of quince.

Michael Stein [00:06:28]:
Sounds delightful.

Jacob Berg [00:06:29]:
Yeah. Alright. News item number 1 is, I think, birch and barley. July 13th, their last day before they get replaced by Mallard, a friend of DC beer from way back when, chef Hamilton Johnson, ex Vidalia shout out to Vidalia, way back when over on 19th and m, and a Big Hunt regular back in the day is gonna do kind of like new American southern style food at Mallard under Church Key. Do we have any hot takes about this? What do we make of, you know, birch and barley having a 14, 15 year run? Call them to the day.

Michael Stein [00:07:09]:
Well, no hot takes, but, tepid takes. House made tots will still be there. Absolutely. Yeah. But then, you know, we've got country ham. We've got, spicy pork sausage, fungus among us. You know? Thrilled to see a vegetarian option on there. I'm willing to say that this may be better than the birch and barley we have seen of late because it's new and exciting.

Michael Stein [00:07:37]:
It's with the seasoned chef, Jake, who you know can crank out quality quality foodstuffs, good sourcing, good ingredients. So I'm of the mind that this may be better than what we've seen from burch and barley.

Jacob Berg [00:07:52]:
Yeah. I don't like I don't want, you know, the commentary among the DC beer, you know, community to read too much into this. Like, oh, birch and barley is going away, and so that means that a beer centric fine dining restaurant cannot succeed. Like, I don't want that to be the takeaway here. I feel like 15 years, especially in dining, that's an eternity. Restaurants kind of come and go. A great many of them fail within the 1st 3 to 5 years, if not the 1st year or so, in ways that breweries don't. Like if a brewery opens and immediately closes, that's awful.

Jacob Berg [00:08:34]:
If a brewery is open for 10 years and then closes, that's also awful. But if you compare the churn of breweries to the churn in restaurants, it's apples and oranges. 15 years is a while. I really do think that bergton barley succeeded at their goal, which was, to give beer a place at the table alongside wine and such. And I think we'll see that continue at Mallard as well.

Michael Stein [00:08:59]:
Yeah. I think, writ large, we've seen the success of craft beer on a national scale. You know, the phrases that I'm hearing is craft beer is now just beer. Right? And and in a sense, obviously, it's not apples to apples with fine dining is now just dining. But to exist in that fine dining space with a beer focus, you know, it it's it's gained ground and we've seen more of it. So what do you make of that, Jake? Would you agree that craft beer has become just beer and that's kind of where we're at, or do you think something different represents the landscape better?

Jacob Berg [00:09:36]:
Yeah. So this is, I think, is, like, the double edged sword that to me is very interesting. In the words of Rosie Perez in White Men Can't Jump, sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win. And, like, what does it look like that we're all, I think, in the craft beer industry, very angsty about the present and the future? Sales and growth both seem stagnant. There's a lot of excess capacity at breweries, that we can get into in a little bit. But if craft beer is just beer, and if you can buy that beer so many more places now than you could 20, 30 years ago. And if there are so many more local breweries doing their things, and you can travel, and you can go, and you can visit. Aren't those all wins? Like, I know that we're all super angsty and that the number of breweries opening and breweries closing is currently about breakeven as opposed to, like, the rampant breakneck pace, that we had Mhmm.

Jacob Berg [00:10:44]:
For the last 15 plus years.

Michael Stein [00:10:47]:
Yeah. But,

Jacob Berg [00:10:48]:
like, you and I both know, like, we can go into rural Pennsylvania Sheetz gas stations and get 3 week old Trokes. Mhmm. Like, my goodness. Like, that's great. It's like, that's all I ever wanted out of all of this Fair. Was to be able to drink local beer and be able to drink fresh beer.

Michael Stein [00:11:10]:
Yeah. Fair. I will challenge you and say I went into a reputable Pennsylvania distributor to find some August Diner, Edelstoff, and I didn't know how good it was locally. You know, we have the brew shop. Shout out to Beth and Julie, owners of the brew shop in Arlington. And their Edelstauff, I didn't know how fresh it was until I had stale distributor Edelstauff in Harrisburg. But that being said, I'm a fool if I don't take the 3 week old at the sheets, and I go seeking German lager from Munich when I'm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. All that being said, Jake, I wanna bring up, an interesting point raised on Twitter.

Michael Stein [00:11:51]:
We published an article, the circle of brewery life closures, beer, metals, and more. And Jeff Allworth chimed in to say DC beer gut check description and subtweet. And, of course, the gut check is all worth mentioning. How many of the 2014 Great American Beer Festival winners from your state are still in business today. DC beer found just 30% survival rate, and then he went on to say Oregon's doing better. He's got an 80% survival rate. But, yeah, Jake, maintaining is the new expansion, isn't it? If your brewery stays in business for 10 or 15 years, that's wonderful. But, yeah, we've we've been through this period where we've seen some great growth, but then we've seen some great closures, and that seems to still be, the topic of today.

Jacob Berg [00:12:38]:
So if you wanna start a brewery today, you might take a look around the landscape. Like, you don't necessarily need a brick and mortar if you take a look at your local breweries and you see that they've got this tank space. Right? Let's say again, purely hypothetical. Atlas, by the way, congrats to their Virginia grand opening. Yes. They'll be brewing there soon. Top room for now. So for those of us who are buying it in.

Jacob Berg [00:13:08]:
Coming.

Michael Stein [00:13:09]:
Atlas is the 1st DC production brewery to open a facility in Virginia. Not the first ever, of course. Speaking of the Christian Heirek Brewery, they had a bottling facility in Richmond, in Baltimore, yada yada. But this is the first of the modern era where we've seen Atlas now, a DC mainstay opening shop in Alexandria. Go on, Jake.

Jacob Berg [00:13:32]:
So Atlas, if they use every single tank and they fill them up, they're gonna have too much beer. That is, they can't sell it on premise across all their locations. They can send it out to distribution, but it's going to sit some places. And so they've got this excess capacity. Again, this is something that Jeff Allworth mentioned, over his blog, Birvana, which if you're listening to this show this show, you should be reading because it's a great blog. He's got data from Bart Watson over the Brewers Association, their economist, who just mentions, well, growth is stagnant, and there's all this excess capacity. If you want to get beer into the market, maybe you don't need real estate. Maybe what you need is the tank space that's going unused at your local brewery.

Jacob Berg [00:14:28]:
And so here in DC, you know, DC brow has done some contract brewing. Soul Mega brews out of DC C. Brown. D. C. Brown has done some stuff for bitter fruit, for a droit theory. They've even done a batch or 2 of Ignite IPA for Hellbender. We'll have Hellbender gets their boiler situation sorted out.

Jacob Berg [00:14:48]:
By the way, good news on that front because the boiler is installed and hopefully up and running, making beer very soon. So there's this brewery brand, this beer brand dad strength, a 2.9% IPA and perhaps other under 3% beers coming soon, they're gonna brew out of Atlas, take advantage of Atlas' excess capacity. There are these, feds who travel a lot for work, let's say, like, Department of State, USAID, Agency For National Development, Lost Nomad, they're brewing out of city state, while city state has some excess capacity. And so that model may prevent some breweries, from closing, going under. I think it also adds to the growth overall if you've got more beer in your tanks, even if it's not Atlas beer, not city state beer, not DC brow beer, what have you, it's still beer coming out. And it's gonna be different, And I think people will be interested in it.

Michael Stein [00:15:47]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point, Jake. Just because a brewery is making a different brand doesn't mean we're not gonna see a proliferation of brands. And in fact, the opposite. With more brands on the market, we'll see a more varied market. Whether that will be a more successful market, that that remains to be seen. Right? We're we're gonna watch, and and see the future unfold before our eyes in real time.

Michael Stein [00:16:12]:
But I have to say it's a wonderful thing to have this capacity in town whereas 10 years ago, so many breweries were struggling for capacity to make enough beer to meet market demand.

Jacob Berg [00:16:26]:
Well said. And so we've talked a little bit about brewing and a little bit about people buying it. Our interview tonight is with Justin from Allied. They're a distributor in Virginia, and so they're the middle the middleman, middle person, if you will, in terms of getting the beer from point a to point b. Brandy, take it away.

Brandy Holder [00:16:48]:
Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Jake. As always, you are the best. I want to introduce my very special guest that we've actually been talking about having on the show for a while, and we finally made it happen. Justin Damaris of Allied Craft Distribution. Hi Justin. Welcome.

Justin Desmarais [00:17:06]:
Hey, Brandy. Thanks for having me.

Brandy Holder [00:17:08]:
Of course. So before we get started, I'm gonna ask you what is in your can or glass or stein or in your mouth. What are you drinking?

Justin Desmarais [00:17:18]:
Yeah. I got a special can of, dovetail pills for the for the warm weather months. Yeah. Yes. Little, special release from them that we got in, on our last drop.

Brandy Holder [00:17:31]:
Good choice. I was there during all that. That was a lovely series of events that happened when Dovetail came to visit. DC beer was so foreign. Like, flies on we're gonna say honey. Yes. Yeah. Because it was very honey.

Brandy Holder [00:17:45]:
It was beautiful and smooth and delicious.

Justin Desmarais [00:17:47]:
Yes. And and and the dovetail folks had a blast as well when they were in town.

Brandy Holder [00:17:52]:
Yeah. I think they did. At least I hope so. I had a blast. Yeah. Before I start drilling you with questions, sir, could you introduce yourself and speak a little about Allied?

Justin Desmarais [00:18:06]:
Yeah. Given

Brandy Holder [00:18:06]:
the spiel that you do, you know?

Justin Desmarais [00:18:08]:
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm Justin Damaris. I moved here from New Hampshire a little while ago, and got into the beer world with a different distribution company in out of Virginia Beach, but had an opportunity with Allied. We're we've been around for actually, we're about to hit 6 years in July. So that's very exciting. And, yeah, we just like to focus on bringing in some breweries that you're you know, they're harder to get around here.

Justin Desmarais [00:18:36]:
We love lager breweries, lager focus breweries. So we put a lot of focus on that. But we have you know, we hit all styles throughout. So

Brandy Holder [00:18:46]:
I know that I've had endless conversations with not only friends in the industry, but brewery owners, brewers, and I know distributors get a extremely bad rap, but I've heard great things about Allied. And you have some of the best and most adored breweries stand up for Allied and say, we love Allied. What makes Allied stand out from the other distributors?

Justin Desmarais [00:19:25]:
And, I mean, I can give you a couple of examples, Dovetail being 1. I mean, it was 2 years in the making. Just really establishing not only just a relationship, but a friendship, and, you know, just helping them out where we can. And, yeah, just really, making sure we take care of their beer, put it in the right the right places. I mean, Virginia and DC has countless amounts of, really good places to drink beer, and, a lot of these breweries have heard of these spots, and they wanna be in there. And also getting these breweries, you know, connected with these accounts as well. Yeah. It's not just kinda, you know, signing a brewery and then getting it on the shelf and forgetting about it.

Justin Desmarais [00:20:09]:
It's it's really paying attention to pull through and making sure that people are enjoying it, listening to the feedback, and reporting back to the breweries, as best as we can. So we really try to make sure we do that.

Brandy Holder [00:20:22]:
I mean, it seems as though you're doing a great job of that because Dovetail and Wheatland Spring sing your praises. So what are some of the favorite brands that you distribute? Like, you personally, do you get popped to go see some people?

Justin Desmarais [00:20:38]:
Or Oh, like, it's, it's 1 of the most thrilling things for me. Like, I I love this job, and I love seeking out these relationships with these breweries. For instance, just for 1 that I'm really excited about, actually this week, we're launching Fox Farm in, DC and well, they've been in DC before, but Virginia especially. So, Highside will be doing an event and a couple other places we'll be featuring them. But I've been chatting with them and become really good friends over the last 4 years, and it's finally come to fruition. So I'm very excited for them. Schilling was 1 of our, you know, brands that we've been we've been working with Schilling for years. And as I'm sure you know, they brew exceptional beer, and they just do really well in the DC and Virginia market.

Justin Desmarais [00:21:24]:
Another 1 that I'm, like, really excited about, they're out of New Jersey. They're called Alternate Ending, but they're brewing really good vloggers and IPAs and styles across the board. But everything we've gotten in from them has just been just killer stuff and starting to get really kinda excited about that brand and what they're gonna do in Virginia and DC.

Brandy Holder [00:21:47]:
It seems as though Allied is really blazing the trail for bringing some of these breweries in, and our local establishments are benefiting greatly from from that. And obviously, so is the drinking public. So thank you for helping aid in that and building these relationships because beer brings everybody together.

Justin Desmarais [00:22:12]:
That's that's the best part about it. You know? That's the best part about it. Which reminds me, I'm also excited for Sojourn. I I listened to you guys' podcast with with, Mike Pauley and, Jensen. Jensen. Yeah. Super excited for what they're gonna do and what they're about. You know, Jensen and I go way back, but Mike Pauley, I mean, he was in he was in my wedding.

Justin Desmarais [00:22:33]:
So

Brandy Holder [00:22:34]:
Are you serious?

Justin Desmarais [00:22:35]:
Yeah. Yep. Shit.

Brandy Holder [00:22:37]:
I didn't know that. That's awesome.

Justin Desmarais [00:22:39]:
Yeah. So really excited. I mean, I I know that he can brew some really good really good beer, so it's exciting that that's right around the corner.

Brandy Holder [00:22:48]:
Do you sell things that aren't beer? I'm assuming you do.

Justin Desmarais [00:22:52]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, honestly, cider does real well. We don't have a lot of cider brands, but Artifacts Cider Project, and North Country Hard Cider, out in New Hampshire. So we sell cider. We have a couple meads mead brands, like Blackheath out of Virginia, and we also work with Superstition and Shram's, we recently started working with. So that was a big 1. And, yeah, lastly, we work with Crunchy Hydration, which they're out of Virginia Beach, and they do, CBD waters and herbal like, sparkling CBD and herbal sparkling water.

Justin Desmarais [00:23:32]:
Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:23:32]:
Those are Which

Justin Desmarais [00:23:32]:
does really well.

Brandy Holder [00:23:34]:
Oh my gosh. The CBD movement is about to explode Yeah. Kind of in the same way that the NA movement. I know that when we first got on the podcast, you were drinking it NA beer, and I respect the hot water, the NA movement,

Justin Desmarais [00:23:57]:
promise you that. I promise you that. Yeah. It's just what the the nonalcoholic stuff that's coming out is it's really good. Yeah. I was drinking the Sierra Nevada Trail Pass IPA and just it's just been in my fridge, you know, just so I'm not grabbing a beer every night. I can have a nonalcoholic or even a crunchy hydration is nice.

Brandy Holder [00:24:17]:
So for our litter listeners who maybe aren't super duper beer nerdy and understand, you know, beer from the beginning to how it gets to you, what specific role does a beverage distributor play in the process of getting a beer from a brewery to in their hands.

Justin Desmarais [00:24:42]:
Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:24:42]:
And let's talk about Virginia law Sure. Why you need a distributor.

Justin Desmarais [00:24:47]:
Yeah. So, the Virginia law, which it really isn't bad considering I've heard other states, it's just a nightmare to get new breweries in. Basically, the biggest hoops you gotta jump through is make making sure these breweries t t TTB and get federal, like, cola approval for the beers that they wanna send for Virginia. And once we have those codes, we turn that into our local ABC office, and then we're able to sell it right away. But, yeah, there's no so, interesting fact, in Virginia, there's there is, like, a franchise designation form that these breweries have to sign, and, technically, it grants us their rights for a lifetime, which is a scary thing for these breweries. But we give an already signed release letter, to each and every brewery so that they can just keep that in their back pocket. If they were to ever be unhappy, they're not locked in with us.

Brandy Holder [00:25:47]:
And I think that is the exact sentence that I wanted you to say

Justin Desmarais [00:25:53]:
Oh, wow.

Brandy Holder [00:25:54]:
Because because all of the other companies, you do sign your your life away. I mean, that's your brewery. You probably put your heart and soul and all of your money into it, and you sign with somebody, and it doesn't work out well for you because either they don't take care of your products, they don't take care of you or your customers. And, that is exactly what makes you stand apart from the other from the other distributors. And that's exactly it. And I'm glad that you said that because I was gonna say it.

Justin Desmarais [00:26:24]:
Yeah. No. It, it's it's sad. There's been some horror stories with some breweries. And as soon as we kinda lay that on the table, it's almost like you can hear them take a huge sigh of relief and be like, alright. We're game. You know? Let's go.

Brandy Holder [00:26:39]:
Do you know what I find endearing about all of this and learning about this and reaching out to Wheatland Spring and and talking to the dovetail guys, they speak so highly of you because this is so refreshing, and it it's it's really refreshing to the DC beer community because we are entrenched Yeah. And and our our our local beer news and drama and goings on and hearing hearing for probably the first time ever, breweries that we love really talk highly of their distributor is is unheard of. Genuinely think that you are the the small brewery craft distributor for the small craft brewery. You know, you don't just advertise it. You you are. And I think that will take Allied a long way. And as long as you guys keep up with this philosophy and way of doing things and building relationships and bringing the DMV wonderful beer, then we will we will continue to support you for sure.

Justin Desmarais [00:27:57]:
Thank you. Thank you so much.

Brandy Holder [00:28:00]:
Yeah. Thank you, Justin, for coming on the show. Is there anything else you'd like to to finish with? What's your favorite style of beer, sir?

Justin Desmarais [00:28:07]:
Oh, 0, gosh. I I would say I would say a Czech pills or a a northern style German pills. Yeah. Alright. But Pilsner Pilsner altogether.

Brandy Holder [00:28:17]:
Pils. Pils. Pils.

Justin Desmarais [00:28:18]:
Pils. Pils. Pils.

Brandy Holder [00:28:19]:
It's like my Yeah. My my Elsoprino dynasty hat, Pilsner on the back.

Justin Desmarais [00:28:23]:
Oh, that's sweet.

Brandy Holder [00:28:24]:
Oh. No. It's a great it's a great hat. That is amazing. Talk to Fabio about that. Yes.

Justin Desmarais [00:28:29]:
Okay. Yeah. I'll have to.

Brandy Holder [00:28:32]:
Thank you, Justin, for coming up for coming on, and, I'm sure everyone all the beer nerds will now know about Allied and follow where Allied, has clients and see where they can get local Allied distributed beer.

Justin Desmarais [00:28:47]:
Thanks for having me. It was an honor to be on. Thank you.

Brandy Holder [00:28:50]:
Cheers.

Jacob Berg [00:28:51]:
Cheers. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you, Justin and Allied. Much appreciated. We don't do a lot of, like, distributor talk on here, but I think that was good chat. Informative. Alright. We just survived, like, 6 actually, more like 10 anniversaries.

Jacob Berg [00:29:11]:
City State's got 1 coming up too this weekend. You should check them out.

Justin Desmarais [00:29:16]:
Mhmm.

Jacob Berg [00:29:17]:
Stein, what else are you getting into?

Michael Stein [00:29:20]:
Yeah. We're, wishing City State a wonderful birthday. We know we've got some goings on at Hellbender. Further down the pike in July, I'm super excited to have a Wayfinder beer. You know, it's really interesting. We wrote about Wayfinder, Wayfinder beer coming out of Portland, Oregon. And I I said I was particularly fond of Secret Secret, their dark Czech style lager. So I wrote those words in March and then sure enough, Jake, in April, who wins a silver medal for Secret Secret in international dark lager at the World Beer Cup?

Jacob Berg [00:30:04]:
Was it was it Wayfinder?

Michael Stein [00:30:05]:
It was Wayfinder. Oh. And full disclosure, I was not judging the World Beer Cup Awards. So there's a there's a super exciting slate both in town. I'm excited, for local favorites city state, Hellbender, our friends at Atlas, and Blue Jacket all over making good beer. But then we're gonna have a bunch of beer coming from out of town. In addition to Wayfinder, we're also gonna see Fox Farm coming from Connecticut, and we're gonna see some really interesting stuff. Some of the more, classic, you know, German lagers and easy drinking styles, but then we're also gonna see, I believe some spontaneous beers from them at Sovereign.

Michael Stein [00:30:50]:
Yeah. And yeah. Exactly. And so Sovereign, July 18th, we're gonna see Cool Ship spontaneous beers from Fox Farm. So it's exciting. There's a lot coming down the pike.

Jacob Berg [00:31:03]:
My understanding is that Fox Farm is a situation similar to Wayfinder, where we will see somewhat routine drops. Wayfinder, Dovetail, Fox Farm coming in to both DC and North Virginia. That's a great thing. Means everyone needs to step their games up because those are 3 very, very good breweries.

Michael Stein [00:31:27]:
Yeah. So, Jake, I should clarify. Wayfinder is gonna be at Shelter on Wednesday, July 10th. So it'll be before our next podcast. But to your point, we hope to see both Wayfinder and Fox Farm rotating cycling in and out of the district, as kegs are kicked. You know, certainly seeing more beer on draft is a wonderful thing. We know during the pandemic, keg sales died. They just straight up we couldn't drink beer over the bar by mayoral order, as as was the thing to do with public safety.

Michael Stein [00:32:01]:
But it's great now because there's a whole bunch of brands of beer that breweries might not even put in cans or bottles, but we're gonna see them in keg, places like Shelter, the Sovereign, Church Key, and then wonderful, weird, big old barrel aged stouts at Hellbender. To quote my friend, Julie from the brew shop, every season is stout season.

Brandy Holder [00:32:26]:
Alright, guys. So July, everyone's taking vacations and chilling because it's hot as shit. But this month, if you come to the beer share, I want you to bring some brown beer. Bring some brown ales for your girl. I know it's July, but it's my birthday month, so do it. When is the beer share, you're asking? Well, our July beer share is on Sunday, July 21st, at Wright Proper Brooklyn. So we'll be hanging out with Brie, and maybe Thor will show up, who knows, and maybe, maybe Josh will be there, because if he is gonna be rocking out some ripe proper, I'd love to have a Black Narrows ripe proper DC beer trifecta and party. What do you what do you think?

Jacob Berg [00:33:13]:
All you gotta do is crank the AC. The temperature outside doesn't matter. You sit down for 10 minutes, 65 degrees, and all then all of a sudden, that that 12% hellbender, red bear rampage

Michael Stein [00:33:26]:
Yep. It become Stout. Stout weather inside AC cranking.

Jacob Berg [00:33:33]:
Alright, all. On that note, we will see you out there. Everybody stay cool. Tip big. We're at dcbeer across social media. And breweries and bars, dcbeer.com/events. Listeners, dcbeer.com/patreon. We depend on the support of viewers like you.

Michael Stein [00:33:57]:
Come see us. As Brandy mentioned, the bottle share is is the 21st. Very excited to see you there. I have a brewer who promised he would show up. Come see who the mystery brewer is at our next bottle share. Dcbeer.com, patreon.com backslash dcbeer. Come support.