Welcome, everyone, to the DC Beer Show. We are @DCBeer
across social media. Mike Stein, What's in your stein
this lovely evening? Well, tonight in my Drink Proud
Arlington, The Brew Shop Willy Becker, I have
Fonio Rising Pale Ale brewed
with ancient West African super grain, Fonio.
Very exciting. Have to mention Garrett Oliver, of course, one of
the founding members of the Michael James Jackson Foundation,
which we're super excited to,
be able to work with. We'll talk about that a little
bit later in the show. Brandy, what are you
enjoying? What I had
previously enjoyed right before we logged on And
I honestly probably shouldn't have consumed this so fast, but it
was nearly impossible not to. It is
a fantastic beer. Beautiful,
simple, robust. You know what I'm talking about?
The robust porter from Port City. Holy
moly. It is you know, for a
porter, you wouldn't think that you would drink it that fast, but I I
would, bet money on me any day. I I have
to Port City. I have faith in you, Brandy. And as Jacob
Scoopsburg always says, two seasons in DC, Port
City Brewing Company optimal wit season, and Port City Brewing Company porter
season. Today waiting for now. Beautiful. I see
that pineapple and PCBC logo on your beanie brandy.
Represents. For our friends out there in podcast land,
you should know that in DC, we had both Port City Whitt and Port City
Porter weather today, hitting 59 in the District Of Columbia. And
then getting down chilly, we're gonna get some snow, but no accumulation. We'll
see what happens today, Friday. And as we move through
the weekend, what's happening this weekend, friends?
Thank you, weatherman Mike Stein.
We need a green backdrop. That's right. Yeah. Mike in front of it,
pointing at the breweries and the beer. Yeah. We can do the green screen.
It's not gonna be, like, really all that nice tomorrow.
But inside metrobar's enclosed and heated
patio, you will see us. You will see
black owned breweries, black owned beer brands. You'll
see Charles and Courtney from the Black Brew Movement, and we're gonna be
pouring a whole bunch of black owned beer. It'll be for a
good cause. It'll be a good time. And if you like
IPAs, you're in luck, which brings me to what's in
my stein tonight in my tulip from
Wheatland Spring to honor the return of pandas
to DC. Just went on, display. You can go heckle them
like I do, because they're not as cool as red pandas, and they
suck up all the oxygen from the other charismatic
fauna. I've got, Air and Space, the
modern West Coast IPA from City State, one of my
favorite IPAs in the city. Just real nice
classic, crisp, clean West Coast IPA. It's got a
little bit of bitterness to it. It tastes as it should.
So, Greg, Meth, good work. Shout out to mister Goonasingh,
better known as Meth, who made wonderful IPA
at Atlas, and now he's making great IPA at City State.
Honestly, it's it always surprises me how toasty
and warm it is in that little metro bar
encasements, that we get to be in on these
chilly winter days because we do the 12 beers of Christmas.
And I love the Cheers and Beers Black Brewers Tasting
event. And then there was a line out the door last year,
so it's it's gonna be it's gonna be a good time.
And of course, it happens during Black History Month.
We have a lot of stuff going on this month, actually, that I'm
looking forward to because I'll be heading to Denizen's on the
twenty second for the Winter Cask Classic.
I'll see you there, Brandy. I will see you there. Mike Stein, will I
see you there? My plan is to get my ass to
the Cask Classic. Nice.
It's always a slam packed event, and I'm I'm jazzed about
it. But, our beer share this month is at Blue
Jacket at the very end, the very last Sunday
of the month. So we're going to round out
February in the nicest way that we can possibly think
of doing. I know there's a lot of chaos and unpleasantness
in the world and US right now, but we're we're gonna
give you beer. Right proper,
Shaw has actually a deal for you in terms of
the chaos and unpleasantness. They,
earlier this week, launched a program where you can
pay it forward and buy a beer for a
laid off or perhaps put on some sort of
administrative leave federal worker.
You can do it via their Toast. That's their point of service
ordering system, but I think a a pretty, pretty cool thing to do.
I also think that, although it will be too
late for this podcast, DC nine, the nightclub
and live music venue on Ninth Street, also kind
of corridor, is gonna do $2 drinks for
feds. So this is not quite like a,
government shutdown furlough situation, where Jose Andres
is gonna come in and feed folks. But I believe
that there there will be some deals. It's cool to see, like, the
bar, brewery, restaurant community step up. There
are an awful lot of federal workers, obviously, in
the area. So you can pay it forward at Wright Proper
Shaw, buy them a beer. They say thank you.
I say thank you. I wanna say thank
you to all of the fantastic women that
showed up to last weekend's Women's Brew Culture Club.
We headed to Mystique Brewing in Baltimore, which is
Baltimore's newest brewery. We had the loveliest of time.
As you all know, our dear friend Amber is, has moved to
Baltimore, and she is now slinging beer at
Mystique. And we we had the best time. There
were five or six new women who showed up, like Christie,
Corley, some of her friends. And it was it was
so enjoyable seeing so many new folks and
I just announced this morning on the socials
that the women's root culture club is so
is is expanding, and we are now
including the Baltimore branch. So Women's Brew Culture
Club Baltimore branch, which our dear, wonderful, amazing,
original Women's Brew Culture Club member, Amber Paunchy,
will be heading. So you'll see more events. So
I'll still be doing my monthly events, here in the DMV,
and, Amber's just going to be adding on to it and being the
amazing person that she is. It's so exciting to
see, Women's Brew Culture Club expansion into
Baltimore. We love to see it, Brandy. Wanted to
mention that in addition to the February,
the day before the Denizens Cask Classic,
Friday, February twenty first. My,
beverage research firm, Lost Lagers, is actually having a Maertzen,
Senate Maertzen tapping at Right Proper Brookland.
So come on out Friday, February 21. Pete
Jones, my colleague in Lost Lagers, and I are gonna talk about mersin, semersin,
how it was historically served because in
1933, which is what the recipe is based on, a recipe from
1933, they would actually age the beer six months before
tapping it and that's exactly what we did. Kept the keg cold,
cold chain unbroken. So come see me and Pete Jones. Brie will
be pouring our wonderful friend Brie at Right
Proper, Brooklyn. Now, I know there's a lot
of disappointments and chaos and sadness in the world,
but one thing that I love is our DC beer shares.
So if you head on over to
patreon.com/dcbeer, you
can join and support us. Come have a wonderful conversation with myself,
Jake, and Brandy. I know at last month's share at Other Half, I had a
brilliant convo about some of the best beer cities in the world. We talked
about, you know, other countries where you can go to sample,
beer, what the culture's like in those countries. And those kind of conversations are only
available to Patreon supporters. We so appreciate you
supporting here by giving us your ear now. Come see us on
Patreon and then see us IRL at the next DC Beer Share, which
is in at Blue Jacket in February. That's
gonna be the busiest weekend of
Febriere because the 21st, Lost Lagers,
22nd, Denizens, because you know all the
industry folks go to Denizens for the Cask Classic because it's not just Denizens
beer, it's every it's like all the local brewers beer.
Beer, Maryland beer. Yeah. Yeah. is gonna be there. Oh my
gosh. Let's go. So excited. And then the beer share on the twenty third.
So everyone, you you prepared for this for
with dry dry January. So it's time. It's your
time to shine. This is what you've been training for. You've you've
the moment you've been training. Yes. You know, I don't
I I wanted so badly to talk about my women's food
culture or my women in craft beer panel
that is happening on March 4 at Lost Generation.
I have two panels in March, and I know it's not March yet, but I
also know February is the shortest month of the year. And I don't wanna
take away from any of our black history or
black owned breweries, people of color and beer. I do not
wanna take away from them. But I am over
the moon excited because on the March
4 panel at Lost Generation, we
have so many amazing women on the
panel. We have Annie McGinnis, who is actually coming all the way
from Missouri. She is the owner co owner of Vine Street
Brewing, who the fir Missouri's first black owned brewery,
and she will actually be also a representative of the National
Black Growers Association. They are sending her out here.
I feel so honored, and everyone at DC
Beer, we are so excited. We're talking with Courtney of the Black Brew
Movement and maybe trying to get a collab
beer going on while everyone is here. I'm really hoping,
fingers crossed, I have a call with Courtney. So, Breeze Galindo,
is coming. It's gonna be not only in a wonderful evening of
conversation and supporting women in beer, but that evening, we
are going to be holding a fundraiser, a silent auction
for the Michael James Jackson Foundation, which is a grant based
organization that raises funds for
scholarships and education for black,
indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industry.
And as I said this earlier on my on the post,
we need that right now more than ever.
We need hope. We need things to keep us going, and
we at DC beer are always supportive. Speaking
of black brewers, we have a special guest
tonight. He cannot make it to metrobar, but his beer will be
there. Mike and I sat down with Sheldon Goins of
Black Beauty Brewery. Sheldon, welcome back to the show. Thank
you for having me again. Yeah. So we had you gone
probably a little bit over two years ago, maybe, like,
two and a half years ago or so. Right.
What's new? What's new is is, Exact Grail
that came out last week and just making
new recipes as we speak. Just trying to stay different with
my, with our beer. Alright. Let's talk about the new
one. So it's called Exotic Grail. It's a
golden kiwi IPA, and
it is seven one 7.1%. That's the highest.
One? No. 7.1. Okay. I am not there yet. No.
Alright. Alright. I was gonna say. It's a it's an American
IPA. It's my first IPA I've ever done.
And so me, personally, I think it tastes amazing, and I'm
hoping everyone else does too. In the beginning, I was a little nervous
because I've never made an IPA before.
And everyone kept keeps asking me, will you make an IPA? Will you make an
IPA? I'm like, I don't know. I thought that there's a
lot of them out here already, but I'm like, you know what? I might as
well have at least one. So here y'all go. I hope
everyone enjoys it because I love adding fruit to
stuff or tasting I mean, we're gonna get a chance to try
it at metrobar Saturday.
I know, Sheldon, you're not gonna be there, but DC beer is gonna be pouring
this beer. And we we might be slipping, you know we'll sneak a
couple sips on the side. Alright. But we wanna
take it back to the beginning. Right. You
launched with a Saison.
Yes. And then your second beer was a white
stout. It's not, I think, typical
to see a beer brand of brewery go with those
two things and then do the IPA.
So what's, like, what's the reception been like with regards to the
Saison and then the white stout? So the Saison,
that's been the crowd favorite with our company.
It's available all year round.
So with the white chocolate, since it's
different, people are really hesitant until they actually tried
it. But after a while, I was thinking,
like, you know what? I will just have this beer come out, like,
seasonal instead of all year round since it's a it's a
stout. So I'm just gonna stick with the saison being all year round even
though it's considered to be a summer or warm weather
beer. I made it so that you can drink it all year
round. And like you said, it's
unorthodox the way I did things, but I
just wanna stay true to what I believe in this as being
different and just going with what I believe in. I feel like there's,
like, a little degree of difficulty to this, especially with regards to, like,
educating the consumer and maybe even educating
beer bars and stores that would sell it. Not
necessarily about a Saison, which I think is
somewhat of a more known quantity,
but a white stout in particular.
Yeah. That's an it's an interesting one. That's
the beer of yours that I liked the most. Like,
that's the one that jumped out to me, and I feel like I'm not that
you know? I may I may be in the minority there,
but what like, what was it like going and, like, you
know, trying to put those two beers into distribution,
into stores, into bars, into restaurants, into the hands of people?
So for the Saison, since I was the first one that launched back in, I'm
gonna say, October, November '2 thousand '20 '2, It
wasn't that difficult because people knew what a saison was, and it's
just since it was a new kid on the block, people were like, oh, alright.
But orange? I like but orange. But with the saison, that's
different, but let's give it a try. And it was the iMac hit. Now
with the white chocolate, that had to grow on people. And
after it was all sold out, that's when I heard
a whole bunch of noise and everybody like, where's this white chocolate? Where did
it go? I'm like, y'all didn't give me all of that when it
was out and everything. So now y'all love it? Okay. I
had to convince everybody because a white chocolate blonde style, you don't
hear or never seen that before. I've only
one person told me that they've heard about it before, but that's over, like, in,
in California. But that was once. And
when I convinced people to try it, they're like, oh, I thought it was gonna
be different. I'm like, no. All you gotta do is listen to me. Just have
a open mind to try new things. I'm not gonna set you up. It's just
because I made it. I'm not gonna do that to you. We appreciate
you taking, your customers, consumer, and in this case,
fans into mind. Funnily enough, I did
see a blonde stout once in Michigan. And
then in beer history, you know, there was a time where stout meant
strong beer, which just meant anything like over 4%.
Percent. Beer beer would be like two to three and stout meant four or
5% ABV. But you've got a new beer
coming down the pike. I was hoping you'd be able to tell us, a little
bit more about exotic grail. Really, really interesting. Tell us what's
going on with Exotic Grail and where people can find it.
So Exotic Grail just came out last
week. I planned this so that it came out, like, the
February. It's been put because it's
been in the planning stages for, like, a couple months now, and I was very
anxious for it to come out. Because it took me a long time
to get it right. It's because of the golden kiwi.
It's a little sweeter than the regular kiwi,
but since the puree that I use, it's very
potent. So if you add too much in there, it's gonna just
destroy the beer. If you add too little, you're not gonna really taste as
much. So I had to find that in between along with the, balance with the
hops that I use. And so once the final product came, I'm like, alright.
This is exactly what I wanted it to taste like.
And, like, it's not overly hoppy, and
it's not less hoppy to the point where you won't know it's IPA. It's,
like, it's just right. So it's, in my opinion,
it's pretty tropical. I tend to
like fruity beers, but I still
wanted some bitterness to it as well.
And you can taste hints of, like,
pineapple and mango in there as well. So hints, so I'm not
gonna just throw the whole fruit basket at you. And,
yes, 7.1%. That's the strongest
beer I've made so far. So, I mean, maybe in the future, I
might go up to, like, I don't know, maybe, like, nine. Maybe
10, like Jake was talking about earlier.
Yeah. But, yeah, that's, that's my newest baby right
there. That's exciting. It's great to see new products rolling
off the line and, continued growth from from Black Beauty
Brewery. I wanted to ask you, you describe
yourself as Bowie's first, black owned brewery.
And, when we first had you on the show, which was 2022,
you talked to our, co host Jordan, and you
said, you know, my brewery's in my basement. Meaning, you
know, you trial so many batches of home home brew before,
you know, bringing them to market. I'm wondering what what is a
long time in your home brew setup? You know, had you piloted,
batches of exotic grail where you use too much kiwi, not enough
you know, is that you got the Goldilocks ratio or it's just right.
So for golden grail, it took months. I wanna say, yeah, but
months. Maybe, like,
like, three or four batches
worth. A lot of money, went through.
And, yes, there have been times where I put too much puree in there,
and it was just abysmal. I had to dump the whole thing.
And then the last time I made it, I was like, alright. There
we go. So use this amount of ounces,
and this is my hop. So I'm like, alright. I'm a keep it right there.
Let me get this to Oliver so they can scale it up
and then see what comes out. And they did a dang thing.
Nice. But they always do. That's wonderful. Can we expect it in
cans and kegs or will it just be in in package?
Starting out, it'll be in cans and in, Sixtols.
Yes. Okay. Wonderful. When we last spoke to you in
2022 Mhmm. And you had mentioned that, you
had spent some Yeah. Yeah.
November 2022. So, you know, three years because it's
'25, but really more like two years. But,
you had mentioned, you're working in Navy Yard and you had had hit some happy
hours at Buffalo Wild Wings. And it got me thinking at one point in time,
Buffalo Wild Wings was the biggest draft seller in
like, the number one draft account across the nation
was BWW. And I just thought that was
kind of interesting. You mentioned your love for, a golden monkey,
which was a huge, you know, just blockbuster
for victory. It really, you know, took them from
whatever, 20,000 barrels to 200,000 barrels
a year, something insane like that. I'm wondering how you're
seeing growth. You know, are you charting a course? Have you experienced
huge growth? Do you feel like there's been shrinking, growth
with with barrelage? Like, how many barrels do you brew per year? What's what are
you seeing in the market with Black Beauty Brewery? As of right
now, I mean, of course, in the beginning, it was a lot better. But now
that the economy is I haven't seen it
skyrocket really much of anything. Kinda
had to adapt and,
I guess, adapt my scaling. And so
and that's that's that's definitely been a task. But,
we're getting through it because the beer industry is not a easy
game to play. Yeah. You always
gotta adapt to it. But it's it's interesting
to see how DC either is similar to the national trends or is
completely different. We have our our show
supporter, the brew shop in Arlington, and they had sold,
a bloody orange saison and, white chocolate,
the the blonde stout. And they both did really well, and I I was
very thrilled to see that. But, you know, I know
from being friends with somebody brewery owners, sometimes you have to pull from markets to
feed other markets when there's demand. Do you see yourself
pulling from some spaces to go to more spaces? Or do you feel pretty
confident in the amount of beer you're producing to keep the
market sort of saturated with with your products? And I'm
pretty confident. I mean, at most, I'll probably just have to up the
batch that I make. Because right now, I'm doing the 20 barrels,
per round, but I can always go up to 40. But, right
now, I'm just playing it safe, but I think that's one of my
downfalls. I just don't wanna overcompensate them.
Like, okay. So when I do all this extra beer, just sitting around,
like, I want there to I wanna see the need for
it. So if it's needed, I'm like, alright. Cool. Let's go make some
more, not just making a lot and just sitting there in the corner collecting
dust. It's because they wanna fill up their store. Because there's
a lot of beer out here y'all already know. So it's Yep. Easy to
get lost on on the shelf Yeah. Or in the fridge. Yeah. No.
That's a really good point you raise. You wanna see the need for your
beer. You don't want it collecting dust. We know because we're out there in
the in the stores checking candidates,
seeing, you know, how far past Best Buy we're going. It's it's an
issue. But we know we need, Black
Beauty Brewery, a brewery, you know, that that puts, Afrocentricity
front and center. If you are at metrobar tomorrow,
you will see Black Beauty Brewery's products there. Where else
should folks look for you around town or what's coming down the pike with, for
Black Beauty? So if you wanna see the full list of where our beer is
located, you can go on our website at
www.blackbeautybrewery.net. And there's a whole
list of our locations there. We're currently over
in Delaware and DC and
Maryland, and we're over in Tula Wines,
Rips over in Bowie. That's our number one supporter right
there. It's the home team right there, right down the street. Nice. I got that
Bowie love. And, yeah, we're we're
in a lot of, restaurants and liquor stores
establishments. Yeah. Cool. Thank you so much,
Sheldon. Much appreciated. We're sorry that you can't join us at metrobar
tomorrow. But Yeah. Thank you for letting us pour your beer, and,
here's to what's next. Thank you so much. I hope you all enjoy the
beer. Go ahead and sip sip. Thank you so much, Sheldon. A
reminder, we can see you all tomorrow at metrobar.
Watch DCbeer.com and at DC beer on the socials
for more information about Brandy's
upcoming talks and such. Obviously, as you
heard, you will see us out and about pretty much everywhere
in February. Busy, busy times in a way. The
Brewers Association of Maryland did us a favor by, not hosting
love thy beer. Although, you know, still a little bit bummed about
that. The beer that Denizens brewed for it should be
available on tap for the Cask
Classic. But, yeah, we're at DC Beers on the socials.
DCbeer.com/patreon. Thank you all for your support.
Same bat time, same bat channel in two weeks.
And you always give a nice, like, sign off. You didn't do it.
I like his hair, though. He got a haircut. Looks nice. Yeah.