Hellbender Brewing Company

A brewery with a taproom, with nice indoor and outdoor drinking area, a good atmosphere. The quality of the beer is above average, the service is good. A worthwhile visit.

My clothes having finally dried from that shit show of 23 minutes of play at the Nats/Cubs game last night before the sustained torrential downpour kicked in, we’re finally on the move again, looking for mischief. Fed, yes, drinkeded, not yet, let us seek it out. In the corner of an ‘is this it?’ seemingly unmarked piece of an industrial strip in a residential neighborhood. Looks like we beat the crowd, anyway. And here comes the rain again…

Seemingly single room with a bar to the rear as tasting rooms go. Long, straight split tree topped bar, aluminum sheet rolled and rivotted base with a wood trim, and seating for none (get your beer, then stand clear). Blackboard barback wall holds a 12 logo wood tap handle panel on center below a large ‘HELLBENDER’ printed. Can cooler to the left with pricing and the beer list to the right (beer, style, ABV, IBU, and serving size when it’s not a pint). Glassware & growls shelved on racks to both sides below.

Lino tile floors, except for up front in the dart zone, black drop ceiling with floro lights, strung single ball bulbs across the room, and mostly gray walls with a logo piece done up on a blue space. Flats on opposite walls (one playing a game that Witzel is complaining about because it is not Duke), a lit 3 star flag piece, some light art otherwise, and posters for the 10th Annual Takoma Park Beer Festival later this month. Board games racked in the far corner. Your wife, does she like games? Say no more.

A pair of hightops off the bar with stools, a pair of giant spool tables behind them, and 4 long shared picnics and the like past there towards the front of the room. Corner barrels and bar counter wall space, too.

9 beers up just now (Bare Bones, Kolsch, 4.7%; Ignite, IPA, 6.5%; Sunbreaker, Hefeweizen, 5.3%; Robo Boogie, Brett Pale Ale, 6.4%; Zestify, Sour Ale with Oranges, 6.3%; Orange Summit, Farmhouse Ale, 6.5%; Guava-Beary, Gose with Guava & Raspberries, collab with Red Bear, 4.7%; Dr. Fuzz, Gose with Peaches, 4.8%; Tartuga, Sour Farmhouse Ale, 6.2%). Dr. Fuzz is excellent, as is the Guava-Beary (Good Gose goes on here).

As the brewery is nowhere in sight, I asked ‘yo, where that at?’ and Ben rolled us through the side door and around to the rear, wherest the brewery be. The canning line’s new & what’s all this about a Wee Heavy in Rye Whiskey barrels, huh, huh?

Now back at the bar for another before we split, it’s the Tartuga, and it was solid. There are now people filling in here (we bring the people, it’s true). Good sour things happening here. Would have liked to have done the full spread here but time waits for no one.