District Craft Brew Scene?? :(

Well, full transparency I guess, I moved away 20 months ago and have been back in town twice, including 3 months ago most recently. First, I threw Wings out there as my reference purely because it was referred to regularly early on in the thread, and further, I still believe from a national or outsider's standpoint, it is the most well known DC beer worth having. Blue Jacket was in full swing when I was local, and it was a fairly big disappointment. Location (relative to Nats Park), building, set-up, etc., it's incredible, and they are backed by huge $. The beers I've had from them, generally mediocre (with a few hits) and the feedback in this thread doesn't dispute that. The beers that had their name on them were better when it was the collabs they did that other breweries actually brewed (before they opened). Obviously that could've changed. I had a couple good beers from Ocelot at Rustico on my last visit in December, yet nothing that stands out to the point of me saying "wow," or even, "I'd like to seek that out again." I'm not trying to get in a pissing match over which area has better breweries; though I certainly believe DC struggles with local brew relative to other major US cities, for sure.

All that said, I go back to my initial post...imo, DC is an incredible beer city. Best beer city I've ever lived in, on the whole. But that opinion is due to the incredible distro and beer culture that's been growing there and due in no part to a good or even fair local craft brewing scene (again, imho).

 

Reflecting over this thread, there seems to be quite a bit of transplant bias taking place: "I moved to DC from X Location and beer in X Location is WAYYYY better than DC beer." We get it.

DC Brau is coming up on 5 years in business, 3 Stars over 3, Right Proper just over 2. Those who give the "District Craft Brew Scene?? " some time will be rewarded, as the locals know. But most folks will probably do their 2-6 year stint and move back to X Location and drink their Spotted Cow/Alpha King/Freshchester etc on their porch. And that's ok too.

 

I have to agree with the sentiment that DC doesn't have any great breweries in the city limits, but the one thing I've noticed compared to other cities in the US is that you're most likely to find a really good draft/bottle/can list at a random bar in DC than most other places, even if those beers aren't made in DC.

Also, I can't think of very many large cities that have great breweries in the city limits. There's probably 10 to 15 off the top of my head and you would have to be generous with the classification of great. It's not like the forums are flooded with ISO: 21st Amendment posts. You're more likely to find great beer bars, which DC has.

I was just up Burlington, and everyone always thinks of Burlington as a great beer city because of Alchemist and HF but they're both 30 to 60 miles away. Fiddlehead, Switchback, and Zero Gravity are all out in the suburbs as well.

 

Bump for assistance. Heading to DC from NYC to give a seminar, our DC office is located near the White House. Any bottle shops not too far out of the way from there I should hit? I saw someone mention the Trader Joes in Clarendon has Hardywood, which would be a target for me, as well as Alewerks and whatever else I can't get up in NY. Thanks for your help.

 

Whole Foods P Street. Also Churchkey is right around the corner from there too.

 

let me direct you to this post, for starters