DC/MD/NoVA Beer Updates (2017)

Not sure in DC, but Total Wine Mclean and Alexandria have more Backwoods Bastard than I imagine they will move through over the next two months. The beer scene is pretty awesome when this beer is effectively a seasonal shelf beer. It was just a few years ago that I felt fotrunate to grab a couple of bottles.

 

Backwoods Bastard was at Ct Ave-individual bottles and bombers today. Saw 4-packs at Calvert Woodley (Tuesday) and WF H st (Saturday)

 

I've actually seen Backwoods is multiple places around town over the last week - didn't look like it was moving too quickly. CBC, WFP, Schneider (iirc), etc... I would just keep checking around.

As for Lagunitas Born Yesterday, it seems like only a couple places have gotten it already. I grabbed the last sixer from the cooler at Schneiders - didnt check CBC though. It sounded like several other places won't get it until Friday or next week (?).

I also grabbed a BA Troegenator, which was crazy expensive at $15/375ml, but I've wanted to try it for awhile, and I didn't think it got much distro, let alone all the way down here.

 

Jesus, lol. In 2015, when Chicago wasn't even up and running yet, I ran into stacks of this stuff at Harris Teeter. TWO DAYS OLD. Now it ships half the distance across the country and takes over a week to hit market? I have no problem drinking IPAs with several weeks on them, but this beer in particular ages horribly. And it's called Born Yesterday for a reason.

 

Tons tonight at TW Springfield, if you can make it to the 'burbs.

I would be curious to know what bottle dates you're seeing. I picked up a single from TW Springfield, but it appears to be undated.

 

I could be wrong but all 2017 bottles are 'Borned 10/16/17' which should be printed on the neck in black ink as well as on the case boxes. I've yet to see or hear of multiple bottling dates for BY going back to 2015.

 

magruders had it over the weekend. Not sure if they still do. Said they had 5 cases

 

Odd Provisions, 3 packs on shelf currently

 

Bell's black note at CBC and whole foods H st

 

Any leads on any Allagash Coolship (esp Ghoulschip?)

Bell's Black Note is also available at Arlington Brew Shop, along with Commonwealth, Maine Mo, Crooked Run Verdant Force (canned 2w ago), Dogfish Liquid Truth Serum, Bruery Share This, Bruery So Happens its Tuesday, Firestone BBA Velvet Merkin 2017 and a bunch of christmas beers.

Modern Liquors has JWB Dip, Peach Battle Kat, Wake, Hardywoods Raspberry and RBA Pumpkin, some Ardent sours and Stillwater wilds, Upland Darken and Hopsynth and some other stuff.

Harry's has some BBA Modern Times Devils Teeth both w/ and w/o Orange Zest, a couple cans of JWB left. Likely more BBA.

Some bottles of Bluejacket's BBA Double Mexican Radio left.

Right Proper's Jammy Smears @ Brookland is awesome. Potentially canning and distributing their stuff soon.

Saw on Beermenus that Calvert might have TRVE... will verify.

 

Pretty sure Ghoulship doesnt leave the brewery, or at least never hits here. Same for Coolship, although a few restaurants in town have had Coolship Red on their bottle menus in the past year. Pizza Paradiso had it for a long time, maybe check there? Last time I was in Calvert they still had some TRVE left, so did Rodmans and Chevy Chase Wine.

 

Thanks!

Also - Anderson Valley Wild Turkey @ Modern Liquors.

 

Let's not ever discuss Modern Liquors since everything they sell is prohibitively over-priced. F that place.

 

Noted. Clearly new to the scene. Any recommendations on where not to get price gouged?

Cairo? Harry's? Calvert? Metro Wine & Spirits? Craft Beer Cellar? Schneider's? WFH? Yes! in EM? I wasn't impressed by CBC the 2 times I went, but I might not've been looking for the right things.

 

If CBC doesn't impress you then you're in big trouble, because that's by far the best beer store in the District right now.

 

Sorry! Didn't mean to be harsh. That place and 1 West Dupont are generally places to avoid. Most other places will be reasonably fair, though most bottle shops are slightly more in DC (and some places charge an extra $1-2 on top of that). Rodman's and the Total Wines have always had good prices in my experience. It's hard to go wrong with CBC either, as Matt points out, though the limited stuff is certainly not cheap.

 

What are "the right things?"

 

This was (admittedly) months ago when I was mostly looking for a very specific subset of sours and stouts. I've since looked at CBCs inventory online and seen the light.

 

Not sure if you are still looking for this, but I was at 2 different Total Wines (Ballston & McLean) this morning, and they had cases of the stuff.

 

Any more Black Note sightings around DC?