DC/MD/NoVA Beer Updates (2021)

Beers-es · Apr 29, 2021

OcelotBrewing said: ↑

Hi everyone, Thought maybe I could help answer and explain some Ocelot questions that have been popping up.

Hmmmm, where to start…

Well, Ocelot has always been an open book with recipes, business practices, and philosophy.

Flagship IPA - Well, the model was always meant as a rotating one. This design was meant to mimic the way we enthusiasts were drinking craft beer (always trying new things). At the time of Ocelot's inception 9 years ago, everyone wanted new new new all the time, for checkins or reviews or just because they enjoyed something different.

We have since made over 250 unique recipes in the 6 years we have been open. Some were incredible, some, not our favorite, but we always kept experimenting. Eventually we started to really want to drink certain beers more than just once every two years, so we evolved to a slightly different model where we would bring back favorites more often while still keeping room for experimentation and collaboration. A beer like “Home” (one of my favorites) is planned to come around 2-3 times a year (stupid COVID messed up a lot of planning btw). We also have a few more “core” IPA’s that will also be included in this rotation.

Something to note here though. We are a small brewery, one that tops out around 2000 bbls per year. If you do your research, you’ll know where that lands us vs some other breweries chatted about on this site. The reason I bring that up is also because being small doesn’t allow us to pick certain lots of hops for consistency. We are at the mercy of the spot market for most of our purchases, and that means the hops could be very different from batch to batch affecting the taste and smell every time. Yes, we do have some contracts on some core hops but not much as the model was never meant to support that.

Can Distro - OK, this starts with COVID (fuckin covid)!

Our model was one where 75% of liquid was going to be sold thru the tasting room thru draft and to go beer. Well, covid obviously killed that so we looked for new outlets for liquid and scrambled to figure out a balance between draft and cans since bars and restaurants were also affected by shutting down or limited access.

Being small means we need favorable margins and we worked hard to partner with distribution companies that would fairly put our beer in stores at a price that wasn’t insulting to you guys. We did that with a few companies, but unfortunately we have not figured out a compromise with our current NOVA / DC distributor and I certainly didn’t want to see $24 4 packs of a beer we sell for $16 or $17. I hope to get this sorted somehow soon as I do enjoy our relationship with them.

Can delivery - When we launched this last year, it was a huge hit at first. We delivered over 80 cases the first week. Then it dropped to 50, then 20, then 4. It didn't make much since to continue. The staff involved, the hours, the insurance, the gas, just didn't make sense. Just being honest here.

Older IPAs - ugh! This one kills me! We test our beers all the time and pull them as soon as we feel it doesn’t represent us. In fact, I just pulled 70 cases of Ebenezer IPA yesterday and will dump them down the drain this week.

House Ale strains - For those of you that have been here, you may have noticed that directly next door is Jasper Yeast Lab. Jasper Yeast handles all of our yeast needs. This is a wonderful relationship that we have and we are fortunate to have them here. House 1 originally was Chico, 2 was fullers, 3 was a Conan variant. As some of you may know, especially if you home-brew, yeast will mutate over generations. They adapt to our environment and procedures. We also manipulate the performance of the yeast with procedures to achieve our desired effect. We figured out that after some generations, we liked what they were doing better than the original pitch, so having Jasper here, he banked those for us as our new generation 1 pitch. I didn’t think it would be fair to call these strains by their original names since they now perform differently, hence the “house ale” names.

We have always displayed the ingredients on our labels as a way of being transparent to you. We wanted to let you know that when we make a different beer, it is in fact different. I do know of breweries who change one small ingredient in a popular beer and name it something else completely. We did not want to do that so we have been transparent about it. When we do something similar, the name will reflect the other beer or the label design and color will be similar as well.

I’m saddened to hear that now people are using that information to avoid the beers, especially when it comes to the yeast strain. Jack (our awesome head brewer) is capable of manipulating any one of those strains to our liking, clarity/haze, or dryness/sweetness and making our best beers to date. Meanwhile, experimentation is still a foundational principle that guides us and we will continue to evolve and make more beer that we love to share with all of you.

Anyway, apologies for the long read and thank you for all the feedback and positivity over the years.

Cheers,

A
Click to expand...

Thanks for this reply! I've enjoyed lots of Ocelot over the years, and look forward to more.

DavidHume · Apr 30, 2021

OcelotBrewing said: ↑

Hi everyone, Thought maybe I could help answer and explain some Ocelot questions that have been popping up.

Hmmmm, where to start…

Well, Ocelot has always been an open book with recipes, business practices, and philosophy.

Flagship IPA - Well, the model was always meant as a rotating one. This design was meant to mimic the way we enthusiasts were drinking craft beer (always trying new things). At the time of Ocelot's inception 9 years ago, everyone wanted new new new all the time, for checkins or reviews or just because they enjoyed something different.

We have since made over 250 unique recipes in the 6 years we have been open. Some were incredible, some, not our favorite, but we always kept experimenting. Eventually we started to really want to drink certain beers more than just once every two years, so we evolved to a slightly different model where we would bring back favorites more often while still keeping room for experimentation and collaboration. A beer like “Home” (one of my favorites) is planned to come around 2-3 times a year (stupid COVID messed up a lot of planning btw). We also have a few more “core” IPA’s that will also be included in this rotation.

Something to note here though. We are a small brewery, one that tops out around 2000 bbls per year. If you do your research, you’ll know where that lands us vs some other breweries chatted about on this site. The reason I bring that up is also because being small doesn’t allow us to pick certain lots of hops for consistency. We are at the mercy of the spot market for most of our purchases, and that means the hops could be very different from batch to batch affecting the taste and smell every time. Yes, we do have some contracts on some core hops but not much as the model was never meant to support that.

Can Distro - OK, this starts with COVID (fuckin covid)!

Our model was one where 75% of liquid was going to be sold thru the tasting room thru draft and to go beer. Well, covid obviously killed that so we looked for new outlets for liquid and scrambled to figure out a balance between draft and cans since bars and restaurants were also affected by shutting down or limited access.

Being small means we need favorable margins and we worked hard to partner with distribution companies that would fairly put our beer in stores at a price that wasn’t insulting to you guys. We did that with a few companies, but unfortunately we have not figured out a compromise with our current NOVA / DC distributor and I certainly didn’t want to see $24 4 packs of a beer we sell for $16 or $17. I hope to get this sorted somehow soon as I do enjoy our relationship with them.

Can delivery - When we launched this last year, it was a huge hit at first. We delivered over 80 cases the first week. Then it dropped to 50, then 20, then 4. It didn't make much since to continue. The staff involved, the hours, the insurance, the gas, just didn't make sense. Just being honest here.

Older IPAs - ugh! This one kills me! We test our beers all the time and pull them as soon as we feel it doesn’t represent us. In fact, I just pulled 70 cases of Ebenezer IPA yesterday and will dump them down the drain this week.

House Ale strains - For those of you that have been here, you may have noticed that directly next door is Jasper Yeast Lab. Jasper Yeast handles all of our yeast needs. This is a wonderful relationship that we have and we are fortunate to have them here. House 1 originally was Chico, 2 was fullers, 3 was a Conan variant. As some of you may know, especially if you home-brew, yeast will mutate over generations. They adapt to our environment and procedures. We also manipulate the performance of the yeast with procedures to achieve our desired effect. We figured out that after some generations, we liked what they were doing better than the original pitch, so having Jasper here, he banked those for us as our new generation 1 pitch. I didn’t think it would be fair to call these strains by their original names since they now perform differently, hence the “house ale” names.

We have always displayed the ingredients on our labels as a way of being transparent to you. We wanted to let you know that when we make a different beer, it is in fact different. I do know of breweries who change one small ingredient in a popular beer and name it something else completely. We did not want to do that so we have been transparent about it. When we do something similar, the name will reflect the other beer or the label design and color will be similar as well.

I’m saddened to hear that now people are using that information to avoid the beers, especially when it comes to the yeast strain. Jack (our awesome head brewer) is capable of manipulating any one of those strains to our liking, clarity/haze, or dryness/sweetness and making our best beers to date. Meanwhile, experimentation is still a foundational principle that guides us and we will continue to evolve and make more beer that we love to share with all of you.

Anyway, apologies for the long read and thank you for all the feedback and positivity over the years.

Cheers,

A
Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed reply. I always appreciated how open you guys are with your ingredients, process, etc., especially during my homebrewing days. It means a lot to me that you continue to taste test the beer over time and discard it when it no longer passes muster. Now that I’ve gotten my shots, I’m looking forward to going back out to Ashburn and having a pour or two and grabbing some cans.

bubseymour · Apr 30, 2021

scott27 said: ↑

That is interesting that they only with Bucks at the moment, who seems to cover only 5 counties in Maryland. What is weird is that they aren’t even bothering with the Baltimore market at this point. I reached out to a local Baltimore area distributor and they were unaware of Jack’s arrival, but said they would not be taking any new breweries due to market saturation. I even tweeted Jack’s Abby but received no response, so I am unsure what is going on! It sucks that they’re in Maryland, but I still need to drive an hour to get their beer. If anyone knows anything about their distro plans here, I’d really appreciate the input...they are prob my fave brewery!
Click to expand...

So Jacks Abbey is being distributed in Maryland (5 counties?). Which counties? Any sightings? I’ve been thrilled with Von Trappe in Frederick Co MD now so if Jacks Abbey will be near by, I’ll be super excited!

scott27 · May 2, 2021

bubseymour said: ↑

So Jacks Abbey is being distributed in Maryland (5 counties?). Which counties? Any sightings? I’ve been thrilled with Von Trappe in Frederick Co MD now so if Jacks Abbey will be near by, I’ll be super excited!
Click to expand...

I want to say they’re available In Montgomery, Anne Arundel, St Mary’s, Charles, and Calvert counties. Interestingly enough, according to Untappd they are available at a shop called District East in Frederick. Hope this helps! Btw I couldn’t agree more with how great it is to have Von Trapp in MD! Here’s hoping Jack’s test run is a success and that they do permanent distro here real soon!

-Scott

bubseymour · May 2, 2021

scott27 said: ↑

I want to say they’re available In Montgomery, Anne Arundel, St Mary’s, Charles, and Calvert counties. Interestingly enough, according to Untappd they are available at a shop called District East in Frederick. Hope this helps! Btw I couldn’t agree more with how great it is to have Von Trapp in MD! Here’s hoping Jack’s test run is a success and that they do permanent distro here real soon!

-Scott
Click to expand...

Ok...that’s awesome because District East is my primary local beer store. I just haven’t been by in several weeks because I’ve been pretty stocked up in my fridge. Thanks for the input.

bubseymour · May 2, 2021

bubseymour said: ↑

Ok...that’s awesome because District East is my primary local beer store. I just haven’t been by in several weeks because I’ve been pretty stocked up in my fridge. Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...

Yeah District East (according to their Untappd) has 4-5 Jacks Abbey offerings. I also noticed a couple Ocelot options on their page as well from the recent posts.

scott27 · May 2, 2021

bubseymour said: ↑

Yeah District East (according to their Untappd) has 4-5 Jacks Abbey offerings. I also noticed a couple Ocelot options on their page as well from the recent posts.
Click to expand...

Nice! Ocelot just starting distributing up my way as well (Harford County). Tried their Sunnyside Dweller the other night actually. It is a very unique German pilsner, with their house yeast adding a very distinct character that I couldn’t quite pin down, but it was quite good!

Definitely buy up that Jack’s Abby. Since this is a test run, I’m hoping that sales go well enough where they will consider distributing here permanently!

Sheppard · May 3, 2021

Had dinner at Rustico last night. Just wanted to note that they're now serving the smaller pours, which makes it easier to tolerate 8-10% IPAs that you want to try but couldn't fathom wanting to drink 12 oz of on a 80+ degree day. I would like to see them expand the taplist beyond the 10 or so they have on draft right now, but I imagine that business isn't strong enough yet to justify that. I would love to see a deeper bench in terms of lager, hefes, or saisons on offer. It is the season.

Had the Ocelot/Cushwa collab Above which I thought was pretty good. Dank and rindy grapefruit - minimal bitterness. Other Half's Space Cut Gems was more resiny and mentholy. Anyway, it was nice to get closer to the normal NRG experience.

RKP1967 · May 3, 2021

Sheppard said: ↑

Had dinner at Rustico last night. Just wanted to note that they're now serving the smaller pours, which makes it easier to tolerate 8-10% IPAs that you want to try but couldn't fathom wanting to drink 12 oz of on a 80+ degree day. I would like to see them expand the taplist beyond the 10 or so they have on draft right now, but I imagine that business isn't strong enough yet to justify that. I would love to see a deeper bench in terms of lager, hefes, or saisons on offer. It is the season.

Had the Ocelot/Cushwa collab Above which I thought was pretty good. Dank and rindy grapefruit - minimal bitterness. Other Half's Space Cut Gems was more resiny and mentholy. Anyway, it was nice to get closer to the normal NRG experience.
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself. I'll take a full pour of a DIPA in any weather.

Now if we're talking pastry stout, a small pour is typically plenty.

hoppytobehere · May 10, 2021

Fresh batch of Orange Starfish hit shelves recently and it's pretty solid. Maybe not quite as good as it once was, but worth picking up IMO.

MRN · May 10, 2021

OcelotBrewing said: ↑

Hi everyone, Thought maybe I could help answer and explain some Ocelot questions that have been popping up.
...

Cheers,

A
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed response. I've enjoyed my visits to Ocelot to sample your beers and your anniversary parties. I'm looking forward to leaving this pandemic behind us and Ocelot's 7th Anniversary Celebration in 2022.

Sheppard · May 10, 2021

Visited Ocelot yesterday to pick up some Painted Black and Sunnyside. Painted Black is quite good. Glad to have a little Sunnyside back in the rotation at my house.

Henryb22 · May 16, 2021

What’s the best bottle shop in DC? Heading in with friends from Bethesda area to other half and wanted to swing by a good bottle shop to see if there was anything worth taking home back to SC. I didn’t realize church keys bottle shop was delivery only. Thanks!

hoppytobehere · May 16, 2021

Henryb22 said: ↑

What’s the best bottle shop in DC? Heading in with friends from Bethesda area to other half and wanted to swing by a good bottle shop to see if there was anything worth taking home back to SC. I didn’t realize church keys bottle shop was delivery only. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Craft Beer Cellar on H Street, only about a 7 min drive from Other Half

ArlVABeerGuy · May 16, 2021

hoppytobehere said: ↑

Craft Beer Cellar on H Street, only about a 7 min drive from Other Half
Click to expand...

If you have time, also check out Harry’s Reserve in SE near the Navy Yard.

hoppytobehere · May 18, 2021

Looks like Aslin is opening a beer garden on 14th St

https://dc.eater.com/2021/5/17/2243...l-dc-location-logan-circle-coming-attractions

beerman2017 · May 18, 2021

hoppytobehere said: ↑

Looks like Aslin is opening a beer garden on 14th St

https://dc.eater.com/2021/5/17/2243...l-dc-location-logan-circle-coming-attractions
Click to expand...

Good thing they've worked out all the QC issues before moving forward with expansion...

Sheppard · May 18, 2021

beerman2017 said: ↑

Good thing they've worked out all the QC issues before moving forward with expansion...
Click to expand...

I mean, that place is still going to kill it, so I doubt that they care.

Slack · May 20, 2021

Sheppard said: ↑

I mean, that place is still going to kill it, so I doubt that they care.
Click to expand...

You're spot on. They pretty much killed it outside of nats park, this will probably be no different.

Personally I'd love Aslin to shit can all the pastry beers and go with straight BA stuff like the 4 year 4 roses which I highly recommend trying.

Separately, The Veil is doing a can/bottle drop at Downtown Crown today.

pbrian · May 20, 2021

St Michaels Critical IPA at BWI. I guess this still fits this thread. Meh beer

edit: Oops wrong thread, lol. But it still fits this thread

DC/MD/NoVA Beer Updates (2021)

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DC/MD/NoVA Beer Updates (2021)

Beers-es Pooh-Bah (1,825) Oct 30, 2015 Virginia Pooh-Bah Trader

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Sheppard Grand Pooh-Bah (3,516) Mar 16, 2013 Massachusetts
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ArlVABeerGuy Zealot (511) Feb 23, 2012 Virginia
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hoppytobehere Pooh-Bah (2,046) Aug 10, 2012 District of Columbia
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