I will be spending a week in Springfield, VA and would appreciate any suggestions for tap rooms, local beer, etc.
Wheatland Spring is phenomenal. Ocelot for IPAs. Port City for lagers. Dominion wine and beer for cans to go and draft bar upstairs. Rustico in Alexandria. Bluejacket in DC. Churchkey in DC.
Wheatland is great but not super close to that DC suburb part of northern VA. I have sibling in-laws around there and the only notable breweries I've found in the area are Commonwealth, Juicy, and Aslin. Juicy I wasn't blown away by, Aslin went downhill years ago, but Commonwealth is pretty solid. If he's down for an hour-ish drive Sapwood Cellar could be on the radar, amazing stuff, but it's probably a more annoying drive that direction than going out west, even if the time on Google is similar.
Like it was stated above, Rustico and Aslin are both in Alexandria, close to Springfield. Mieza blendery is a cool place close to Aslin also in Alexandria. Everything else is a hike. Other Half is in DC, but unless you are familiar with Ivy City, I would not recommend it. Sapwood Cellar in Columbia, Md and Elder Pine in Gaithersburg, Md are well worth it, but the drives could be brutal. I once hit Pariah in Baltimore, then Sapwood Cellar, then Elder Pine, then came down I270, but I was at Pariah (now closed) when they opened, and it was a Sunday morning, so everything went smoothly (I had one beer at each place, and purchased cans and bottles). Also if you want to purchase individual cans (Mortalis, etc.) The Brew Shop in Arlington is your place to shop and it’s a short hop from Springfield. Cheers!
Do people keep recommending Aslin just cuz they're there? Has the beer quality improved? Have their business practices improved? Like what's the deal there?
I made it over to Commonwealth Brewery last week along with my adult family and we had a great time. I enjoyed a couple of their beers and the vibe was great seeing how it was Valentine's Day! Thanks for the recommendation!
hazy people, sour, and IPA people really like what they like and it clouds their view of every other style of beer. That's my general take. I do not drink those so I tend to look downward on those specialists because I keep being told how beer is only ever hazies, etc and so on... but I will still be fair on the beer. Aslin makes OK beer outside of their key styles. But so does Bunnyman. So does Fair Winds. So does G343. So does Settle Down Easy aslin is unremarkable outside its key and you have plenty of options in 10-15 miles if i want great all around beer i'm looking at ocelot, port city, full distance and i'm slipping from ocelot to crooked run to see what weird they're up to There's a type of drinker who thinks that Treehouse, Hill, Trillium, Sapwood, Aslin, Brujos etc are the only breweries in the world because they're hazy and NEIPA drinkers. So it goes. edit: I will say without hesitation the best local brewery to the "NoVa" is Port City... down to Fredericksburg up to Purcellville and out to Haymarket/Warrenton (excluding Front Royal). One of these days I'll go full pretentious and rank them all
top 5, imo. Full Distance, Port City, Lake Anne, Ocelot, Crooked Run. Ocelot is a weak 5th. If I were into hazies, yeah, Aslin would probably float back in as would Solace. edit: But only for those styles.
For context @Patrick_in_DC, I used to live in the DMV, so I do have somewhat educated opinions on the area's breweries. With that said: Love Port City. Ocelot is probably my favorite of those because on top of Sunnyside and their lagers, I do love their IPAs.
