Breweries / Bars with a Beer Advocate sized selection near McLean, VA?

I'll be in McLean for a week in early July on business, was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction? Would prefer something no more than a 30 min. cab ride away. Cheers!

 

Thanks for all the input. I will likely visit most of these, also found something cool, a Lagunitas Beer Dinner about 35 min. away. https://www.tuskies.com/SpecialEvents.php

 

Are the beers featured at the dinner the usual suspects or do the breweries provide them with anything special?

 

I will be sure to document my findings so other will have better knowledge for the future.

 

Time for the promised review of my short but busy business trip to Mclean, VA.

Sunday: Visited the Total Wine in McLean, did not realize they couldn't sell liquor, not that it mattered, I was there for the beer I picked up several beers to try, including DC Brau's Corruption, The Public and Penn Quarter Porter. All three were very very good, sadly I did not see their On The Wings Of Armageddon anywhere I went, it was constantly sold out. I also found two "shelf turd" 2012 Nightstalkers ( had never had, donated the one I did have to Big Gene's charity for his friend), some delicious Dragon's Milk and a Mogli (which I hadn't heard of).




Tuesday: After my meeting were over a friend I met while up there took me to Chantilly, which is about 20 min. from McLean. We stopped at the Total Wine there, and I was lucky enough to find some Mikkeller and Sour In The Rye, neither of which I have had. I tried one of the Sours and brought one back with me, frigging amazing. Before we headed back, located in the same plaza as the Total Wine was a Dogfish Head Brewpub. We stopped in to have a couple of beers, but I was saddened that they really didn't have anything special on tap, not even 120 or 75 minute, just the usual suspects you can pick up at any beer store. They did have several vintage bottles for sale of some of their "ancient and extreme" beers, but i'm not a huge fan so I passed. Did not try the food, but it looked good.




Wednesday: Finally beer dinner night. I wish I had taken more than just one picture, but the beer and food was coming fast and frequently. I will attach a link to the menu.
http://www.tuskies.com/files/FileLink1-254.pdf

The food was amazing. The chef at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg knows what he is doing. Everything paired wonderfully with the Lagunitas selection, and one of their employees (Lagunitas) spoke between every course, giving us a history of the brewery and telling us about the beers. FYI they will shortly be opening a new brewery in Chicago. The last beer on the menu Sonoma Farmhouse Saison I have not seen in stores, and it was excellent. The rest were very good, but available to me here in Florida.




Aside from all that I was able to try a number of regular Founders beers that we will hopefully have in Florida soon, and decided to bring back some of my haul. Luckily nothing broke, although TSA did search through my things as suspiciously wrapped beers probably triggered an alarm lol.



Overall great trip, lovely area, well stocked Total Wines and a GREAT beer dinner, I recommend visiting their website to see some of the upcoming ones. Cheers!