Metro DC Brewery Discussion Thread

I had Small Town last night and it was fine. I'll have Neutrino tonight. While I was there I was talking to a couple of people who were drinking Neutrino, and it looked great in the glass with a nice head and tons of lacing.

 

Gonna try to swing by tomorrow to pick up a growler or two of Orange Starfish. Anyone have a sense of how quickly it'll go? If I can't get there until 3-4ish, will they still have some left?

 

Those are 64oz prices! 32oz prices are exactly half of that (unlike some breweries in this thread...) and they also do 750ml fills that are typically a dollar less than that.

This is one point that typically gets lost in the "Best Breweries in DC" conversations. Right Proper has consistently pumped out really quality products but kept their prices WAY down. If they just sold craft beer, they would probably be the cheapest place to drink good beer outside of Glen's Market.

 

Thanks man. Yeah, I have a buddy heading down there this weekend, asked if I wanted a fill, and when we both saw prices we thought that it can't be the case. It had been awhile since I stopped down there last, forgot how cheap their prices are. Might have to double up on growlers now!

 

Port city is bottling Maniacal in a few weeks. Excited to have that fresh on store shelves for the summer.

 

Amen to that. Everytime I'm there I think about how nice their prices are. Plus, you can get half-pours of anything for half-price-- no big mark-up for smaller pours like at so many places.

 

Spent $60 on a couple pints and growlers at Aslin. Trying to get back to civilization and have to pee so bad.

 

it's expensive, given prevailing weekend zip car rates.

edit: any chance aslin replenishes crowlers tomorrow?

 

Neutrino is much better this batch, maybe it's just because it's actually carbed this time.

Small Town is still my favorite thing they've done so far. So fucking good. Can't wait to drink a half gallon of it tomorrow.

 

Went to New District Brewing in Arlington today. I liked the space a lot and the people were nice, but the beer was just ok. Had 2 IPAs, a Pale Ale, and a Porter. I hope they can up their game and will give them a shot in the future.

 

That Neutrino carb thing really rubbed you the wrong way brother. . I thought a few days later it was carbed fairly well. But glad to hear everything is good. You are right about Small Town!

 

The latest batch of Neutrino was carbed fine. But I still thought Neutrino and Small Town were pretty average as far as IPAs go, as was Bringing Sexy Back.

Master of Karate is a different story; excellent beer. I'm hoping Orange Starfish will be as good.

 

Are they still out of crowler cans?

 

neutrino has kicked apparently. hoping the other IPAs last... heading to ocelot/aslin soon. say hi.

 

You forget that not all beers are made the same. Had Aslin been making 3.5% Berliner Weiss they probably would charge $10... but youre talking about DIPA/IIPA and just the amount of hops could cause that price difference. Just think about the ingredients before you can say it's a blanket cost... Maybe you're over paying for Right Proper, Ever consider that?

Either way they both make a good product and you'll buy what you like.

 

I said nothing about costs, and didn't even mention Aslin.

Ever consider that many of Right Proper's beers sit in the tank/foeder for a month or more? You are absolutely right that we don't know unit costs, but I highly doubt Aslin's production costs are twice as much. Either way, I don't begrudge Aslin for their (relatively) high prices - they can't even keep up as is. I just hope they drop them back down once they expand production and supply starts to keep up.

Regardless, I will always give RP a lot of credit for sticking to their pricing model even when they were struggling to keep up that first six months or so. That's the type of loyalty that artificially low pricing can get you. On the flip side, higher (market?) prices instead induce a constant conversation about whether a particular beer/brewery is over-priced/hyped or not (thus alienating a lot of people). Is it worth the extra revenue potentially at the expense of long-term brand loyalty? If they keeping making really good beer it probably won't matter, but it's hard to say...

 

Could not agree more. I must have misread the tone of what you were saying initially. I think we are on the same page with this then. My apologies.

 

Regarding Right Proper vs. Aslin cost....maybe Right Proper makes a profit on their food and that can help subsidize the beer production cost and keep prices down, whereas Aslin doesn't have that benefit?

 

Food is wayyyyyyy less profitable than beer.

 

But it's another revenue source. Which does help. Just depends on your business model.