beer

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

With this past weekend, another Great American Beer Festival has come and gone.

Virginia had another strong showing: 12 Virginia breweries won 13 medals at this year’s GABF, with three of those being Gold Medals won by Bluemont’s Bear Chase Brewing, Starr Hill and Port City.

Beer competitions kick up a lot of the dust you find in any situation where an attempt is made to apply the objective to the subjective. There are always the quirks of which beers get entered into which categories — The Vanguard Brewpub in Hampton, for instance, took away a Bronze in English Special Bitter for their Red Ale.

There are also dozens of factors at play in how a particular beer shows on a particular day: How that batch turned out, how/when it was packaged; how it was handled in shipping; what temperature it was served at; how long it was open pre-judging; which judges are handling which categories; what kind of shape they’re in.

To be frank, any medal competition is a crapshoot, especially GABF. This year’s event saw 9,497 beer entries (with 70 entries for Collaboration categories and 100 Pro-Am) from 2,295 breweries spanning 107 categories. There’s no obligation to hand out medals, either — no Gold Medals were awarded for American-Style Wheat Beer or Historical Beer this year, for instance. Getting a medal at GABF is like throwing a bullseye on a dartboard blindfolded: it’s what you intend to do, but if you do, you celebrate and take it like you stole it.

So, what can we learn from medals? Well, for one thing, so much chance at play, you might not be able to say a medal-winning beer isn’t the objective “best” version of a style out there, but it did show out against a slew of others from some of the best breweries around the country.

Port City’s German Pilsner, which won a Gold Medal for Kellerbier or Zwickelbier, may not strictly be either of those but it’s a damn good beer and maybe the win gets a few more folks trying it.

More broadly, it’s interesting as a gauge of where beer is growing, and which states are producing great beer. Outside of behemoths like California (68) and Colorado (40), there’s a tier of states that Virginia’s 13 medals lines up with, including Texas (16), Oregon and Ohio (15), Washington (14) and North Carolina (12).

Consistent medal-winners pop up too: Portland, Oregon’s Breakside Brewery; Sun King of Indiana, and Ohio’s Fat Head’s Brewery all seem to medal year after year. Here in Virginia, names like Port City, Hardywood (whose Pils, pictured, won a Bronze for German Pilsner), Devils Backbone and Starr Hill medal almost yearly.

If you ever get the chance, I recommend going out to Denver for GABF. If you can’t get tickets to the Festival itself, it’s worth just being in Denver during the week of the event; there’s so much happening around town that there’s all kinds of trouble to get into without setting foot in the Convention Center.

Upcoming Events at Arrowine:

Sunday, October 13, 1-4 P.M. — Super Sunday Wine Tasting feat. Kermit Lynch Portfolio — please call/email in to RSVP
Friday, October 18, 5-7 p.m. — Tyler Weaver of Väsen Brewing Company
Saturday, October 19, 1-4 p.m. — Jackson Brown (not that one) of Canarchy — Cigar City feature!
Friday, November 8, 5-7 p.m. — Jesse Ploeg of Potter’s Craft Cider

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

A few weeks back, I lamented the state of IPAs and brewing in general, after an evening spent trying about a half dozen new-to-me beers that yielded only one good, drinkable brew.

I think it’s only fair, then, that when I come across a new brewery that impresses me, that really stands out, I should take some time to acknowledge it.

A recent drop of beers from Twelve Percent Imports — a fantastic broker of hipper-than-thou, hard to find breweries the world over — included some breweries that were new to Virginia. One of those was Public Access, a name I’d heard and seen bandied about but had yet to try anything from. There’s next to no info on the brewery out there. I had to reach out to Twelve Percent to learn more.

Public Access Liquids is essentially one guy, Ramon Manuel Manrique Hung, contract brewing along the lines of Stillwater or Evil Twin. A Venezuelan native who fell in love with beer living in Belgium, Hung found himself working at Tørst, the Brooklyn beer bar opened by Evil Twin himself Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø.

Hung is the latest branch of a brewery tree whose roots can be found at Tørst. Other bartending alums include Joey Pepper of Folksbier and Anthony Sorice from Root + Branch.

According to Twelve Percent, Hung’s aim with Public Access Liquids is to take “an ultra-modern, forward-thinking approach to beer design and recipe development, but instead of crafting beers specifically designed to stay local, creates them for the express purpose of sharing with high-end beer enthusiasts far and wide.”

Two Public Access beers were offered to me on this shipment; I opened both for sampling among a group of hazy IPAs and Pale Ales from Richmond’s Väsen Brewing (their Azanian Passion, which is excellent), and another new-to-Virginia brewery, Columbus, Ohio’s Hoof Hearted (I know, I know), whose Pale Ale and IPA were very tasty.

What stood out to me about the Public Access beers was that they stood out: they were hazy and heavily late and dry-hopped for sure, but not “hot” or obnoxious with their more tropical and citrusy notes like many can be.

The first one we tried, Outer Reality, was a 7% ABV IPA double dry-hopped with Columbus, Mosaic, El Dorado, Simcoe and Comet. The Columbus and Comet jumped out at me — these are hops that went into commercial use in the 70s and are far from the overripe tropical fruit bombs you typically see in New England IPAs.

The resulting beer was hazy for sure, but with a much more “traditional” set of hop characteristics — citrus/grapefruit-forward, piney and most of all dry. It’s a unique and welcome take on the NEIPA.

The other was Suspended Disbelief, a Double IPA at 8% ABV with Galaxy, Citra, Idaho 7 and Simcoe hops; much more in-line with the typical juice-bomb IPA. That said, the beer also came across impeccably balanced for the style, while still displaying all the mango/orange/stone fruit notes you’d expect from a beer with its hop schedule.

Only a handful of Public Access beers have been produced and, as noted, only two have shown up here in Virginia, but I have to say: so far, so good. Keep Public Access on your radar.

Note: Suspended Disbelief has sold out at Arrowine, but some Outer Reality is still in stock. Check your favorite local bars and shops to see who might have what.

Upcoming Arrowine Events:

Friday, October 4, 5-7 p.m. — Tyler Weaver of Väsen Brewing Company
Saturday, October 5, 12-3 p.m. — Patrick Cashin of Charm City Meadworks
Friday, October 25, 5-7 p.m. — Jackson Brown (not that one) of Canarchy — Cigar City feature!
Friday, November 8, 5-7 p.m. — Jesse Ploeg of Potter’s Craft Cider

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

I don’t like to be negative about beer. I’ve gone out of my way to not be negative about beer. I’ve written exactly one negative review of a beer ever and I came to regret it almost immediately. Going negative inevitably obscures any relevant point you’re trying to make.

That said, I have to level with you all: craft beer in 2019 is making me go a little negative, and I’m not loving it.

A couple weeks back, I had an impromptu Hazy/Juicy IPA shootout with six different beers, none of which I’d had before. Four were samples from distributors; two were from a very sought-after Haze producer and were gifted to me by one of our Arrowine regulars.

Two of the beers were “flawed” — showing obvious errors in production. Another two, from the brewery that has lines of people waiting to stock up every day, were totally out of whack. One of them so misused the Nelson hop that it smelled and tasted like the cheap weed that guy at the party who’s a friend of the host who you kinda know but aren’t 100% comfortable with offers you — and not in a good way.

The other was an extra-hoppy variant of their flagship Hazy IPA. If clone recipes are to be believed, Apollo and Citra hops are prevalent in this beer, both of which can go vegetal used in too high concentrations at the wrong times. Sure enough, it started well enough before going very green onion-y on the back palate. So close. So close.

The last beer was the sole bright spot of the tasting: a flagship New England IPA from a Virginia brewery that showed a vibrant palate of tropical/lemony hop flavors laid upon a delicate grist of pale malts, oats and wheat, with a hint of eucalyptus adding something unexpected and welcome.

Trying a variety of IPAs these days, one finds there are some brewers who really know what they’re doing, but even more who know what they’re doing — cranking out untested/unrefined recipes often producing flawed beers. I don’t care if a brewery is chasing the FOMO crowd and putting out a ton of IPAs every week; I care that those IPAs are fundamentally well-made, able to be judged on their own merits, and not turning new beer lovers off to the style, or beer in general.

For the sake of not being entirely negative, I’ll shout out a couple beers I’ve recently enjoyed, starting with New Realm’s Hazy Like A Fox — the one beer of those six mentioned above that was a highlight. When a brewery’s co-founder and brewmaster literally wrote the book on making IPA, I guess it’s no surprise.

Earlier this week, I got to preview Three Notch’d Brewing’s Nephology Batch 7 IPA (pictured above), the latest in a monthly series of Juicy/Hazy IPAs. Batch 7 features Denali, a relatively new hop variety that I’ve grown fond of in production beers and in my own occasional homebrews.

At 8% ABV, it’s a lush showcase for Denali’s candied, pineapple-y aromas and flavors, but avoids hop burn or coming across as too “heavy.” It’s hitting the market this week and well worth checking out.

Bottom line: there’s a world of good stuff out there right now, but don’t let the hype tell you what’s good. Trust your palate, and if you have an interest, learn more about off-flavors and flaws to help you better discern what’s good versus what’s bad versus what’s flawed.

Upcoming Beer Events at Arrowine:

TONIGHT, 8/30, 5-7 p.m. — Stephanie Boles of Old Ox Brewing
Saturday, 9/7, 1-4 p.m. — Garrett Smouse of Fair Winds Brewing Company
Friday, 9/13, 5-7 p.m. — Tom Blanch of Sierra Nevada
Saturday, 9/14, 1-4 p.m. — Joe Kasper of 3 Stars
Saturday, 9/21, 1-4 p.m. — Devon Callan of Reason Beer Company
Friday, 11/8, 5-7 p.m. — Jesse Ploeg of Potter’s Craft Cider

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

Just before the closing of Falls Church’s Mad Fox brewpub last month, founder/brewer Bill Madden was kind enough to agree, after wrapping up the closing and taking some time to collect his thoughts, to answering some questions I’d sent him.

Early this week, Madden responded and we’ve had a back-and-forth covering a range of topics, focusing on the challenges facing not only brewpubs like Mad Fox, but for restaurant/retail in our area in general.

In his statement announcing Mad Fox’s closing, Madden cited competition becoming “fierce since our opening in 2010 with… an overwhelming number of choices for the local population,” such that staying open was “no longer sustainable.”

Digging into that a bit more, Madden emphasized the intensity of that competition as we see an increase in “restaurant options that are hot for a few years and then fizzle out,” “(w)ine and beer shops opening restaurants,” and supermarkets “with buffets and bars and more prepared foods to take home or just eat there like a restaurant.”

Factor in meal-prep services like Blue Apron, and you have a lot of businesses trying to cover higher rents on smaller pieces of the pie.

Mad Fox faced unique challenges nearly from the start. “When we opened the only way to sell a pint of beer to a consumer on site was to have a food component in Virginia,” Madden said. “That changed in 2012 with SB 604,” the law allowing brewery taprooms to serve full pours on-site.

604 was instrumental in the proliferation of new breweries in Virginia, but for a large brewpub in a high-rent district like Mad Fox, it made things just that much more difficult. “If we opened with a smaller footprint in a lower rent location and had gone into canning our product we would be in a much different position,” Madden told me.

I brought up my hunch that most taprooms will become brewpubs of sorts over the next few years; Madden responded that “the food component needs to be addressed, consumers need food with their beer, period,” and that he could see brewpubs in “high rent, suburban, urban locations,” albeit “in a much smaller space.”

Even those smaller spaces might be hard to find, however. Madden sounds downright prophetic.

“Rents either need to go down or there will be blight… I see plenty of shuttered spaces and I would ask anyone in Real Estate the question ‘where is the hot area to be in like a Reston Town Center or Arlington used to be?’ They all say they have not a clue.”

Reflecting on the legacy of Mad Fox, Madden says he’s most proud of how they supported the area’s beer scene, “promoting what were then new breweries with our festivals and events when many were just starting out.”

He recently attended the opening of Old Ox’s new Middleburg location and visited Quattro Goombas Brewery in Aldie, and while his future plans aren’t yet known, he says he plans to stay in the beer business in some capacity. Hopefully he’s not out of it for long; we’re missing something without him.

Upcoming Tasting Events at Arrowine: 

Friday, August 16 (hey, that’s today!), 5-7 p.m. — Rafael Mendoza of Hardywood Brewing Company
Friday, August 23, 5-7 p.m. — David Hartogs of Rocket Frog Brewing Company
Saturday, August 24, 3-6 p.m. — Frankie Quinton of Atlas Brewing Company
Friday, August 30, 5-7 p.m. — Stephanie Boles from Old Ox Brewing
Friday, September 13, 5-7 p.m. — Tom Blanch of Sierra Nevada
Saturday, September 14, 1-4 p.m. — Joe Kasper of 3 Stars
Saturday, September 21, 1-4 p.m. — Devon Callan of Reason Beer Company
Friday, Novermber 8, 5-7 p.m. — Jesse Ploeg of Potter’s Craft Cider

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

Can it be that time already? Oh, it can, dear reader, and it is. I’ve already received some fall seasonal beers and the flood gates are about to open in earnest.

I’ve written about the concept of seasonal creep before, but the older I get, the less I seem to care about it. Is it a little absurd that I have two Oktoberfests in stock and one Pumpkin Ale already offered by the third week of July?

Sure, a little. But at the end of the day my policy is “Drink what you want when you want,” so I’m not sweating it too much. Except for that Pumpkin Ale; you’ll find it out there already, but too soon, man. Too soon.

What I’m doing today is giving a quick rundown of fall beers to keep an eye on, both those available now and ones on the way that I think are notable. Let’s start with what you can find on shelves right now: Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest landed in Virginia last week, and I’ll take any version of that anytime they want to offer it.

Every year of Sierra Oktoberfest has seen it pair up with a different German brewery to offer a different take on the style; this year, it’s Bitburger, which brought its house yeast and proprietary hop blend out of its brewery for the first time ever for the occasion. The result is a tick sharper than last year’s (made with Weihenstephaner), but very tasty and as good now as it’ll be when the weather turns.

Also in stock now is the Oktoberfest from Von Trapp Brewing in Vermont. Von Trapp’s Lagers are excellent across the board, so it’s no surprise this is tasty. What I like is the judicious use of darker malts, contributing to a color that is coppery rather than brown, along with a lovely caramel note.

I don’t like to play the FOMO card, but if you’re a Von Trapp fan, the word around the campfire is that the run of Oktoberfest that just hit Virginia is the only one we’ll see for the year. Purchase accordingly.

What’s on the way? Admitting a bias up front, I’ve always loved Port City Oktoberfest, which releases tonight at the brewery before hitting the market early next week. Around the middle of August we’ll see Atlas’ Festbier arrive. Lighter in color and body and using a blend of German and American hops, it’s definitely built for a more American audience but should be as fun and show as well as our favorites from the DC brewery.

Around the end of August/beginning of September, we should see the return of one of my old favorites — the Hofstetten Original Hochzeitzbier von 1810. This brew aspires to revive the style of Märzen that would’ve been served during the days of festivities surrounding Crown Prince Ludwig II’s wedding in 1810 — the first Oktoberfest. The best part? We’re getting cans of it this year!

What fall beers are you looking forward to? Let me hear it in the comments; you always do (he said, smiling).

Until next time.

Upcoming Events at Arrowine:

Saturday, 8/10, 1-4 p.m. — ANXO Cidery
Friday, 8/16, 5-7 p.m. — Rafael Mendoza of Hardywood Brewing Company
Friday, 8/23, 5-7 p.m. — Richard Hartogs of Rocket Frog Brewing Company
Saturday, 8/24, 3-6 p.m. — Frankie Quinton of Atlas Brewing Company
Friday, 8/30, 5-7 p.m. — Stephanie Boles from Old Ox Brewing
Saturday, 9/21, 1-4 p.m. — Devon Callan of Reason Beer Company