1.1🍺above average
Play That Funky Music, White Boys
Bladensburg Road (Rt. 1), where it straddles the DC/Maryland border, was once a major hub of live music. It was here that Southern working-class whites, newly arrived in Prince George’s County after WWII, flocked to “hillbilly nightclubs” like Jimmy Comber’s, Chick Hall’s Surf Club, and the Dixie Pig, which nurtured the careers of Patsy Cline, Jimmy Dean, and homegrown talent Roy Clark, and was where Charlie Daniels got his start. The more upscale Crossroads Nightclub hosted the likes of Tony Bennett, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Ronnie Dove, and in its later days gave birth to the “Anacostia Delta” sound of local guitar legends Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan. (It was at the Crosswords that Buchanan reportedly turned down Keith Richards’ offer to join the Rolling Stones after the death of Brian Jones.) The Crossroads, after a successful stint as a reggae club, closed in 2010; the site is now occupied by a McDonalds. The Dixie Pig is currently a dialysis center. By the time the last surviving venue, Chick Hall’s Surf Club, closed in 2011, the once vibrant Bladensburg corridor had become a cheerless zone of light industrial enterprise. But for former drum-and-bass DJs Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock, it was the perfect low-rent, flexibly zoned kind of neighborhood in which to open DC Brau, Washington’s first production brewery since Christian Heurich closed in 1956.
While DC had birthed several successful brewpubs (Cap City, 1992; District Chophouse, 1996; Gordon Biersch, 2001), no entrepreneurs had the moxie and relevant experience to battle the nation’s brewing behemoths for retail shelf space and restaurant draft lines. Skall, a former wine importer and wholesaler, knew the ins and outs of alcohol beverage distribution; Hancock had extensive brewing experience in Michigan and with local breweries Franklins and Flying Dog—and was especially adept at brewing hoppy beers. Together, they cleared the regulatory and zoning hurdles that had held back earlier entrepreneurs, streamlining the process for subsequent breweries (Chocolate City later that summer and 3 Stars the following year). And yet they were forced to hold their launch party, in April 2011, at local craft beer bar Meridian Pint because DC regs prohibited serving beer at the brewery. That soon changed as Skall and Hancock convinced beverage alcohol authorities to allow the serving of free samples to customers, but it wasn’t until 2014 that DC Brau, or any Washington production brewery, was permitted to sell pints at its tap room.
Retail sales quickly exceeded Skall and Hancock’s projections: from 1,600 barrels in 2011 to 15,500 barrels by year five. Packaged in cans instead of bottles, DC Brau’s brightly colored silhouettes of the Capitol dome quickly established it as the de facto local beer. Its flagship brew, The Public (5% ABV), was marketed as a pale ale, but had the aggressive hop profile of an IPA—a shrewd stylistic choice at a time when IPAs were beginning to establish market dominance. The Corruption (6.5%), a true IPA, followed shortly thereafter and was soon joined by The Citizen (7%), a Belgian-style tripel. The simplistic nomenclature had a whiff of Orwellian doublespeak that struck a chord with DC’s sometimes cynical citizenry.
But it was Wings of Armageddon (9.2%), one of the earliest “hop bombs,” that put DC Brau on the national map as a craft-brewing innovator. The potent imperial IPA first appeared in 22-ounce bomber bottles in early 2012, then in 12-ounce cans by the end of the year, eventually becoming the brewery’s most-requested beer and DC’s favorite IPA.
Bladensburg’s rich musical heritage is not lost on DC Brau’s musically inclined founders. “Music is an integral part of everything we do here,” Brandon Skall told Craft Beer & Brewing magazine in 2015. A heady mix of R&B, heavy metal, reggae, and go-go—much like the spicy gumbo that gave birth to the Anacostia Delta sound—blares continuously from speakers throughout the brewery. Many beer names, in fact, are inspired by music, such as the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” which gave rise to The Corruption. DC Brau was also one of the area’s first breweries to stage outdoor concerts. It’s “Dock Days of Summer” series brings DC bands from a variety of musical genres to its parking lot on Sunday afternoons.
DC Brau has been equally hospitable to Washington’s visual arts community, forging an early partnership with the Art Whino Gallery to promote and display works of Pop Surrealism and the Newbrow art movement like the gigantic hooded ghoul on the exterior wall that greets patrons with a rainbow of spectral energy. Interior walls portray a menagerie of equally surreal beasts, machines, and hallucinatory images.
Finding the brewery tap room can take some patience. DC Brau heads the list of ten businesses nestled into the New Town Center on Bladensburg Road and is located behind a post office. When you enter the strip mall, drive down the hill and pass under the arch bearing a DC Brau sign. You will then find a sizable parking area to your right behind the brewery. There are several doors leading into the brewery, but the entrance to the tap room is the one painted like an exploding beer can.
The original tap room is quite small. There are no stools at the short bar; five tallboy cocktail tables and a sofa opposite the bar accommodate a dozen seated patrons with standing room for perhaps a dozen more. The cozy space resembles a beer geek’s garage, festooned with a decade and a half of awards, mementoes, and knickknacks, and an abundance of DC flags and rainbow banners. I counted nearly three dozen festival medals strung along a curtain rod to the left of the bar. An equal number of Washington National bobble-heads jiggled along the windowsill. As the room began to fill, the bartender opened a door to the brewing area, which contained another bar (with stools), several lounges and group tables, and more artwork along the walls. The tap room bustled with off-premise sales of DC Brau favorites.
Only six beers were on tap, plus a seltzer. There were two lagers: Old Time (4%) was thin and watery as expected; the slightly fuller-bodied Tuk Tuk (4.5% ABV), a rice lager, showed some fresh hop character. Of the two dark beers, the Irish-style red ale Old Dubliner (5%) tasted of caramel malt and finished dry; the roasty Penn Quarter Porter (5.5%) is one of the brewery’s original offerings and had a nice depth of flavor. Golden Funk (4.8%), a Belgian-style lambic, delivered plenty of peppery, funky Brett character, but its high acidity made it difficult to finish. Wake Up in the Future is a series of imperial stouts aged in wheated bourbon barrels that yield a softer, sweeter profile. The 2022 version (aged four years) tasted of charred malt and had a noticeable fruitiness and complexity that persuaded me to buy a bottle of the 2021 version for later drinking.
All of the beers were well made and enjoyable, but I was stunned to find not a single IPA or pale ale on offer. This from a brewery that built its reputation on brewing hoppy beers! The semi-legendary On the Wings of Armageddon is now brewed just once a year. Same for The Citizen, which was once so popular that DC Brau persuaded a Silver Spring brewery to change its name from Citizens to Denizens.
It is worth noting that co-founder and chief brewer Jeff Hancock left the brewery in July 2022 to try his hand in the Cannabis industry—not too surprising for a brewer with a knack for dank IPAs (Terpene Rainbow, Smells Like Freedom). His departure seems to signal a retreat from the boundary-pushing days of DC Brau’s prime. But at a time when more people are drinking fewer craft beers, attracting new customers with more low-ABV options probably makes more strategic sense than churning out another enamel-scraping West Coast DIPA for the fan boys. For most of us, though, DC Brau is still DC Beer. Under the long-time stewardship of manager Paulette Palacios, the taproom experience at DC Brau’s quirky, chill taproom is still one of the best around.
DC BRAU BREWING CO.
3178 Bladensburg Rd. NE
Suite B
Washington, D.C. 20018
OPEN
Thursday & Friday: 3—9 pm
Saturday: 1—9 pm
Sunday: 1—7 pm
NUMBER OF TAPS
7
AVERAGE ABV
6.1
OTHER DRINKS
House NA Pale Ale
Radlers (½ beer, ½ Italian soda)
FOOD
Pop-up food trucks
PARKING
Plentiful in private lot behind the brewery