TOPIC:

I decided to head out to a place in D.C. called "Churchkey" (D.C.'s "Beer Bar of the Year"); they've got an absolutely epic restaurant downstairs "Birch & Barley". The area is not far from the super posh "Dupont Circle" embassy area but is on 14th street; I consider this section of 14th street to be the D.C. equivalent of Camden Street; it's very eclectic and cool and gives you the feeling that 5-10 years ago you probably wouldn't want to be there. The restaurant itself opens to the street via what is essentially a giant garage door (super cool); not sure how they handle that in Winter... A fantastic menu including recommended beer pairings.


Now cutting to the chase; for 2 days they had all 19 Mikkeller single hop IPAs on tap and I was lucky enough to randomly wander in on one of those days; 4 oz taster glasses cost $3.50 usd which is terribly expensive for the US but when you consider where it came from and how high alcohol taxes are in Denmark it's at least stomach able.

It's an interesting experiment as it's the same recipe for each beer, same yeast, same fermentation temps, and the same quantity of each hop was used for bittering, aroma and flavor, and dry hopping. You can tell both the flavor differences but also the bittering differences both in quantity and quality (harshness of the hop in some cases).


I was able to try Cita (88 IBUs), Bravo (103 IBUs), Palisade (51 IBUs), and Sorachi Ace (102 IBUs). -I wanted to focus my time on the newer/rarer hops.

My notes for Palaside didn't get saved.. ;(

Sorachi Ace tasted almost identical as the BrewDog Sorachi Ace IPA; earthy up front and earthy lemon in the finish. (I still hold out that Styrian Goldings makes a much more clean lemony flavor than Sorachi Ace; don't believe the lemon hype.)

Bravo is supposed to be a bittering hop only (14.2% AA) but honestly was great as a flavor/aroma hop. It had a very flowery flavor which I think would be revealed by it's heritage if I could be bothered to take the time to look it up. It's an almost sweet flower smell even starting to approach a gorse-like smell (but not quite). Although it was 103 IBUs I found the bitterness to be less harsh than the Citra or Sorachi offerings. (I'll have to compare co-humolene levels but I'm really starting to think there are plenty of other chemicals at play that determine how harsh a hop's bitterness is.)

The Citra IPA tastes just like Citra. -Who would've guessed? That mango-like tropical fruit flavor makes it one of my absolute favourites.

I also got to try a little Breckenridge Luckyu Dryhopped (Perle) Cask ale, Rogue's 75th Anniversary Stout (absolutely nothing special; tastes like every other malty dark Rogue beer), and a true oddity Shorts's "Good Samaritan" a Belgian Amber ale that has a bit of unfermented pressed apples (American "cider") added to the fermenter; -It had the instantly recognizable Belgian Ale T58 yeast flavor and backing acidity from the apples; some how summery.


It's been a crazy beer trip so far but getting to choose between all 19 Mikkeller Single Hop IPAs on tap is definitely the highlight.
(Dogfish Head has now opened their 3rd Brewpub in the greater D.C. area.)



D.C.'s a great town and a great beer town and I'm going to commit to writing an article on D.C. as this is my 4th time here in 4 years and I finally feel like I've hit all of the beer highlights.


Now I just need to find some Creative Commons licensed images of these places because I am NOT a photographer...

Adam

I cant believe you found all those beers in a bar near dupont circle, thats where I was working !!! I have been there twice and the Brickskeller on 22nd street was about the best I came across. I also found a late bar/nightclub I think it was on 7th street about 4 doors down from the irish bar. Anyway it had 60min Dogfish and 90min dogfish on tap. I also really liked the chophouse and brewery on 509 7th street. Their IPA was very good and prices were reasonable - food portions are absolutely huge, they gave us a 'cake' with starters... not sure what that was about ! but I'm was working off Irish standards - your probably used to all that.

Enjoy Adam - I am so jealous !!
Yes its raining here all week !

Second on the jealousy !!!!!

"Partridge9":12i2tjda wrote: I cant believe you found all those beers in a bar near dupont circle, thats where I was working !!! I have been there twice and the Brickskeller on 22nd street was about the best I came across. I also found a late bar/nightclub I think it was on 7th street about 4 doors down from the irish bar. Anyway it had 60min Dogfish and 90min dogfish on tap. I also really liked the chophouse and brewery on 509 7th street. Their IPA was very good and prices were reasonable - food portions are absolutely huge, they gave us a 'cake' with starters... not sure what that was about ! but I'm was working off Irish standards - your probably used to all that.

Enjoy Adam - I am so jealous !!
Yes its raining here all week ![/quote:12i2tjda]

I actually felt the same way because I was here about a year ago on a project with no work to do for 2 weeks so I wandered the Dupont Circle area in search for good beer and walked right past it a year ago.

The food is absolutely amazing too; hand-made pasta; my wife had a flat bread pizza which had carmelized onions, parma ham, some sort of crumbly cheese, figs (sliced into quarters), and a bit of balsamic vinegar sauce. Figs and balsamic vinegar on a pizza??!? -Yep! It works pretty well, too. The food is even more expensive than the beer but you pay for "cool".

There was a crazy out-of-his-mind homeless guy who sat at the table next to us; he ordered 2 4oz craft beers (although he did mix the remnants of his first beer in with his second beer), ate his free bread (while carrying on a conversation with the voices in his head about random people probably being cops) and then thankfully just left. He paid up front. I was just blown away the whole trip at how much craft beer has become SUPER mainstream; young women talking about what cask is going to be on later, a group of 6 AirForce guys talking about Citra hops and "Swarz" beer (that's how they pronounced it anyway) the homeless craft beer drinker was definitely the most surprising, though.


Adam

Churchkey is great, I was in there twice a few weeks ago. Selection is amazing and they apparently get beers that few other places get.
My favourites were Ithaca Brewings Flower Power and Cigar City's Jai Alai, they'd run out of both the second time I was there though.
One thing I found annoying though is the strength of the beers, I think when I was there there were only 2 draft beers that were less than 6% and as I was there to watch the Champions League final and it was 2pm not great for a session.
DC is truly an amazing beer town, all the bars I was in had something interesting on tap even the Dubliner pub had Dogfish Head 60 mins on tap (though they weren't showing the Heinekin Cup final).

The actual Dogfish Head brewpubs have a concoction they call "75 minute IPA"$$ it's half 60 Minute and half 90 Minute mixed together. I think it's even better than the two on their own. You get the 60 minute IPA but with even more hoppiness and bitterness but the sweetness is also increased so its more balanced.

Having said that I had the first bad DGH beer I've ever had; they had a limited release called "Black and Red" it's a stout with red raspberries and peppermint... It tastes like the cough syrup that actually works (mixed with mint mouthwash).
Even the bar staff were warning people that they should REALLY try a free taster first.


American cask ales being available at pretty much every good beer bar/brew pub I went to for at least one day a week was the big surprise of the trip. The American version just starts with much bigger beers and then the dry hop treatment (loads of dry hop usually) and then of course the lower CO2 levels and higher temps of a cask ale. The beer bar in Chinatown I went to went through 3 casks a night (on a Thursday night) so it's becoming WAY more popular than 4 years ago when I had NEVER seen a cask in the US.



Adam