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A Toast to Brews, Alexandria, VA (2026)

05/18/2026

Why's all the rum gone???

Because needed the barrels for their "Black Pearl" barrel aged stout.

Yesterday, in addition to releasing Black Pearl, Lake Anne Brew House hosted their annual Tiki on the Lake fundraiser to support the South Lakes PTSA Food Pantry. Cool beer, good cause, count me in.

We brought serveal bags of non-perishable food and hygiene products and then treated ourselves to some tasty beers. The Black Pearl isn't my usual jam, I generally prefer IPAs to stouts. The rum and oak in this really came through, along with a lot of vanilla. Dark malt flavors like chocolate and molasses, some booziness, and enough bitterness to balance made this a nice change of pace from my usual hoppy beers.

Their schwarzbier (roasty with notes of licorice), and the "Lord Fairfax" English pale ale were also really good.

A big thank you to the pantry. Almost 40% of the students at SLHS are on free and reduced lunch, and the pantry helps close the nutrition gap for many of those students. They reported serving 550 students and families every week and have distributed 2.7 million pounds of food and toiletries since they opened. Another big thank you to Lake Anne Brew House for fundraising!

I see charity events at breweries all the time. Charity tap lines, 5k's, raffles, trivia, etc. What's been the coolest brewery fundraising event you've seen?

05/15/2026

As we approach the end of (May 11-17) I wanted to highlight some of the breweries that had the biggest impact on my love of craft beer.

- Hazy Little Thing was the beer that got me to switch from domestic lagers to hazy IPAs. Years later we finally got to visit the taproom in Fletcher, NC after my beer judging exam in Asheville. It was awesome!

- so many fun times with friends here! Also so many great beers, this is where I started to try things other than hazy IPAs. Though their hazy Easy Eddy is amazing (GABF gold 🏅)!

- not a brewery, but the best craft beer bar in Iowa. They hosted a beer school, bringing in brewers from across the state to talk about beer and do tap takeovers. This prompted me to get my certified beer server qualification and pursue cicerone.

- Richmond has a great walkable beer scene, and Ardent is one of my favs down there. This is where I learned about the and decided to become a beer judge. One year later I had passed my test and was BJCP certified!

- Quickly became our home base after moving to Virginia. Great beer, great people. We have gone to so many fun events and made a lot of friends. Also, their Optimal Wit has won about every award there is.

This list could go on and on. We have been to so many great breweries and tap houses, but these are a few that really helped build my love of craft beer. I can't wait to keep traveling, trying new places, and adding to this list in the future!

What breweries had the biggest impact on your love of craft beer?

Happy American Craft Beer Week!!

05/11/2026

The weather was perfect for the on Saturday. It was cool, dry, and thankfully a little overcast because I forgot to pack the sunscreen.

Over 50 MD breweries came out to pour their beers, along with a ton of vendors, food trucks, and live music.

The trend this year seemed to be toward West Coasts (IPAs and pilsners) and dark lagers, which happen to be two of my favorite styles. I particularly liked the Czech dark from and the West Coast pale from . was a crowd favorite (for good reason), it had the longest lines every time I walked by.

We also stopped by the tent for , donated some money, and got to spin the prize wheel. I won a Keychain while my wife won the beer dog toy. This organization provides free vet care to the pets of persons experiencing homelessness, which is a pretty cool cause. If I fell on hard times I'd still want my dogs to get the care they needed.

I'm curious to know what beers you all look for when you go to festivals. Hoppy, funky, high abv stouts, easy-drinking lagers?

Cheers!

05/09/2026

Last Friday had a killer takeover/can drop featuring . I follow enough East Coast accounts to have some serious fomo about this Oregon brewery. To-go cans went on sale online in the morning, with can pours available on site in the afternoon. Luckily they held some back of everything for the afternoon, because the hazy triple (untappd of 4.61) sold out online in minutes. Still, I was able to get a West Coast, a hazy, and a black IPA.

When we got to Churchkey we went strait for the triple - Arde en el Inferno - and it did not disappoint. Nice and juicy, with oranges, tangerines, and white grapes, some grassy malt, solidly bitter, and some booziness (10.2%). It was easy to give this one a 5/5.

Thankfully my lovely wife, was with me and likes good beer. We split several cans (she even gave me bigger pours) and we tried just about everything I didn't get to-go. The West Coasts were good, the hazies were great.

Those to-go cans won't be in the fridge for long. I went with the black IPA first (Noctambulus), and it was one of the fruitiness I've had. Grapefruit, pine, and floral for the hops, with the malt coming in very roasty (not coffee) with a hint of molasses. The bitterness brings it all together nicely.

There were no misses with these beers, they ranged from very good to awesome. Its safe to say I'm on the Brujos bandwagon.

Hope everyone has something tasty in their class this weekend!

05/07/2026

May is bringing warmer weather and some of my favorite beer events. Here are a couple pics from these events last year.

🍻 UPCOMING EVENTS 🍻

May 9th:

Held in Frederick, Maryland along the creek, this event features dozens of breweries (all from MD!) with over 200 beers being poured. Tickets still available, with VIP getting you early access (definitely worth it). Check out (pic 3) for more info & tix.

May 16th:

A little closer to home for me, this Alexandria, VA event is held at Aslin brewery and features exclusively lagers. The event is free, you purchase tickets for each 8 oz pour. Aslin knows how to throw a party, and always has some cool entertainment as well. Visit .va (pic 4) for more info and to rsvp.

(pic 5) also recently put out a festival issue with some of the upcoming summer events. You can grab an issue at many of the breweries and bottle shops in VA. They have dozens of events listed, broken out by region, and give a brief description of each.

If you're in the area I definitely recommend these two events and hope to see you there!

Anyone else have some cool events coming up?

05/05/2026

Happy May the 4th!

We went to on Saturday and this beer jumped out at me. Its been a while since I bought a beer just for the can art, but the timing was too good to pass up.

Chosen One by is a hazy double. Very hoppy, good bitterness, and lots of citrus flavors of orange and grapefruit. Enough sweetness to balance, and at 8.7% you'll feel the force with this one, the alcohol definitely comes through in the finish.

2nd pic is an old tin tacker from the now-defunct , located in Manchester, Iowa. They closed their doors in January 2025 shortly after their 10th anniversary. It was a pretty cool spot that couldn't find someone to take over when the owners were ready to move on. Mango Fett was a tasty tropical version of their staple hazy and makes for a very cool wall sign.

Anyone else have a good Star Wars themed beer today? If so, from where and how was it?

May the 4th be with you, let the Wookiee win, and drink local!

🍻 Cheers🍻

04/07/2026

**New Brewery Alert**

After a nice Sunday brunch we decided to take a trip out to Herndon to check out . Previously the home of Juicy brewing, and Aslin before that, Hawkley is using the relatively small space to put out some big flavors.

They've been open less than a month, so it was nice to see a busy taproom. They did some cool rennovations, and the space definitely looks the best it ever has, and they even added a Lukr side pull line, which is all the rage right now.

But most importantly, the beers. My favorite was the DSG IPA. A pine forward hoppy brew with a touch of citrus and just enough malt underneath to round it out. The dark lager was solid, and had some interesting brown sugar/burnt sugar flavors, but was a tad sweet for me personally. The new Zealand IPA had a lot of that earthy new world hops character, loads of fruit, and a nice pillowy mouthfeel. The sours were sour, with bold fruitiness, and a close second to the IPA.

4/4 on the flight, not a dud in sight. They have some beers planned as cores, but will be rotating several lines with new brews in the future. I'll definitely be going back to try any new offerings. If you're in the area go check this place out.

Opening a new brewery is no easy feat. Congrats Hawkley on your first couple weeks! Best of luck, and if you keep putting out beers like this I think you'll do just fine.

Cheers, and happy National Beer Day!

03/23/2026

Yesterday we made the drive up to Philly, which gave us the chance to visit on the way.

The tap room is so cool. Its super sleek, tons of space, outside sitting, and some tvs to watch the game. We ponied up to the bar for a flight, and also ordered some wings and the brewers poutine. The food was really good, and the beers were great.

Two beers really stood out to me. First, "Squandered Loot", a black rice lager. It smelled a bit sweet, but it was deliciously bitter and roasty, with a hint of chocolate, but still had that crispness you'd expect in a rice lager. Second was the Hex IPA, a year-round for a reason. Super fruity - grapefruit, a bit of orange, nectarines, and very easy-drinking.

I was also obsessed with their menus. They list abv, ibu, srm, pH, tasting notes, the hops or adjuncts used, and the intensity of the hops/malt/yeast. I'd never seen one so detailed, and it made it really easy to confidently pick between IPAs.

I was bummed that their West Coast Red IPA had kicked, but luckily for me we brought our cooler and they had a couple 4-packs to go.

Loads to love about this brewery, a very cool space with some creative and delicious beers.

Now we are up in Philly, where we hope to grab a Pliney somewhere and hit up Human Robot. Other than that we are just exploring, so if you know any great spots we'd love to hear them.

Cheers!

03/22/2026

A couple weekends ago we attended held at Dock 5 inside the Union Market in DC, and it was a blast. It wasnt a huge festival, around 30 breweries, but it was a great mix of local favorites, big names, and a few breweries I'd never had before.

There was a lot to like about this festival. It was well-attended but they did not oversell, you never had trouble getting a beer. For the most part it was reps from the breweries pouring, which always makes it more fun. There was also a great variety in terms of styles, it wasn't overloaded with hazies or stouts. They also had some solid swag (yes, I want all the stickers).

One of my favorite beers of the day was "Exotic Grail", and American IPA infused with golden kiwi by . It was a juice bomb with loads of citrus and tropical flavors. This is a local brewery I had never had before. They dont have a brick and mortar, but I will be keeping an eye out for their beers from now on whenever I'm in DC or Maryland.

Another pleasant surprise was seeing beer from . As a Midwesterner, I am a big fan of this Minneapolis based brewery, but don't see their beers around here too much. After telling the distributor what a big fan I was he let me take one of the tin tackers to add to my wall!

Definitely some good swag for a small festival. Stickers, coozies, a backpack, water bottle, but the coolest item of the day was the challenge coin from . Port City does these annually for their membership club, but I would love to see more breweries do these. It would be so easy to make some really cool display pieces, and would be a lot easier to manage than a wall full of signs.

Next time they have this festival you can definitely count me in. They also do versions for wine and cocktails for those less interested in beer.

Anyone have other good beer festivals coming up?

🍻 Cheers 🍻

02/17/2026

I absolutely love the Frederick, MD beer scene. A ton of great breweries, each with their own unique identity and flair. Unfortunately however, on Sunday that number shrunk by one.

left with a bang this Valentine's weekend. A staple of the Frederick beer scene since 2019, it was always a go to spot for an exceptional IPA or sour. Danielle and I went to enjoy one last beer, and were pleased to see a packed house. Our last pints were a New Zealand IPA and a blonde ale with plum.

We went to Idiom many times over the past couple years, and would have loved many more. They made great beers, and always seemed busy, but the craft beer scene is changing, and closing and consolidating breweries are a trend that seems likely to continue.

So, a reminder to all you craft beer fans out there, support the breweries you love and enjoy them while you can, because they may not be there forever.

Cheers , thank you for some good times and great beers, you've definitely earned your spot on my wall.

A Toast to Brews

05/18/2026

05/15/2026

05/11/2026

05/09/2026

05/07/2026

05/05/2026

04/07/2026

03/23/2026

03/22/2026

02/17/2026

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