The Beer Retard

(photo by Kristina Hunken)

One more day till I head to Philly Beer Week. Here’s a quick update on some places I’ve been to in and near DC over the last few days:

Dogfish Head Alehouse, Falls Church – This brewpub is in a strip mall parking lot in suburban VA and the atmosphere is more like a Chili’s/TGI Friday’s than a neighborhood bar. The only reason to go is the chance to try DFH beers that you can’t find elsewhere. There were two on tap I’ve never had. The Shelter Pale Ale was a decent pale ale that I had no problem putting down. The Alehouse 75 was more interesting, a blend of the 60 and 90 Minute IPAs. I like the crisp hoppiness of the 60 but find the 90 a little too sweet, so this was a good compromise between the two.

Marvin – Named after Marvin Gaye and owned by the guys from Thievery Corporation, Marvin balances Belgian beer and food (mussels and frites) with Southern comfort food (shrimp and grits, fried chicken and collard greens). Everything we ate was tasty as hell. The beer was okay, all Belgians and American Belgian-style beers with a handful on tap: Affligem (what I had), Corsendonk, DeKoninck and the usual suspects Stella and Hoegaarden. There’s also a decent bottle list. While this isn’t really a beer destination, it is a place where you can get an excellent meal and a good beer. Just watch out for the annoying hipster customers.

RFD – Along with Paradiso, RFD might be the best place in DC to drink beer on tap. I went at 2 pm on a Monday and the place was absolutely dead, a plus after previous visits during busier times had the feel of a douchebag fratboy sports bar. Again, I was blown away by the East Coast prices (all pints were $6-9 and were served in those crappy shaker pint glasses). I started with the Weyerbacher Hops Infusion, an IPA that had a good hop aroma, but had flavors that were all over the place. Next up was Bell’s Cherry Stout. Wow, this one took me by surprise. The sour cherry taste was really in-your-face and made it unlike any stout I’ve ever had. At first, I didn’t think the tartness of the cherry and roast of the stout went well together, but it won me over in the end…another interesting beer from Bell’s. My last beer at RFD was the New Holland Mad Hatter (in the bottle). It was a solid IPA, with a good balance to it. I need to seek out more from New Holland.

Before I head to Philly in the morning, I have one DC-area beer thing to look forward to—Rustico in Alexandria is having a cask event tonight featuring Bell’s Hopslam, Troeg’s Nugget Nectar, Stone Ruination and two others I can’t remember. Hopslam has been really hyped up and I’m looking forward to trying it.

This entry was posted on March 10, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.