NoMa Beer Fest Brings Together DC’s Local Breweries

 

WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2013 – DC’s favorite beer-makers converge for NoMa Beer Fest Saturday, August 17, a free outdoor festival finale to DC Beer Week (Aug. 11-18). Sample special summer ales available only for this festival, and discover a new favorite! Enjoy live music, DJ entertainment, games by DC Bocce League for the whole family, and tasty eats from Union Kitchen and local food trucks. All-local breweries include DC Brau, Chocolate City Brewing Company, District Chophouse, Capital City Brewing Company, Three Stars Brewing Co., The Brewer’s Art (Baltimore) and Right Proper Brewery (opening soon in Shaw). Bike parking and Met Branch Trail ride to the event by Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Follow @NoMaBID and #NoMaBeerFest for updates on beer selection, food vendors, live music, games and free giveaways. Full details atwww.NoMaBeerFest.org.

 

Details:

Date: Saturday, August 17, 2 pm to 8 pm

Location: Parking Lot at 1250 First Street, NE (at N Street)

Metro: NoMa/Gallaudet U (Red Line)

Admission: Free and open to the public

 

Event admission is free, but purchase your beer tickets online now! Not sure what to drink? Purchase the tasting tickets for smaller pours of the beer you want to explore. DC Bocce will be on hand with Bear Pong (that is not a typo), a larger-than-life version of ‘beer pong,’ bocce courts, and of course a kiddie corner. IDs will be checked at the gate. This event is rain or shine. Entrance is at First and N Streets, NE. Organized by the NoMa BID. Hosted by The JBG Companies. Sponsored by Union Kitchen, Trilogy NoMa, and Archstone First + M. Thanks to our partners Washington Area Bicyclist Association, DC Bocce League, DC Brau, District Chophouse, Capitol City Brewing Company, Right Proper Brewing Company, Chocolate City Beer, Three Stars Brewing Company, and The Brewer’s Art.

Mister Mayor Coming to Edgewood Saturday!

Please see the exciting news from our neighborhood brewery below!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
CONTACT:
Ben Matz (202) 351-6197, Ext. 3;
bmatz@chocolatecitybeer.com
Caitlin Downey (202) 351-6197, Ext. 5
cdowney@chocolatecitybeer.com

CHOCOLATE CITY BEER ANNOUNCES THE LONG AWAITED RELEASE OF “MISTER MAYOR BARREL-AGED IMPERIAL STOUT,” THIS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2013

Washington, DC – Chocolate City Beer, Washington, DC’s very own craft brewery, announces the public release of its oak barrel-aged Imperial Stout, named “Mister Mayor,” for sale to the public this Saturday, February 2nd at its facility located at 2801 8th Street, N.E., in Washington, DC, from 12:30 – 4:30PM.

Brewed with Marion berries from Marion County, Oregon, Mister Mayor was aged for seven months in whiskey barrels from Copper Fox Distillery, located in Sperryville, VA. At 11.5% alcohol by volume (ABV), this medium bodied and roasted stout packs a tart, fruity taste. The barrel aging has also infused the beer with coconut and vanilla flavors for a round, mellow taste.

“We are excited about the release of this beer,” says co-Managing Member and Head Brewer Ben Matz of Chocolate City Beer. “This beer was the product of an idea that I have been developing for several years and seeing it come to fruition has been nothing short of amazing. The taste, flavors and smoothness of this offering should resonate with a lot of different types of beer drinkers. We look forward to its public release.”

A bottling session was held on Monday, January 28, 2013 at the brewery, staffed by employees and volunteers who assisted with the labeling, cleaning and packaging of over 1,000 bottles of this limited release brew. Rick Wasmund, CEO and Master Distiller at the Copper Fox Distillery, paid a visit to the brewery and spoke with staff and Head Brewer Matz, lauding the release of Mister Mayor and the small part his distillery played in its development. “Although Chocolate City Beer is not the first brewery to use our whiskey barrels in their operations, we are nonetheless pleased with their effort and the end result will be a success with beer drinkers all over,” said Wasmund. The beer will be sold in 22 ounce bottles (650 ml) at a price of $12 each.
Founded in 2009, Chocolate City Beer is located in the Brookland neighborhood in Northeast, Washington, DC. Along with its flagship Cornerstone Copper Ale, Chocolate City Beer also produces Cerveza Nacional de la Capital Dark Vienna Lager, 1814 ESB, First Coast Bohemian Pilsner, and a number of other seasonal and limited releases. Every Saturday the brewery is open to the public for free tours and tastings, as well as 64 ounce growler and other merchandise sales.

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Comedy Show and Chocolate City Beer

The Day Has Come - Chocolate City Beer Launch Party

The guys at Chocolate City Beer have finally made it through all the hurdles to open their brewery in Edgewood!!!  Come support them and help them celebrate at their official Launch Party at RFD next Thursday.  Here are the details and I hope to see you there!!!

When: Thursday night August 18th, 9pm- Close.


Where: RFD's Backroom (Chinatown- 810 7th St NW)

$4 Pints all night long and DJ O'Scool will be there!

Chocolate City Beer Update

As I am still catching up on everything from my vacation I wanted to share all the pieces of news that suggest (fingers crossed) Chocolate City Beer will be up and running this month.  Here is a little news round up on where they stand with equipment, approvals and production.  They tweeted yesterday that they would have launch party details by the end of the week!!!!!

My First Interview

Their Website Updates

City's Best Article  (I especially love them because they mention Edgewood!)

DCist Article

Chocolate City Beer T-Shirt Give-Away in May

Chocolate City Beer is have a T-Shirt Give-Away in May.  They are collecting photos of your favorite spots in DC and will pick two winners every Friday in May to give free T-shirts.  You can send your photos via twitter to @ChocCityBeer or post them to their Facebook wall. 

Recap of Last Night's Edgewood Civic Association Meeting

Last night's meeting of the Edgewood Civic Association (ECA) was a pretty typical meeting. After the meeting was called to order, Tim Clark presented membership numbers. He stated that there were 10 renewals, 3 new memberships and 7 paypal memberships which totaled 20 members. After I tweeted this information he responded that it was not accurate. He had not stated the number of members that had paid for a two-year membership last year. At the end of the meeting I asked for that number and was told that he did not know it and I asked if it would be presented at the next meeting. I was told that membership numbers would be presented if they were on the agenda, so I asked if it could be added to the agenda. I was told that the numbers were not presented at every meeting. Finally, Fred Allen stepped in and asked that they present them at the next meeting and then Tim Clark agreed. It is always shocking to me how such simple questions about membership of an organization of which I am part can turn into such a difficult encounter.

There were not many items discussed with the MPD officers that made a presentation about the crime statistics in PSA 501. They did note that most crime is down except for burglary. Three new officers are being added to PSA 501 and they already have plans for plainclothes officers on the Met Branch Trail as well as segway patrols when the weather warms up.

There were representatives from WMATA at the meeting to discuss the locations of bus stops and the removal of several stops that had occurred last year in Edgewood. The group admitted that they had not done any outreach to the community before the stops were removed, so they are now working with ANC Silas Grant to meet with the community and discuss the change of the stops. They already had one meeting and the following proposal was generated from that meeting for the G8 route:

Westbound

Remove 7th @ Kearney
Reinstall 7th @ Jackson with a shelter upon DDOT concurrence
Remove 7th @ Hamlin
Remove Edgewood Street near Franklin
Reinstall Edgewood Street @ 4th

Eastbound

Remove 4th @ Edgewood
Reinstall Edgewood @ 4th
Remove Edgewood Street near Franklin
Reinstall 7th @ Franklin (at the old location between the church and grocery store) not in front of grocery store with shelter upon DDOT concurrence and trash can
Remove 7th @ Hamlin
Reinstall 7th @ Jackson with shelter upon DDOT concurrence
Relocate 7th @ Lawrence to 7th @ Monroe

A couple of the people at the meeting were upset with some of the plans especially relocating the stop that is right in front the of the senior building at Edgewood Terrace. The WMATA group explained that they looked at ridership numbers from the averages per day over a month in September 2009 as well as talked to their personnel to make the decisions. The goal was to get bus stops into the 4-5 a mile setting to increase efficiency and speed on routes. The route previously had 8-10 stops a mile which was excessive. There will be another community meeting on the proposal and they will be presenting it to the ANC as well.

The Farmer's Market was also discussed during the meeting. The market will run from June until November on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. This is different than the previous start date which was stated as April. There were some concerns from a couple of people present about trash and rodents. Michael Byfield, the representative of the group starting the market, stated that in all his years operating farmer's markets he has never seen a problem with rodents. The market is not a permanent fixture and it is cleaned up afterwards. Mike Clark became very concerned about how the market would be cleaned up and what dumpster that they would use for trash. Mr. Byfield stated that they would be using the church's dumpster per agreement. Mike Clark stated that he wanted them to come up with a memo of understanding stating how they would clean up after themselves. I thought that this was over the top for a farmer's market. The shopping center has permanent residents that would contribute to a rodent problem many times over a market in the parking lot for 6 hours once a week. There was no vote on this item or requirement.

The next item discussed was the plan for the Ward 5 Walmart. Fred Allen talked about the group Respect DC that was formed of mainly union members. He stated that Walmart has already given 5 million dollars to groups around the community and implied that if you wanted to know where the money went you should go to the city council. He stated that Walmart said they were not going to sign any community agreements that were legally binding, but they were willing to listen to and work on the communities concerns. The zoning is matter of right for most locations and they are not asking for any money from the DC city council, so there is little leverage for community groups.

Some information was presented about the developments in the area, but I have already provided more details about them in my previous posts on this blog so I will not repeat them. No new information was given.

Mike Clark then talked about the Chocolate City Beer (CCB) brewery and stated that he had looked into their permits at DCRA and did not find any. He stated that he is concerned about this brewery opening up close to schools and that the owners never met with him, the civic association or the ANC. He stated that he hopes after DCRA looks into them that they do things right and meet with the civic associations and groups before they try to open near schools. It was not clear what permits he thought CCB was missing and I am pretty sure that the zoning is commercial for that area. I am not surprised to see this coming as this is not the first meeting Michael Clark has made a comment about the dangers of the CCB and it being near schools. I am hoping that it is a non-starter, as evidenced by blog hits CCB is pretty popular with the community already.

The meeting ended and I repeated my request from the January meeting to update our bylaws to reflect current practices. Tim Clark stated he is working on them and would not give a timeline. He stated that he is only working on typographical errors at this point and would post them online when he is done. There was some discussion about voting on the updated bylaws and if that had occurred already. Tim Clark stated that it was in the minutes and I asked if they could be posted to the website since currently the most recent minutes posted are from March 2010. Tim Clark stated that they are on the website and then kept repeating himself when I asked him to show me where since I had the minutes page of the website pulled up and could not find them. That pretty much ended the night with me wondering why I go to these meetings if I am not wanted and I am treated disrespectfully and antagonistically with every simple question I ask.

Chocolate City Beer Brewery

I was lucky to get to meet Ben Matz and Jay Irizarry at Chocolate City Beer Brewery last Friday and get to see the building and taste their product (it was really good and not even carbonated yet!). I am impressed with both their knowledge of their craft and their commitment to grow a business that is part of the community. They have spent a lot of time cleaning out the building to get it ready and are currently waiting on electrical upgrades before they can officially start brewing for production.

While they are waiting they have been working on recipes, testing products and looking into ideas for improving their business. A few things that they are thinking of doing are adding beehives on the roof to harvest their own honey and recycling their waste products as fertilizer for local farmers or community gardens. They have also talked to DDOT about the expansion of the Met Branch Trail behind their brewery. I must admit that my favorite idea of theirs is to make a seasonal hard cider from local apples. While I am a huge beer fan I am an even bigger cider fan, so I was very excited.

A Spring launch is their hope and they will be having a launch party as well as selling to bars all over the District. I was told that we will most likely be able to sample their products at RFD, Looking Glass, the Pug and Wonderland. They will be posting a list of the bars selling their beer on their website as it becomes available. They may be able to sell kegs and large bottles from their brewery directly depending on production.

I am looking forward to them getting up and running and cannot wait to sample more of their products! I think that they are an excellent addition to our neighborhood.

Edgewood is getting a Brewery!!

According to the Chocolate City Beer twitter feed they signed the lease on their new location in Edgewood and now tackle the task of cleaning up the building. The building is a cool one, but I don't envy them having to clean it up. I hope this is a sign of many new local, small businesses moving into Edgewood and occupying empty buildings!

Edgewood Getting a Brewery!?!

I saw this on the Prince of Petworth blog yesterday and it appears that a group is starting a brewery called Chocolate City Beer in Edgewood (PoP calls it Brookland, but it is in Edgewood). Read the article here. What do you think? I think it is great that building is being fixed up and that there is another small business coming to Edgewood. It should be interesting to see the reactions from the neighborhood. There is already some controversy over the name as evidenced on the PoP comment threads.