This past Saturday I noticed a tweet from
@DCBeerBill Braun how
DCBeer had organized a bus trip with
Reston Limo to three Virginia breweries:
Mad Fox Brewing Company,
Port City Brewing Company, and
Beltway Brewing Company. Since I had a kids birthday party in Sterling that afternoon, I decided to crash their visit in order to show him
#theCompassApp and to learn more about the brewery. Glad I did. Although I didn't have much time to converse with the DCBeer folks, I sampled some nice beer and learned more about the only full service contract brewery in the area. Currently Beltway Brewing offers two house beers, the Batch One Amber Ale and the Suite Dee Session IPA. Both beers were brewed basically in order to test the brewing equipment because their business model is to contract wholly for other breweries. In the past they had produced the brews for
Adroit Theory Brewing Company before they moved to their Purcellville location and currently they are pouring a couple from Hilton Head's
Wooden Skiff Brewing Company. Once their beers sell out, Beltway will "buyback" a few kicks of each contracted brew that they will pour on Thursday and Friday nights in the tasting room. A great concept for us consumers as our options increase with each contract.
It's too bad Beltway won't continue their house brand because they are quite tasty. The Batch One was malt forward but had a nice hop finish to balance the sweetness. The Suite Dee has a powerful refreshing citrus aroma followed by a light bodied beer and a clean refreshing finish. And at 4.8% abv - love this style of beer. Going forward, we will have to check out the recipes from the contracted breweries - the Wooden Skiff Blonde was nice and I'll have to head a little further west to sample the Adroit Theory. Fortunately Beltways also sells cans and bottles and not just growlers so I will be able to enjoy the Suite Dee until my stock runs out. Cheers.
