Cruising for Beer & Wine Along the W&OD Bike Trail: N. Arlington

I continued my W&OD Trail beer & wine tour with a ride from Falls Church to North Arlington.  This route doesn't include any production wineries or breweries, but does include two cool beer bars and a Maryland import, the Heavy Seas Alehouse in Rosslyn. This restaurant serves all the Heavy Seas Brewing Company brews as well as guest taps from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and Port City Brewing Company among others. To get to the alehouse from the bike path take Nash Street into Rosslyn right at the Marriott. Turn right on Key street, then an immediate left on Oak Street and Heavy Seas is just up the hill. Get used to the hills. The alehouse has a few beers on cask and I enjoyed the Powder Monkey Pale Ale. 

Heading west, I knew their was a Lost Dog restaurant in the Westover area so I swapped theCompass Winery Brewery Distillery mobile app for the Lost Dog Cafe mobile app. This tapfinder application shows the four Lost Dog locations as well as the beers on tap at each location. The Lost Dog app's integration with my phone's navigation guided me through the Custis Trail between mile marker 3&4, where the bike path crosses under Route 66.  Just before the underpass take a right (or coming from the West cross under RT 66 and take a quick left), a left on 11th and then a quick right on Kenilworth which leads to a bike line on Washington Blvd. Hang a left and after pedaling up and down a hill - you are in Westover with Lost Dog on your left and the Westover Market Beer Garden on your right.

The Lost Dog Cafe maintains a rotating list of excellent craft beer and by setting preferences on their mobile app, you an be alerted when a specific beer or a favorite beer is tapped. Since it's been a while since I sat in the Beer Garden I chose the Westover Market for this trip and at a crowded World Cup watching bar, saw that one of my favorite beers, the Lost Rhino Brewing Co. Zlaty Pils was on tap. This beer was home brewed by a friend and colleague Aaron Hermes, for a Pilsner Urquell homebrew contest. After winning the contest, Lost Rhino offered to brew the recipe commercially. It's fresh, full bodied, slightly hoppy and a solid beer. Cheers and safe travels.

Update I: I've been asked to include area bike shops available for emergency repairs. In Falls Church - N Arlington, Tri 360 is on the Trail at Lee Highway. The where Lee Highway intersects the trail again look for  Big Wheel Bikes.

Crooked Run Brewing's Shadow of Truth Release Party

 Last night, along with over 100 other people, I attended Crooked Run Brewing Shadow of Truth Release Party held at Beltway Brewing Company in Sterling VA. Crooked Run is located in Leesburg's Market Station (great bicycle access off the W&OD) and brew non-traditional English and Belgium styled ales at this location. However, they have decided to expand capacity in order to target a wider consumer base, and to meet these goals, have contracted out with Beltway Brewing (See my first visit to Beltway's facility).

And the first beer Crooked Run chose to distribute is their Shadow of Truth - a black Belgian tripel. The beer is brewed with debittered black malt as well as a smaller portion of Vienna malt. The result is an extremely smooth beer, not overly malty and which masks the 8.5% abv quite well. The finish is balanced with just enough hops for a smooth transition but not an abundance to override the flavors. The beer should be making it's Metro DC debut this week so check out Lost Dog Cafe, Whole Foods, Rustico, Fireworks, World of Beer or any of the other well represented craft beer outlets in the area. For me, I need to bike out to Market Station to try the remaining portfolio. Oh yea, almost forgot. The DC Sliders truck was on hand providing very unique sliders - try the Elvis if you see them. Cheers. 

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup & Beer: Is It Possible?

During last Spring's coverage of the Savor Craft Beer Experience I read about a new fad in craft brewing - combining peanut butter and chocolate into the brewing process. Being a major peanut butter fan, I was intrigued with this concept; yet promptly forgot about it when Summer ascended. In the Fall, I was reminded due to my Lost Dog Cafe app alerted me that the Twisted Pine Brewing Company - Rhesus Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout was being poured at one of their locations. I hurried over that day to taste the Rhesus and was both disappointed and encouraged. The disappointment arose because the Rhesus didn't really taste like a Reese's peanut butter cup; instead these flavors were subtle and the beer more stout like. On the other hand, I was encouraged because I did like this beer even though I had to strain to appreciate the Reese's qualities.

Over the next couple of weeks I searched for more beers in this style and finally landed the beer that many had recommended - the DuClaw Brewing Company - Sweet Baby Jesus!. This is a porter from a Maryland brewery I've been following for quite sometime and pretty much nails a Reese's cup. There is plenty of chocolate and peanut butter - but also balance - as the tail finishes with a smooth hoppy character. Keeping with the lexicon - so far this is the Holy Grail of  Peanut Butter Chocolate beers.

At the same time I was able to find a Rogue Brewery - Voodoo Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana Ale easy to spot in the pink bottle with Voodoo’s "Memphis Mafia" doughnuts. This is the sweetest of the three with plenty of banana throughout - nose, palette, and finish. In my opinion, the excess artificial banana was it's downfall - overwhelming the chocolate and the peanut butter. To others in our tasting party - that was not a problem. 

Finally there's one more in this style I am familiar with that I have not been able to sample: Florida's Rapp Brewing Company - Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout.  I'm not sure how wide their distribution but will seek them on theCompass Alcohol Locator our next trip to Tampa.

What are the Best Wine, Beer, & Distillery Mobile Applications?

While designing theCompass Alcohol Locator, we downloaded several other similar Android mobile apps to research the strengths and deficiencies of the current market. These mobile apps can be divided into two categories; (1) those that function as cellar inventories and tasting notes repositories and (2) those that are a compendium of wineries, breweries, or attempt to locate wine or beer in a specific area or establishment.

Some applications attempt to provide functionality within both categories, but often fail to provide adequate service in both. For instance, I utilize Untapped, an application that does well in letting users review beers but suffers in locating craft beers in your area. This is a result of utilizing crowd sourcing, where their data is populated by users and not the establishments. The crowd sourcing option is easy to implement on the application side, but for the user the result is incomplete or outdated information. On the other hand, establishment applications, such as Lost Dog Cafe or World of Beer provide real time tapped information.

Many of the best locator applications are specific to a region or establishment - such as the two listed above. Many states, regions, and enterprising companies have created applications designed for a specific geographic area that provide comprehensive information on their wineries or breweries. Two examples are Virginia Wine In My Pocket and Finger Lakes Wine Country. For me, the deficiencies in these applications are the result of their greatest strength -> they focus on one region, so if you plan on traveling to multiple regions, you must install multiple applications on your device. The one comprehensive wine application that we found was the America's Wine Trail app that provides excellent information by state, but not by geo-location. Thus if you are visiting Washington D.C., the application will provide information separately for Maryland and Virginia but not a combined view.  Our video on traveling to Bristol Virginia\Tennessee for the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion illustrates this concept.

And finally, these applications are segregated by industry - there are wine apps and there are beer apps. But do any combine wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries into a single app? Hence, theCompass. As we keep developing and improving theCompass we hope that it alleviates the deficiencies found in the mobile application wine and beer locator market. Cheers

Here's a few to checkout:

Beer

• Untappd
• Lost Dog Cafe
• Bootlegger Nation
• Beerby
• Brewery and Craft Beer Locator

Wine

• Vivino
• Delectable
• Hello Vino
• Vinowine
• Virginia Wine In My Pocket
• Finger Lakes Wine Country
• Visit Monterey Wine Country
• America's Wine Trail