Creative destruction resides in the NOVA craft beer market as one brewery closes several open to take its place. And we recently visited four infants in Northern Virginia. During a previous wave of new openings Brian Reinoehl visited Bad Wolf Brewery in Manassas and felt the bug. He and partner Michael Frizzell spent the next five years immersed in the beer industry starting with a one-barrel system and eventually selling their IT business to open Audacious Aleworks (#60). They had intended to open in the Mosiac District where Caboose Brewing will soon open their second facility but found the City of Falls Church a more cooperative environment. They officially opened about a month ago slowly increasing their portfolio to the present 15 beers. That means plenty of opportunities to find one you like and I did with the Westminster Bridge ESB -- feels like sitting in a British pub. Other solid beers are the Pretentious Porter, Kings Chance Saison, 7 Evil Exes Sour, and Conviction IPA.
Ashburn's House 6 Brewing Company (#61) was instantiated by a similar passion for craft beer this from volunteer firefighter, Rolando Rivera -- not surprisingly some years spent at Station 6. However, Rivera took a less prolific model and opened last weekend with just four beers on tap. And these beers are fantastic. The 4.6% El Bombero Kölsch is a light and fresh beer well suited for the cyclist venturing off the WO&D. The Firebreak Session IPA weighs in at a similarly low abv and packs plenty of flavor for this session beer. The same is true for the ridiculously tolerant Off Duty English Mild (3.7%) where the malt and caramel meld into a delicious beer. And equally so is the Smoke Eater Smoked Porter where the chocolate transitions to a rauchbier finish. Fantastic.
Our next stop, Phase 2 Brewing (#62), is a tiny brewery - a nano's nano - that pours to house brewed beers at Brew LoCo, an independent coffeehouse and homebrew shop opened in 2014 by sisters Cathy Frye and Mary Battaglia. They normally have two or three beers surrounding their nitro coffee tap and during our visit it was the Mango Mama DIPA and Lunar Eclipse Imperial Stout. Both weigh in at 8% and are quite interesting with the DIPA tasting like Werther's Original and the stout a nutmeg chili chocolate beer. Quite interesting.
And as always these breweries can be visited easily using theCompass Craft Beverage Finder. Sorry iPhone 11 iOS and iPhones 5S and greater users. Cheers.
