Our Tasting Room Is Open!

Thank you for all of your “to-go” support during the last three months! It allowed us to not only survive the loss of our primary revenue source, but also keep progressing on sour beers, and canning! Not to mention the sales last Saturday that went to Baltimore Action Legal Team (BALT) in support of the ongoing protests against police violence and racial bias. 

Our tasting room resumed normal-ish operations this week! To start the hours are Wednesday-Friday 2-8 PM, and Saturdays 12-8 PM. We recently gave the walls a fresh coat of paint so it might look a little different than you remember. It is a little sterile at the moment, but we’ll be re-hanging painting, photos, and plants (and we are interviewing muralists)!

We’ve been canning most of our beer the last two months so we are a little short on beer in kegs. Wednesday we tapped batch #2 of Little by Slowly (our mostly-traditional, no-boil, mixed-ferment Berliner Weisse). Today we’ll have a couple preview kegs of Danger of Light (6.1% all-Mosaic pale ale) to tide you over until next week’s can release (details below). We’ll update our taplist each morning so you know what we have available. 

To ensure everyone’s safety, we’ve moved to plastic cups with full and half-pours available. If you are drinking in house, we’ll take your order at the table and deliver your beer (how fancy!). No bar-stools for now. Children must remain seated. We have rigorous hourly sanitation practices for the bathrooms and other frequently touched surfaces (in addition to after each table is vacated). We are not taking reservations at this time, but likely will when we get approval for outdoor seating! 

If you are picking-up an online order or buying beer to-go follow the cones and arrows to the bar. We’re still trying to come up with a safe growler exchange program (in lieu of refills); for now all growlers are still new.  

June Can Release

This month’s can release is all about hops… again! Online pre-orders start Friday 6/26 for Saturday 6/27 pick-up. We have three beers: Danger of Light (6.1% Mosaic Pale Ale, $17), Hallow Bright (7.0% Citra DDH IPA, $19), and our collab with Great Notion: Wonderkind (8.1% Tropical DIPA, $22). 

We’re especially excited about Wonderkind. We added freeze-dried mango in the boil followed by guava and passion fruit puree in the fermentor. Finally we dry hopped it twice with Citra, Grungeist, and Galaxy! Loads of hops in the nose, with tropical fruit in the flavor.  

We’ll hold onto cases of each for in-house consumption, so the to-go allocations will go quickly! As you may recall we ordered three new 20 bbl tanks back in December… they still haven’t arrived. In fact the company gave up hope on the shipper and issued a refund for our deposit. looks like our search begins again. 

July Bottle Releases

We’ve been bottling a batch every-other week for the last two months. Three of those should be carbonated, labeled, and ready for July releases! Aiming for 7/4 for Reality is Frequently Inaccurate (later in the month for the other two).

Reality is Frequently Inaccurate – Our golden sour base developed a beautiful fruity acidity after 11 months in barrels. We played that sourness off of the citrusy aromatics of fresh grapefruit zest and Spanish Cedar. Then we added the iconic red of hibiscus flowers, bringing with it their cranberry-like flavor. The result is a fun sour beer that has the look and flavor of ruby red grapefruit juice. We suggest consuming soon while the flavor is vibrant and refreshing!

Amethyst Throne – We added 300 lbs of blackberries to this strong, sour red ale. As far as berries go, blackberries have a less-distinct more-complex flavor. They imbued a deep winey aroma, complimenting the vinous character created during the beer’s time in oversized port-barrels. The acidity is moderate, providing balance to the malt without disrupting drinkability. The fruit intensifies the red color of the base beer into a vivid ruby. The result is a libation suitable for a monarch to sip from a crystal goblet after a hard day of ruling.

Golden Empire of York – Three years ago we chose to be Sapwood “Cellars” rather than Beer Co. or Brewery with cider in mind. It took us awhile, but here we are! We created Golden Empire of York from 100% Virginia-grown Golden Delicious, Empire, and York apples. Our house saison culture was in charge of fermentation, but don’t expect it to have the peppery or funky notes of a saison. Rather the result is dry and tart, with the intense taste and aroma of apples. Gluten-free!

Cheers!

Mike  & Scott

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