Everything Falls into Church - Part I: Docking at Port City and ending in the Caboose

OK, I'll admit it... the title of this blog is dumb. But that's how my mind works. It's a blessing and a curse. With things slowly starting to return to normal, we've been soothing our cabin fever with a few quick weekend excursions to nearby regions to explore uncharted territory. On this particular weekend, I was supposed to be playing a gig with Solar Federation in Pittsburgh; however, as with all of my gigs throughout 2020, this one was postponed to a later date. Thanks 'Rona. Brewslut took a rare personal day to accompany me, and we'd planned to spend a day hitting up our favorite Steel City breweries. When our plans were thwarted, we decided to keep our PTO on the books and figure out an alternate game plan. 

Upon examining a beer map of Virginia, I noticed that a fairly large portion of the state remained unexplored for us. Turns out the Falls Church/Fairfax/Alexandria/DC area has lots going on beer-wise. It also happens that Silver Spring, MD, is a mere hop, skip and jump away from where we settled on staying - Fells Church, VA. Already, the itinerary was coming together in my head. 

For some reason, our first stop of the trip - Port City - wasn't on my initial list. However, Deuane gave this brewery an enthusiastic "thumbs up," so we added it to our agenda. Since they opened earlier than most other area breweries, we decided to start our day there. Well, actually, that's not entire true. I started by hitting a nearby record store an hour before Port City opened, while Brewslut went up the street to a local coffee place I'd discovered. I'm always on a quest to feed the demon when it comes to record stores. And if you're anything like me, buying records is nothing short of an addiction. I suppose it's better than gambling or heroin. So after about 45 minutes of digging, we were off to Alexandria, VA, for our inaugural visit to Port City. 

First ones here... first ones here...

We were the first people to arrive right as Port City was opening for the day. Actually, I'd made advance reservations because the weather forecast promised "warmish" temperatures and they only had outdoor seating. I didn't want to get there to discover a Friday lunch rush or something. We needn't have worried, because nobody else was there. 

We grabbed a table at the far side of the beer garden. It was a tad brisk and windy, so we had one of the nearby heat lamps turned on. Like a few other breweries we'd visited during COVID, all ordering was done via an app and paid for with each transaction. With that said, I tried to order a pilsner but user error ensued and I ended up with Essential Pale Ale. However, it was a welcome blunder, because this was a textbook pale ale: deep golden in color with hop aroma reminiscent of citrus fruit. Nothing fancy. Not a hazy juice bomb or a Bourbon Barrel-aged Chocolate Coconut Coffee Raspberry Pastry Stout aged on Madagascar vanilla beans, cocoa nibs and 50 lbs. of Cinnabons. It's just a delicious, drinkable, no-frills pale ale. Score one for Port City in my book! 

Pleeps is ready!

I loved the fact that we were in Virginia and didn't have to order food at every stop. Regardless, I decided to keep things light and simple with my next beer, Golden Export Lager. This European Export style, also called a Dortmunder, is characterized by a deep golden hue and a slightly higher ABV compared to, say, a helles. Additionally, the Export style is maltier than a pilsner and hoppier than a helles. This one boasts notes of lightly toasted malt and floral hops with soft bitterness and a clean, dry finish. This was another winner as far as I was concerned. 

Brewslut was eyeing up a beer called Colossal One, so we decided to share a pour as our final beer at Port City. Described as a Belgian imperial stout aged in red wine barrels, Colossal One is brewed in celebration of Port City's anniversary, which occurs is in the dead of winter. So I suppose it's only fitting that they brew a very strong, very dark high-gravity beer to keep folks all warm and toasty inside. Westmalle Trappist yeast provides the beer's Belgian flair, offering a tinge of phenolic spiciness and some pleasant fruity esters. However, deep down this beer is all about decadent cocoa and dried stone fruit with flashes of espresso, Swiss chocolate, and just a touch of citrus zest.

All in all, Port City provided an enjoyable experience. Although we didn't get to enjoy this impressive-looking brewery from the inside, we had nice chats with the greeter and our server. It's also refreshing to see a mid-sized production brewery churning out tried-and-true beers and more traditional styles rather than jump on a bandwagon craze. Everything we had here was solid... better than solid, actually. I look forward to returning once things get back to normal so we can check out the entire brewery. 

The colorful world of Aslin.

Our second stop of the day was the only brewery with which I was previously familiar: Aslin. Also situated in Alexandria, Aslin has a second location in Reston, VA, which I originally thought was the main location. Turns out I was wrong. Regardless, we'd had several of its beers in the past and have been routinely impressed across the board. However, the brewery has a penchant for pushing innovation and creativity, and our visit definitely seemed to drive that notion home. Upon perusing the beer board, we were greeted with a cornucopia of styles ranging from pilsners and lagers (I even took home a 4-pack of a dark Czech lager, which was delicious) to an assortment of IPAs from one end of the spectrum to the other to... well, just really odd-sounding beers with disparate ingredients (more on two of those beers in a bit).  

I dipped my toes into the water and opted for something on the lighter end of the IPA spectrum: Don't Dial in and Focus. This IPA is triple dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy to elicit notes of juicy peach and zesty citrus fruit amid accents of mango and pine. With its peachy character and huge hop nose, this beer proved to be a good starting point. 

For my next selection, I decided to go a bit more experimental with IPA #2. This beer is part of Aslin's Brewer's Series, which spotlights the recipe of a particular brewery who creates and executes his own recipe from start to finish. This mouth-watering, tropical IPA features milk sugar and is dry-hopped with Amarillo, Simcoe, and Galaxy and conditioned on pineapple and coconut. This beer was pretty damn amazing, and I did not hesitate to take home some cans of this fantastic limited release.

Pleeps gettin' down to business at Aslin!

Remember those "odd" beers I mentioned two paragraphs ago? Well, it's time to tackle a pair of them right now. First up is Durango Doug, and I'm not gonna lie to you... I love the opening of this beer's description (even though I have no idea what it means):

    Remember Corvette Steve? We’d like to introduce you to his cousin, Durango Doug. Doug would love     to help you take that dresser to the Goodwill this weekend but there’s not much room in the back ever     since he put in those sick 18” Rockford Fosgate subs. 

Durango Doug is an interesting sour ale loaded with raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, hazelnut, maple and marshmallow. Man, I'm telling you... marshmallow is going to be the new ingredient craze of 2021. I've encountered at least a dozen beers with marshmallow since the tail end of 2020, and most of them have been great. The goal here was to hearken back to a few of the favorite sugary Saturday morning breakfast cereals of childhood's past. However, the maple definitely nudged its way to the forefront, giving this one more of a French toast vibe rather than cereal. 

Beer... it's what's for breakfast!

Speaking of breakfast beers, up next was something called Brunchies. Brewed in collaboration with Troon Brewing, Brunchies is a sour IPA brewed with blueberries, maple, lemon and coffee. Wait... lemon? I'm not sure how lemon factors into that odd equation. Perhaps I needed to use the quadratic formula. Despite its promising list of ingredients, this one fell a little short with me overall. I appreciated the experimental nature of this beer, though. 

Overall, it was great to finally get to Aslin, as it had been on our radar for several years. The space and atmosphere reminded me of Modist Brewing based in Minneapolis, MN, which was a stand-out on our epic trek to Great Taste of the Midwest back in 2018. Even the beers were done in the same vein. Fortunately, my memory of breweries remains at least partially intact thanks to my diligence at keeping this blog alive. 

Gettin' chubby with it!

After a chill visit to Aslin, it was time to set the GPS to Fairfax for our next brewery visit: Chubby Squirrel. I'll admit that I'd never heard of this brewery prior to putting together our itinerary for the weekend. Located in the heart of downtown Fairfax, this tiny brewery touts itself as "your neighborhood brewery" and is apparently the first craft brewery in Fairfax proper. I always say that every town needs its own small brewery. Chubby Squirrel is a quaint little place situated in the Courtyard Plaza Shopping Center, so there's plenty of parking available. 

Chubby Squirrel welcomes you!

By this time of the day, we were feeling a bit peckish. Luckily for us, Chubby Squirrel offers a condensed menu featuring snacks and small bites. Inside, the place feels kind of like a pizza or sub shop; it's a long, narrow room with a counter at the very back. I'm an animal guy, so I dug the squirrels, though. (We actually have a family of squirrels living in our old tree in our yard who've been named Dig Dug, Dozier, Bull, and Paulie Walnuts.) After perusing the menu, we settled on pierogies and grilled wings. Both hit the spot and added some more fuel in our tanks. Meanwhile, Pleeps was off making new friends. I knew he'd find a kindred spirit at this place!

Pleeps is looking rather svelte next to the chubby squirrel.

Anyway, onto the beer. The selection was modest, with about six to eight beers on tap. We eventually landed on The Mangolorian, a boozy Triple IPA with brewed with mango, orange, and lactose. Weighing in at 10% ABV, Brewslut and I decided to share a pour of this heavy hitter. The obvious Star Wars reference wasn't lost on us, despite the fact that neither of us had ever seen an episode of the Mandalorian. Overall, this was fairly enjoyable, but in the grand scheme of things I don't think I could have handled a full pour of this beast, especially given our ambitious timeline for the day. 

That chubby squirrel... what a nut!

After our fairly lengthy session at Aslin, we needed to recharge a bit, so I suppose one shared beer (albeit a 10-percenter) was a sound decision. Fortunately for us, nothing else on the beer menu was calling our names, so we left this as a one-and-done stop. It was time to bid a fond farewell to Pleeps' new pal, the chubby squirrel, and set our sights to the next stop. 

When I checked out a map of the area, it looked like there was a lot going on in Falls Church. Turns out our next three stops were all located in the Falls Church area. First up was Solace Outpost, a satellite location of Solace Brewing in Sterling (Sterling, Virginia... baaah baaah burky burrrr!), home of my favorite comedian, Patton Oswalt. Solace launched in 2016 and expanded to this second location after the previous tenant, Mad Fox Brewing Company, closed its doors in July of 2019. 

We parked on the street around the block and, unbeknownst to us, took the long way around the block. Oh well. I always appreciate getting a bit of exercise when we're binge drinking (which, according to Letterkenny's Pastor Glenn "is a form of alcoholism"... although I beg to differ). OK, I guess "binge drinking" does, in fact, imply negative connotations, so let's just call it "brewery hopping." 

How 'bout a picture of some tanks?

Inside, the dimly-lit space captures a chill, cozy vibe and features a long, curved bar and lots of wood plank accents throughout the space. We sat at a high-top table for four right inside the side entrance. For some reason, I felt like I was in Oregon when we were here. Perhaps it reminded me of a particular brewery we visited out there. For whatever reason, my thoughts immediately went back to that awesome trip.  

The food at Solace Outpost is provided by Sauced and boasts the tasty trifecta of "pies, thighs and fries." I must say that these are a few of my favorite things. After some discussion, we opted for the Bama Chicken pie featuring garlic butter, mozzarella, crispy chicken, red onion, banana peppers, and white barbeque sauce. It was quite tasty to say the least, especially the crispy thin crust. 

As for the beer, this was a one-and-done stop for us, and it was perfect timing because we arrived during Happy Hour! The beer I ultimately decided on was Capturing Moods, a pale ale brewed with flaked barley, wheat and Munich malts and hopped with Citra Cryo in the boil and double dry-hopped with Comet after fermentation. Now you might be thinking to yourself, "What's with this newfangled "Cryo" designation? I've heard of Citra hops, but what's this Cryo business?" Cryo Hops is a trademarked brand of hops that utilizes "cryogenic" processing (i.e. they're frozen in liquid nitrogen). During this process, whole-leaf hops are separated into concentrated lupulin to help preserve all of the hop's oils and resins. What does this accomplish? Well, it boosts the hop potency considerably and produces an enhanced hop flavor. Traditional hop cones and pellets contain undesirable vegetative material that can add astringency or bring forward unwanted flavors. Cryo Hops, however, eliminate this issue. The more you know...

Pleeps betwixt a pair of brews at Solace.

After a slight refueling at Solace, it was time to head over to Settle Down Easy, the second of three breweries in Falls Church on our list for the day. A brewery with a music bent, Settle Down Easy opened for business in 2018 and borrowed its name from lyrics to the Grateful Dead song "Ramble on Rose." Actually, the brewery almost had to settle for another name, as "Settle Down Brown" was copyrighted by Odell Brewing out of Ft. Collins, CO. But when the owners of Settle Down Easy explained to Odell that the name was a tribute to the fallen brother of one of the owners, Odell allowed the small Virginia brewery use of this meaningful name. 

The beer selection during our visit included about a dozen taps of varying styles, and it was a Schwarzbier that jumped out to me. The aptly named It's a Lager That's Dark is a classic German-style dark lager similar to a dunkel but with the addition of roasted and debittered black malt. Noble Tettnang and Saaz hops add a tinge of spicy and floral notes, while a traditional yeast strain lends a crisp, clean finish. This one was pretty solid overall, and I'm always pleased to see a Schwarzbier (same with a Rauchbier) on tap when we travel. 

Since they offered half pours, we opted for a second round. This time, I went with Birt's Bock. Named after a friend of the brewery who picks up spent grains to feed his cattle, this medium-bodied bock (i.e. strong lager) features notes of toasted bread and caramel. 

There was also a little taco stand right over by our table. Their prices were right, so I opted for a little snack and grabbed a taco. It was about the size of two regular tacos and hit the spot for sure (although I felt a little queasy the next day, which may or may not have been the result of said taco... just sayin'). 

Settle Down Easy was pretty solid overall, and I definitely appreciated the music-centric vibe of the place, with its plethora of rock band flags and banners adorning the entire wall above the main entrance. They also seemed to be pretty busy during our visit, so good for them! 

Our third and final Falls Church brewery of the day was Audacious Aleworks, and it was easily our most social visit of the day. More on that later, though.

Pleeps says, "Blue is nice!"

There was much to be had on the beer menu; everything from sours and coffee beers to IPAs and a variety of traditional styles were represented here. After a few moments, we settled on two coffee-forward beers and shared them. First up was Hazelnut Espresso Stout, a pastry stout sweetened with lactose and finished on espresso and hazelnuts. The other was called Bombastic Birdie Beans, which I found to be a peculiar name. This flavorful blonde ale is brewed with Madagascar vanilla beans and (hence the beer's name) Birdie Blend coffee from a local Falls Church coffee roaster called Rare Bird. So there you go! Both of these were solid offerings overall.

As I was heading back to our table (adjacent to the brewhouse), I overheard a table of three guys talking about one of my favorite TV shows of all time - Seinfeld. I sat down and my ears perked up as they began discussing whether Seinfeld was better than Friends. (They all agreed correctly that there was no comparison; Seinfeld was the superior show.) So I got roped into a lengthy conversation about classic TV, beer and a myriad of other things with this friendly trio. Meanwhile, Brewslut was starting to show signs of fatigue and kept Pleeps company by allowing him to climb around on the wall separating us from the brewhouse. That's Pleeps... always monkeying around. I decided it was time to stick a fork in our visit, so I grabbed a few cans of Joyous to give to the trio of guys with whom I passed an enjoyable hour (one of them was already a Tröegs fan)! Although Brewslut was fading, I talked her into one final stop of the day... which isn't hard to do, by the way. 

Pleeps being Pleeps.

We had planned on hitting Caboose Commons for breakfast on Sunday, as they opened a little earlier than most of the other breweries on our list. It's a good thing we decided to swing by on this particular evening, because we learned that they didn't actually open until 11:30 a.m., not the 7 a.m. I'd thought. (Yes, that's early for a brewery but in pre-COVID days, they offer a killer breakfast and brunch that sadly we were not able to enjoy. Thanks again, 'Rona.) At any rate, we arrived about two minutes prior to last call. We told the greeter that we were just going to be grabbing one beer and heading out. She seated us, and by the time my QR code scanned and we were ready to order, last call was made and I couldn't place my order. I'd thought we'd been pipped at the post. However, the manager on duty was kind enough to let us, um, manually order a beer (actually live and in person). That was mighty kind of him.  

I decided to end big and ordered a pour of the Rum Barrel Aged Tiramisu Stout, an imperial stout aged in - you guessed it - rum barrels with the help of cacao nibs, whole coffee beans, Madagascar vanilla beans, and lactose. Turns out this beer was the first beer release of the 2021 Caboose Barrel Club! I mean, I'm not even a card-carrying member... plus we rolled in late... so I suppose I should count my blessings. It was might tasty, but the rum character just wasn't sitting well with me. Once it approached room temperature (which it barely did because we only had about 30 minutes to spend here), it mellowed a bit. 

Meanwhile, Brewslut was digging her Mango Milkshake IPA with its tropical, juicy fruit flavor and faint herbal, almost peppery hop bite to add some contrast. Since we only had time for one beer each, we decided to share these. I'd typically prefer the imperial stout, but this milkshake IPA was legit and I ultimately decided it was the superior beer of the two. 

Caboose definitely had the potential to be one of our favorite stops of the day, but we just didn't have enough time to soak it in, unfortunately. Breweries in this area like to make "last call" 30 to 45 minutes before closing. We're used to 0 to 15 minutes here in PA, so it was an adjustment we tried to make (more on that in Part II). I'd love to visit in post-COVID times so we can enjoy their breakfast with a nice, roasty coffee stout or beermosa. 

Well, that's it for Day 1, folks! Tune in again next time for Part II of our Virginia adventure, which actually will take us to Silver Spring, MD, and down into our nation's capital before traversing back to base camp. Until next time...