Everything Falls into Church - Part II: Springing into our nation's capital

When I was putting together our itinerary for this particular weekend jaunt, I was not aware that Silver Spring, MD, was in such close proximity of our home base. Upon further investigation, there appeared to be a few solid-looking breweries we could check out, so we laid in a course for nearby Silver Spring. I'll never turn down an opportunity to visit uncharted territory. 

First up was Silver Branch, which I must admit set the bar for the day pretty damn high. First off... gnomes! My initial attraction to this place was cemented by its variety of beers featuring gnome references and whimsical illustrations of those cool little mythical folk that dwell in trees and vegetable gardens. We've already talked about our small tribe of gnomes - and cousins/uncles/grandpas of Pleeps - in previous blogs, so you're likely familiar with our penchant for these diminutive creatures. 

Initially, the location posed some parking issues, which caused us to have to park a few blocks away. Otherwise, Silver Branch seems to have everything going for it. A comfortable, casual space with its own vibe, one of the friendliest staff we've ever encountered, and fantastic beer across the board. And lest not forget the gnomes, which is like the icing on the cake! 

Pleeps hangin' with all his gnomies!

Located in bustling downtown Silver Spring, MD, Silver Branch was founded in January 2017 by a pair of long-time beer lovers who shared a deep appreciation for four distinct brewing cultures: North America, Belgium, the British Isles, and Central Europe. So it's no wonder that their taproom brings together the feel of a classic American taproom, a traditional British pub, a raucous German beer hall, and a Flemish cafe. 

I learned that one of the owners/brewers did an internship of some kind with Brasserie DuPont, a telltale sign that its saison, cleverly named Beyond the Gnome World, would be a home run. Turns out it won a gold medal at the 2020 GABF competition! Editor's note: I didn't have it on tap during our visit, but I brought home a 6-pack of cans. It's a world-class saison for sure!

Silver Branch flight: nuthin' but winners!

There was a lot to be had on the beer list during our visit, so we thought a sampler flight would be in order. Here's the run-down of the beers we sampled:

• All My Gnomies! - Belgian-influenced hybrid IPA with fruity American hops and a spicy saison yeast strain. 
• Downtown Double Shake - Milkshake IPA brewed in collaboration with Idiom... one of our favorites. This IPA boasts big tropical notes, especially pineapple, with a hint of orange creamsicle.
• Obsidian Castle - Dark lager with subtle chocolate and roasty notes. Czech-grown Saaz hops add a tinge of grassy, herbaceous tones.
• Lord Squeegee Tropical Cocktail - Inspired by a tropical fruit cocktail you might find at an all-inclusive beach resort, this imperial sour screams pineapple and tangerine with a refreshing tartness. Silver Branch also promises hints of "orgeat," a flavor with which I am unfamiliar. Once again, Google comes to the rescue! Turns out orgeat is actually a syrup - not fruit - made from almonds, sugar, and rose water or orange flower water. With a pronounced almond flavor, it is used in a variety of - you guessed it - cocktails. 
• Squeegee Can Man - Collaboration with Oliver Brewing. Brewslut was all about this beer. Think key lime pie with a tasty graham cracker crust and abundant sweet and tart notes. This one rivals another similar beer we've had in the past, Breaker Brewing's Limelife. 
• Vanilla Latte Chronicle - Chronicle stout infused with light-roasted coffee beans from Nicaragua and Guatemala as well as lactose and vanilla. Bright fruity and complex chocolate flavors from the coffee enhance the base stout's rich malt and mellow roasted flavors.

Bonus points for the gnomes at Silver Branch!

All of these beers were pretty exceptional. Rarely do we encounter a sampler flight without at least one dud, but we weren't disappointed with anything at Silver Branch. We rounded out our visit by putting together a killer mixed case including two sixers of Brewslut's favorite (Squeegee Can Man) as well as the aforementioned Beyond the Gnome World and a milkshake IPA collab with one of our new favorite breweries, Frederick MD's Idiom, called Downtown Double Shake. I was fine carrying this case of beer four city blocks. All in all, this was a great start to our day and Silver Branch definitely has been penciled in on our "Top Ten" list for 2021. We'll see if they can make the cut. 

With lots to accomplish throughout the day (i.e. drinking), it was time to bid a fond farewell to Silver Branch and move on to the next stop on our itinerary. Right off the bat, Astro Lab reminded us of a brewery we'd visited in Portland, OR, during our epic 2016 trip called Ecliptic. Upon entering the small, rectangular taproom, we were greeted by a spacy logo painted on the wall and a menu rife with IPAs. An "astrolabe" represents history, journeys, innovation, and craftsmanship, so I suppose it's a fitting name as any for a brewery that strives to push the boundaries of craft beer's ever-expanding landscape. 

More specifically, Oxford defines an "astrolabe" as follows:

an instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant. In its basic form (known from classical times), it consists of a disk with the edge marked in degrees and a pivoted pointer.

Sounds pretty spacey to me. We'd also been informed by someone during our visit to Silver Branch that Astro Lab "has the IPA thing down" (a paraphrase, of course), so we decided to dive right in. 

All in all, we sampled four different beers at Astro Lab, and they were all enjoyable. Coincidentally, my first beer was actually an Imperial Pilsner called Luminous Spheres. I was initially drawn to its unusual hop combination for a pilsner: Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, and Riwaka, all varieties from New Zealand. This one was really fruity on the nose, eliciting hints of lime, white grape and lemon. The natural carbonation offered a tasty bready backbone and a fairly hefty body for a pilsner. Well, it is an "imperial" pilsner, so I suppose that's part of what makes it imperial. I was more than satisfied and we decided a second round was in order. 

Meanwhile, Brewslut was working on a pour of Hi Ry. Actually, we shared all four of the beers, so I enjoyed this one as well! This succulent DIPA boasts peach and candied citrus in the aroma with aggressive citrus notes and a hint of peach on the palate. A hint of rye lends a spicy creaminess that complements the lightly dank finish nicely. This may have been my favorite of the lot, which doesn't surprise me. I'm a sucker for peachy beers and I happen to love the spiciness of rye. 

For our second round we tackled two more half pours. First up was Fresh As, a straight-up American IPA boasting juicy tropical fruit and citrus with an underlying hint of passionfruit and pine. Soft on the palate yet bright and refreshing, this was another enjoyable IPA. 

The last beer I sampled was About Turn, which was described as a New England IPA. I found the hop bill to be quite peculiar for a NEIPA: Chinook, Cascade and Mosaic, largely old-school hops. This one was bursting with citrus in the form of bright orange, grapefruit and just a touch of pine. 

Pleeps gettin' it done!

All in all, there's plenty of good stuff at Astrolab, especially if you dig IPAs. (I mean, who doesn't?) I certainly wasn't disappointed with anything I put in my gullet. The place had a chill vibe that I always appreciate, and our server was friendly and on-point, so no complaints here.

We arrived at  Denizens, our third and final stop in Silver Spring, with no reservation. Its outdoor beer garden looked packed to the gills, and we were told it would be about an hour until we could be seated. We left our name and phone number with the greeter in the event that something opened up sooner, but I was certain that we would miss out on this place. After a quick jog back to the car, we decided to head to the next brewery on our list. Surprisingly, the greeter called me less than five minutes after we left. We'd just got into the car and started driving, so we turned around, grabbed our original parking spot and secured a seat all the way at the back of the beer garden. 

Outside Denizens. (Photo courtesy of Montgomery Community Media)

One peculiar aspect of the beer garden at Denizens was that the ground didn't have grass, or gravel, or even cool little stepping stones you might encounter in an actual garden; instead, we found ourselves trodding upon Astroturf. The entire ground was covered with it. While we were here, a friendly and hungry - aren't they all? - Beagle occupied much of my attention during our visit. One of his owners gave him some kind of mammoth bone to nosh on for a bit, but took it away from the poor little mutt midway through him tearing it to shreds... right down to the cartilage. She took the mangled piece and placed it in a bag on their table, and the dog responded with a confused look all the while salivating for the remainder of the bone. I will say that I was amused for several minutes as I watched the little guy tear apart the bone with such canine fervor and skill. Sadly, I was so enthralled with the dog that I neglected to snap any other photos during our visit. Sometimes dogs trump beer... and that's ok. 

Just a dog and his bone.

But this is a beer blog, so I digress. The beer I was enjoying during all of this was called Born Bohemian, an excellent name for a Czech-style pilsner. Hopped with Saaz (of course!), this tasty pilsner displays delicate notes of wildflowers and subtle spices. This was a refreshing beer overall, and the fact that we were sitting outside on a surprisingly pleasant late winter day amplified my enjoyment of the beer immensely. However, this would be a one-and-done stop for us, so it was time to shove off.

After our quick stop at Denizens, it was time to head south into Washington, DC. I was a little worried about the traffic on a Saturday, but we fared pretty well and managed to snag a parking space just around the corner from the site of our first-ever brewery visit in the nation's capital: Right Proper. Surprisingly, we were seated quickly and efficiently despite the place looking to be fairly crowded. We secured a cozy little 2-person table near the back of the long, narrow brewpub. I was happy we'd be sitting inside. I don't mind having a beer or two outdoors, but I prefer to eat indoors, especially during the cooler months. Besides, we would have missed out on one of the more aesthetically pleasing breweries of the entire weekend. The murals decorating the building enhanced the ambiance of the space. One of my favorites features an assortment of colorful animals shooting laser beams, flamethrowers and other assorted weapons of mass destruction at each other. Come to think of it, it should have been a bit disturbing to an animal lover like myself, but I thought it was cool as shit. I tried to get a good photo of the mural, but sadly I could not. Never fear, though... it's Google to the rescue. Check it out!

When animals attack... each other! Mural inside Right Proper in Washington, D.C. (courtesy of Right Proper Brewing)

Once we got settled in, it didn't take me too long to figure out which beer I wanted. I almost balked due to the high ABV; however, a smoked doppelbock is just too good to pass up. Smoked beers are uncommon to begin with, but coming across a smoked doppelbock at a brewery is like tripping over a Tyrannosaurus Rex femur in your backyard while cutting the grass (even rarer because I don't even cut our grass). So I felt it was the right decision at the right time. Bawk! Bawk! is the 900th beer brewed at Right Proper's Shaw location since opening back in 2013. Strong, rich, and smoky with a deep malt character evocative of cocoa, coffee, tobacco and rawhide, this strong dark lager utilizes roasted barley, Munich and cherrywood smoked malts in its grain bill to elicit those campfire notes in which fans of the style truly revel. After the initial smokiness faded, a complex sweetness quells the palate with notes of dried stone fruit, light toast, and chocolate in the finish. This one was a real treat! 

Thank you Pleeps... bawk bawk!

I decided to keep things on the dark side and step outside of my comfort zone for my next beer. Dead Key is a dark, robust saison fermented with a house yeast blend. The base beer then rests - or as the folks at Right Proper say, "ripens" - for seven months in Apple Brandy barrels from District Distilling. The result is a strong, alluring farmhouse ale with layers of charred sugar, stone fruit and a pronounced brandy character. While the yeast blend keeps things on the dry side, dispensing this beer via a blend of nitrogen and CO2 produces an exquisitely creamy texture, which is unusual for the style. All in all, I'm really glad I tried this beer.

To put a cap in our visit, we shared a pour of Plastic Palace, one of Right Proper's foeder creations. You probably know what a foeder is, but if not, it's basically a huge wooden vessel typically used for wild and spontaneous sour ales. If you've been to Tröegs, we have three towering ones in our "Splinter Cellar" that are viewable from HersheyPark Drive. This particular beer was concocted by blending a mixed-culture Foeder beer with a dry-hopped Farmhouse Ale. This complex beer finishes with slight acidity and subtle sour funk tempered with notes of grapefruit peel, cherry and a touch of spice. 

In retrospect, I'm really glad we visited Right Proper around dinner time, because our meal was fantastic. Immediately upon perusing the menu, the Fried Tofu Bowl jumped out at me. I try to eat veggie as often as possible, although I still dabble in fish and foul on occasion. I was really happy with this dish, which included beer battered tofu, couscous, kale, roasted sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and roasted red peppers with harissa aioli and smoked paprika vinaigrette. All in all, this place was right up there with Silver Spring. Amazing food, a relaxed atmosphere, and slightly off-kilter but finely executed beer is always a winning combination. 

Pleeps is always in a Right Proper mood.

After an incredible experience at Right Proper, it was time to head to another DC-based brewery called Red Bear Brewing. However, when we arrived there were apparently no tables available and the wait was over an hour, so we balked. Walking back to the car, I decided to Google "breweries near me" and was pleasantly surprised with the results of the search. So we kind of stumbled onto Other Half, which we didn't even know had a satellite location in DC. Turns out it was less than a mile away from Red Bear, according to Google Maps! 

Other Half opened its doors back in 2014 in Brooklyn, NY, and started to shake things up in the Mid-Atlantic craft beer scene almost immediately. We'd visited its small Brooklyn facility several years ago (perhaps a year or two after they opened), and it must have been during my blogging hiatus, because I have no written recollection of our visit. I do remember a feisty brewery cat who thought he (or she) owned the place. I also remember the beer. Very, very good beer. Especially IPAs. They make a couple few good ones. Other Half also loves collaboration beers, and they've brewed collabs with tons of world class breweries from all over the world, including Omnipollo, Equilibrium, Great Notion, Modern Times, Burley Oak, Trillium... the list goes on and on. 

We were lucky to arrive about an hour or so before they closed, so I thought we could squeeze in two beers while we were there. The layout of the place is pretty sweet; it was like drinking on a rooftop bar, but everything was really spread out. We secured seating at a small barrel-made-table at the intersection toward the end of the entrance and the walkway leading back to the restrooms. Our table happened to be within close proximity of the can coolers, so was able to peruse the insane curation of colorful cans and bottles available to take home. (Trust me, I took advantage of this!) 

Pleeps is ready to dig in to Other Half!

I kicked off with a pour of Blue Crab, Other Half's tribute to one of Maryland's true hallmarks and cool creatures one can pull from the Chesapeake Bay. Hopped with some tried-and-true U.S. classics - Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe - this soft but flavorful IPA really hit the spot and might have been my favorite IPA of the day. 

I decided to stick with IPAs (as one would do at Other Half), and opted for DDH Stacks on Stacks: Southern Hemisphere... DDH, of course, meaning Double Dry-Hopped. A variation on Other Half's Stacks IPA swaps out Mosaic, Citra, and El Dorado for Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Moutere, three varieties from New Zealand. This beer didn't suck, either. 

OK, back to the beer coolers. In addition to a mixed case of random IPAs, DIPAs and TIPAs, I stumbled on two beers that I knew I couldn't get away from leaving behind if Pleeps had any say in the matter. Both were not only imperial stouts, but both also feature bananas as a key ingredient. So I splurged on behalf of our precious little monkey mascot and traveling companion. Man, he's so spoiled. 

Pleeps is still waiting for us to crack open this one!

We had time to knock off one more place, so we made our way back to the hotel and made a slight detour to nearby Arlington for a quick one at New District. Arlington's first production brewery since 1916, New District borrows its name from a time when Arlington County was actually part of the District of Columbia. The brewery's logo portrays the Key Bridge, a local landmark, extending across the Potomac river. It was already pretty late in the day, and I was even questioning whether or not I "needed" another beer, but you know me... there's always room for one more when it comes to beer. In retrospect, I kind of wish we'd just gone back to the hotel. 

Inside New District's taproom.

We ordered a pair of IPAs and decided to split them. I settled on National Landing - 6.2% IPA, while Brewslut chose Dog Park Days, an 8% DIPA. I couldn't find any other details on either of these beers on its website or Untappd. Something was afoul with National Landing, I'm afraid. There was a definite off flavor hovering around (likely diacetyl, but my memory is hazy) that just put me off. Brewslut fared much better with Dog Park Days, which was a pretty solid DIPA with sticky citrus and pine notes amid a sweet malt backbone. I'm glad we decided to share our beers, because this was a bit of a let-down after an enjoyable visit to Other Half. Perhaps I was just fatigued after going to five other breweries the same day. Whatever the case, I just wasn't feelin' it. So after this one-and-done stop, it was time to head back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. 

A great experience at our first brewery of the day typically serves as a good omen. Aside from getting shut out at Red Bear and a dud beer at New District, it was a fine day. Honestly, missing out on Red Bear didn't really bother me too much, as we were able to call a quick audible and land at Other Half, which - not to make assumptions - is likely the superior brewery. 

Well that's all for today, kiddos. Thankfully, we're almost at the finish line, because I have a bunch of other shit to write about. This blog thing is turning into a bona fide part time gig again now that travel restrictions are starting to loosen. Join us for the conclusion of this little weekend jaunt in the near future. Until next time...