Belgian Chocolate and Biere de Garde!

Howdy Cap City Fans!






We hope you're doing well and settling into the new year with a sense of ease and relaxation. If you live in the metro area and stayed in town for the month of January, you're probably suffering from at least one of two things; a terrible towel hangover, or post-inauguration depression. To be honest, the thought of Jay-Z and P. Diddy swapping high fives with our new Prez is pretty cool, but it's over now and we must come to terms with Beyoncé going back to L.A. and Pittsburghers talking incessantly about bleeding black and gold.

If this all sounds a bit too overwhelming and you're having trouble finding your happy new year, Cap City has brewed several winter delicacies worthy of any exhausted Washingtonian.

First up, our Belgian Chocolate Ale is a perfect Valentine's Day pint. Brewed with kilned coffee malt, cocoa beans, and cocoa shells, this medium bodied ale rolls in at 4.8% abv, making it a very quaffable dark ale.


Our French style Biere de Garde (beer for storage) is an unfiltered, copper colored ale brewed with black pepper and fresh ginger. Full bodied with a fruity aroma and a light spicy flavor, BDG is a fun yearly seasonal at Cap City. This French ale is 8% abv and served in 10oz goblets at our Shirlington and 11th & H street locations.


Later this spring we'll brew the voluptuous Double D, our ever popular ramped-up version of our Amber Waves, and in April we'll celebrate the annual Cherry Blossom Festival with an amber-colored, medium-bodied ale brewed with sweet cherries.


CASKS IN REVIEW

Like the sloth falling from its steady perch, our cask ales were slow to pour, but recently experienced a surge in popularity, due in large part to cask master James's flirtatious creations and an unheard of commitment to self-discipline and brewhouse spirituality. In the midst of combining the pieces and parts used to create a cask, James often refrains from talking or acknowledging those around him. "Casking," as James calls it, "is an exercise in relaxation and meditation. A true cask is always greater than the sum of its parts," he confides. "And to do this, I must got to my happy place..."


We call it, "The cask zone," says head brewer Mike McCarthy. "To be honest, it's a little weird, but we deal with a lot of unique personalities here, and it could be much worse."


Currently on cask, Ginger Beer! A light ale with 1/2lb of fresh ginger to impart that sentimental ginger ale freshness. After the ginger kicks, we'll have a Porter Molé, casked with cocoa powder, molasses, and chiles. Down the road, we'll try the currently conditioning Cherry Belgian Black.

News from Capitol Hill Capitol City

Head brewer Ryan Curley is recouping from the Inauguration craziness and is preparing the release of two specialty beers. The first is a longtime favorite, Hefeweizen. A German wheat ale that is fermented with a traditional Hefe yeast which produces a great combination of banana and clove flavors, this beer is served unfiltered and lemon wedges are traditionally not used to garnish the glass in Germany, so we choose not to either. The second is a mellow English Pale Ale, or ESB. This version uses Pale malt as the base along with Munich, Aromatic and a tiny percentage of dark malts to produce a nice light/medium body, orange in color ale. The addition of the English hop, Fuggle, adds a nice earthiness to this already smooth and delicate classic.

CASK NIGHT IS BACK!
On February 19th, starting at 4pm, Ryan will be pouring his ESB at the bar. So stop by and grab a pint or three and be ready to challenge him to a freestyle rap off/beer chug! See you there, and remember…most people check there closet for the boogeyman, the boogeyman checks his closet for Chuck Norris and Ryan Curley!!


Cheers,



Capitol City Brewers