DC a Beer Destination?

Interesting article in The Examiner on DC as a beer destination.  The article promises a follow-on about Virginia beer as well.  Likely to be Charlottesville-heavy, although I developed a public Google map of breweries in Virginia that shows them clustered in Northern Virginia, down 95 to Richmond then 64 east to Tidewater; and another stretch down the Blue Ridge (including Charlottesville).

NoVa Summer BrewFest

For the first time in several years, I will be volunteering at the Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest!  My dad volunteers every year and loves it.  The last time I volunteered I was assigned to run spin art for the kids, which was fine--but this year I get to be a pourer.

The big email with all the instructions for volunteers, etc. came out today.  Good stuff, and it appears pretty well organized.  Best of all is the section labeled 'Related Information - "The Fun Stuff"'.  It's all about learning about the beers and brewery you'll be working with so you can discuss it with the patrons, as well as learning as much as you can about the other beers available at the festival.

You can understand why this excites me.  I only wish I knew beforehand which brewery I would be assigned to so I could do some homework!

Brewers appearing at the brewfest:

• Abita Brewery
• Allagash Brewing Appocalypse Brew Works (Louisville, KY)
• Baltimore-Washington Beer Works (Raven)
• Bell’s Brewery
• Blue & Gray Brewing
• Blue Point Brewery
• Boston Beer Co.
• Bold Rock Ciders
• Brewery Ommegang
• Capitol City Brewing
• Climax Brewing
• Corcoran Brewing
• Crispin Cider
• DC Brau Brewing
• Devils Backbone Brewing
• Dominion Brewery
• DuClaw Brewing
• Evolution Craft Brewing
• Firestone Walker Brewery
• Flying Dog Brewery
• Fordham Brewing
• Gordon Biersch Brewery
• Goose Island Brewing
• Great Lakes Brewing
• Green Flash Brewing
• Harpoon Brewery
• Heavy Seas Brewing
• Highland Brewing 
• Kona Brewing
• Lagunitas Brewery
• Lancaster Brewing
• Laughing Dog Brewing
• Left Hand Brewing
• Legend Brewery
• Long Trail Brewing
• Lost Rhino Brewing
• Mad Fox Brewing
• Magic Hat Brewing
• Miller Brewing
• New Belgium Brewing
• New Holland Brewing
• Peak Organic Brewing
• Port City Brewing
• Redhook Ale Brewery
• RJ Rockers Brewing
• Schlafly Beer (St. Louis Brewery)
• Shocktop (Anheuser-Busch Brewing)
• Sixpoint Brewery
• Smuttynose Brewing Somerville Brewing (Slumbrew) (MA)
• St. George Brewery
• Starr Hill Brewery
• Stone Brewing
• Terrapin Beer Co. Three Brothers Brewing (Harrisonburg, VA)
• Three Heads Brewing
• Troegs Brewing
• Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brew Pub
• Widmer Brothers Brewing
• Williamsburg Alewerks Brewing
• Wild Wolf Brewing

Several of these are new this year.  I won't lie; there are some I'd prefer to others (Lagunitas, Bell's, Stone, for example--and I would be over the moon if I was assigned to Firestone Walker, though I'd probably consume all of the Wooky Jack if they had it) but I'll be thrilled with whomever I'm assigned to.

Time to start doing some homework, and the teacher hasn't specified what's going to be on the test yet...personally, I regard this as a valuable educational experience as well as a test of what I've learned so far.

Brew Locally, Drink Globally

CraftBeer.com had an interesting post recently called Bringing Local Flavors to Your Pint.  The article itself is fairly superficial, focusing on pretty obvious ingredients and the benefit of freshness, but it was interesting nonetheless.

It got me thinking about including local (or at least Virginia's) iconic ingredients.  A lot of what Virginia produces isn't really that unique (except tobacco, and I'm leery of both the ethical and flavor questions raised by trying to work that into a beer).  So what could I use?

I came up with a couple of ingredients:

•  peanuts
• apples
• wine/wine must
• cherries

So: what do I make of this?  I could probably find some local peanut butter for a peanut butter porter or a peanut butter stout.   I already have an apfelwein fermenting, though an apfelwein/weissbier hybrid has promise. What about a sour apple lambic?  

As for the other two ingredients, a kreik lambic is perfect for cherries, and delicious to boot. I know there are lots of recipes using wine must as well--Dogfish Head has one, if I recall. I'll have to look that up.

Any other ideas?  Anybody brewed anything with local ingredients?