Photo by Jon Grant
SAVOR as an event is no joke. With 70+ breweries each bringing some of the country’s best beers, food pairings fit for the finest restaurants, and a mountain of cheese and oysters, it is easy to see why the tickets go so fast. But I love the week leading up to SAVOR almost as much because all those breweries are in town hosting events and parties at your favorite bars. All of the beer, none of the formal attire!
Starting Sunday, bars all over the city host both local and out-of-market breweries and try to do events that go a little beyond the typical “steal a pint” type boringness. We tried to pick a range of events to highlight but for the complete listing, check out DCBeer’s full coverage and calendar.
Sunday
2nd Annual SAVOR Whole Pig Roast
When: May 31, 11am – 11pm
Where: Smoke and Barrel (2471 18th Street NW)
Description: Beers tapped all day. Pig plates available around 5 p.m.
The AdMo BBQ institution smokes a whole pig out front for more than 12 hours! This 100-pound plus beauty should be ready for consumption by the masses around 5 p.m. In addition to the porky goodness, they’ve put together a diverse beer list loaded with classic staples and rare specialties. These beers will be available all day starting at 11 a.m.
Highlights include: Victory Sour Monkey (DC Debut!), Victory Hop Ticket: Dry-Hopped Saison, Victory Moving Parts 4: White IPA, Natty Greene’s Silo Series: Tiller Wheat IPA, Natty Greene’s Silo Series: Elm Street IPA, Boulevard Hibiscus Gose, Boulevard Saison-Brett, Ommegang Gnomegang, and Boulevard The Calling.
Monday
SAVOR—The Craft of Comedy
When: June 1, 7pm – 11pm
Where: The Big Hunt (1345 Connecticut St NW)
Description: This will be the 3rd installment of the Craft of Comedy series, featuring the best local stand-up comedians (and DCBeer.com’s own Bill DeBaun!) in the area.
Featuring five breweries, and each will have one core and one seasonal/specialty on draft. Order one of these 10 beers and you’ll get a raffle ticket that could get you brewery swag, a tour, other goodies, and the grand prize: a pair of SAVOR tickets! The more of these awesome drafts you drink, the better your chances! Admission is free!
Here’s what will be offered from each brewery: 3 Stars – From Russia with Love & Peppercorn Saison, Atlas – Home Rule & Rowdy Rye, Lagunitas – Undercover Shutdown & IPA, Sam Adams – Potbelly Porter & Rebel IPA, Victory – Helios & Dirtwolf
Tuesday
Old and Rare Beers from the Meridian Pint Vault
When: June 2, 5:00pm – 11:30pm
Where: Meridian Pint (3400 11th Street NW)
Description: Meridian Pint’s temperature and humidity controlled cellar is busting at the seams. That means it’s time to release a slew of aged rarities,
They’ll include: Firestone Walker 18th Anniversary, Lost Rhino Consortium Barrel-Aged Sour, Off Color Dinos’mores, Firestone Walker Double DBA 2012, Oxbow Saison Noel 2013, Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale 2013, Weyerbacher XVI (2011 – Braggot), Alesmith Horny Devil 2013, The Bruery Sour in the Rye 2012, Ballast Point Victory at Sea 2012, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2012, Williamsburg Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter 2013, The Bruery Smoking Wood 2013, Bruery Tart of Darkness 2013, Evolution Menagerie 8 2012, Boulevard Saison-Brett 2014, Great Divide Oak-Aged Yeti 2013, Perennial Abraxas 2014, Epic Big Bad Baptist 2013
Wednesday
Secret & Sour
When: June 3, 4pm – 11pm
Where: Scion Restaurant (2100 P St NW) & Crios (2120 P St NW)
Description: Blind tastings to wild and funky ales to see if you can match the beers to the description.
Scion Restaurant, Crios, and DCBeer.com team up for the third installment of their blind beer tasting series. For this event, they’ve decided to change up the rules a bit. Rather than vote for a winner, they’re challenging you, the consumer and budding beer expert, to figure out which beer is which. They’ll provide clues and tasting notes on all 24 beers. Your job will be to match the beers with the correct taps. Attendees with the most correct answers on their scorecard will be awarded brewery swag. Guests may turn in scorecards individually or as a group. Individual and group submissions will not compete against each other.
The winning scorecards, and the identities of the beers, will be announced at 8:00 pm in both the restaurant and via Twitter (@dcbeer, @criosmodmex, @scionrestaurant). You do not need to be present to win. Tickets are not required.
All beers (see draft list below) will be available in 4 ounce and full size pours. Additionally, they will feature non-sour beers from each brewery at 1/2 price for the duration of the event.
Allagash Moira, Atlas Red Wine Saison de Brett, Bell’s Wild One, Bluejacket (TBD), Boulevard Hibiscus Gose, Brooklyn Wild Horse Porter, Evil Twin Mission Gose, Fate Barrel Aged Sour Quad, Finback Plumb & Proper, Hardywood Berliner Weiss, Millstone Ciderberry, New Belgium NBB Loves Apple Oscar, Oud Beersel Lambic, Perennial Hopfentea, Right Proper Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine, Samuel Adams KMF Grand Cru, Schlafly Wild Lazy Ballerina, Shmaltz Funky Jewbelation, Surly Pentagram, Uinta Birthday Suit 22, Union Old Pro, Victory Sour Monkey, 3 Stars Bin Nine Berliner, and 4 Hands Prelude
Thursday
New Belgium Whiskey/Sour Barrel Hour
When: June 4, 6-9pm
Where: Jack Rose Dining Saloon (2007 18th St NW)
Description: A large array of barrel aged sours stored in various spirit barrels.
At New Belgium they’ve got a bit of a thing for whiskey. Their friends at Leopold Bros. Distillery in Denver give first dibs on their fruit-whiskey barrels to play around with some wood-aged sour beers. This event will feature three New Belgium/Leopold whiskey barrel aged sours, a debut of a Jack Rose Dining Saloon creation Pear Ginger Beer cocktail with Leopold whiskey, and a deconstruction of a whiskey barrel-aged sour flight. Don’t worry, if you aren’t in to sour beers there will be plenty of other New Belgium beers, along with Wicked Weed and Exclusive Jack Rose Dining Saloon Barrel-Aged Collaboration beers, including:
New Belgium Love Leoplod, New Belgium Apple Oscar, New Belgium Love Cherry Oscar, New Belgium Love Oscar, New Belgium Pear Ginger, New Belgium Fat Tire, New Belgium Snapshot, >New Belgium Skinny Dip, New Belgium Slow Ride, New Belgium Hop Tart, Wicked Weed Black Angel: Dark Cherry sour Aged in Four Roses Bourbon Barrels, Wicked Weed Dark Age: Imperial Stout Aged In Four Roses Barrels
Friday
Stump the Cicerone
When: June 5, 1pm – 4pm
Where: City Tap House (901 9th St NW)
Description: Put your beer knowledge to the test with our Master Cicerone Neil Witte from Boulevard and Ommegang breweries.
As one of nine Master Cicerones in the world, Neil is pretty up to snuff on his beer facts. To keep him on his toes City Tap House wants you to come in a quiz him. If you can ask Neil a beer-related question he doesn’t know the answer to (and you do) then you get free prize from Boulevard or Ommegang! And they’ll throw in a free beer as well being featured from Ommegang and Boulevard.
Saturday
4th Annual Brewers Brunch
When: June 6, 12:00pm – 11:59pm
Where: ChurchKey (1337 14th Street NW)
Description: Continue the SAVOR festivities with 40+ drafts & casks from a gathering of fine craft breweries. Churchkey will be turning over the taps to six incredible breweries: Allagash, Bluejacket, Country Boy, Maine Beer, Ninkasi, and Sierra Nevada! There is no admission fee for this event.
Hope to see you out there, beer enthusiasts!
