Capital Beer

Book excerpt: An effervescent history of beer brewing in the American capital city. Imagine the jubilation of thirsty citizens in 1796 when the Washington Brewery—the city’s first brewery—opened. Yet the English-style ales produced by the early breweries in the capital and in nearby Arlington and Alexandria sat heavy on the tongue in the oppressive Potomac summers. By the 1850s, an influx of German immigrants gave a frosty reprieve to their new home in the form of light but flavorful lagers. Brewer barons like Christian Heurich and Albert Carry dominated the taps of city saloons until production ground to a halt with the dry days of Prohibition. Only Heurich survived, and when the venerable institution closed in 1956, Washington, D.C., was without a brewery for fifty-five years. Author and beer scholar Garrett Peck taps this high-gravity history while introducing readers to the bold new brewers leading the capital’s recent craft beer revival. “Why’d it take us [DC’s brewing culture] so long to get back on the wagon? Capital Beer will answer all your questions in the endearing style of your history buff friend who you can’t take to museums (in a good way!).” —DCist “In brisk and lively prose Peck covers 240 years of local brewing history, from the earliest days of British ale makers through the influx of German lagermeisters and up to the present-day craft breweries. . . . Richly illustrated with photographs both old and new, as well as a colorful collection of her art, Capital Beer is almost as much fun to read as “sitting in an outdoor beer garden and supping suds with friends over a long, languid conversation.”” —The Hill Rag