The Best Brewery Hops in Washington, D.C.

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We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all thirst is created equal; that beer travelers are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of brewery hops.

Our nation’s capital may be better known for brewing up scandals than for brewing up craft beer, but visitors can still find a myriad of delicious drinking options at their disposal. While many of the more hardcore beer geeks may find themselves departing the district to explore some of Virginia‘s tremendous breweries, most needn’t go such distances to slake their thirst. There aren’t an abundance of options within DC city limits, but fortunately there are a couple of hops– including for those taking the Metro instead of attempting to tackle DC’s famously congested traffic. So wake up early, visit whichever museums and monuments you deem worthy of your time, but don’t forget to allot time in your schedule to drink at local DC breweries. It’s what our Founding Fathers would want you to do.

3. Hellbender Brewing –> 3 Stars Brewing Company

Hellbender Brewing is a fun little hang-out to start this hop. It’s a little under a mile from the Fort Totten station on the Red and Green lines, so put on your walking shoes and get to hopping. We were there on a Sunday afternoon, and it’s definitely a good place to watch football: plenty of bench seating, a number of TVs spread out, some snacks and charcuterie for sale. There’s also a special area designed for darts if watching sports isn’t your thing.

Hellbender definitely spends a good chunk of its tap space on saisons, farmhouses, and goses, so those looking for some funkier, more complex options may find this brewery an ideal place to post up. Our recommendations: the Guava-beary Gose has a bright fruity smell but a more subtle flavor within its tartness. Also the Tartuga, for those looking for something with a sharper kick of tart, is a funky blackberry farmhouse with a bright color and a clean finish.

It’s a mile-long walk or drive to 3 Stars Brewing Company. 3 Stars is a big warehouse space with a sectioned-off taproom within it, the Urban Farmhouse Tasting Room. Inside, you’ll find arcade games, board games, and even some stand-up photos with faces cut out for taking fun photos. Outside the Tasting Room in the brewery itself, there’s cornhole and a more open seating area, in which you can sit near the tanks and watch the brewers hard at work.

There are nearly two-dozen beers on tap, covering a variety of styles that will satisfy any number of drinkers with particular tastes. Our recommendations: for IPA fans, the Technicolor Life is a fruity, mosaic-hopped double with considerable bite. For sour aficionados, the Crimes of Passion won’t make you pucker too hard, but it’s packed to the brim with juicy passionfruit flavor and provides a nice tart pinch. Finally, if you love cocoa, the Starsky and Dutch a milk stout is absolutely saturated with chocolatey goodness.

2. DC Brau –> The Public Option/Atlas Brew Works –> Right Proper Brewing Company

This is realistically more of a driving hop, clocking in at a pinch over two miles– but three breweries in two miles is likely worth it for many a beer traveler. Start at DC Brau, the first brewery to brew, package, and sell its own beer within the District of Columbia. It looks huge from the outside, but the tasting room itself is relatively small, a good place to tuck yourself into a table at the corner and play board games with a friend. Our recommendations: the Corruption is a crushable IPA and the Penn Quarter Porter is roasty and robust, ideal for a cooler DC evening. One bit of misfortune from our visit: On the Wings of Armageddon, their Imperial IPA with a hefty 115 IBU and a 4.11 Untappd rating, kicked minutes before our arrival– so while we haven’t tried it, we imagine it’d fall well within our wheelhouse (and if anyone wants to send us a can, we’d be in your debt!).

From here, you have some options, options we weren’t able to explore during our last relatively time-crunched visit, but options we felt inclined to share nevertheless. Directly on the path to your final stop is The Public Option, a 8-tap brewpub with an intimate interior and a good-sized patio. Their hours seem to vary, with no set hours on the website other than 6-10 PM Fridays and 2-10 PM Saturdays, so if you want to swing by, check on their hours that week first. They were sadly closed when we tried to go. If you feel like going off the immediate path, Atlas Brew Works has a sizable tap list, including a number of sour options about which we’ve heard good things. It’s at the top of our list for our return visit, and it isn’t a lengthy detour from the above hop, so those inclined should seek it out.

Finally, end your hop at Right Proper Brewing Company‘s Brookland Tasting Room. Or, for those taking the Metro, start your hop here and work backward– it’s a mere half mile from either the Brookland or Rhode Island stops on the Red line. Right Proper has a huge patio, some games, foosball, etc… but its distinguishing factor from other breweries is unquestionably its artwork. Its walls are adorned with paintings in which the roles of humans and animals are reversed– animals hunting humans, eating humans, mounting humans on their walls, and so forth. Other large murals on the wall reveal nature rising up and overthrowing mankind, with hysterical and often violent results. Some would deem the art less than family-friendly, but we were tickled pink looking around at the walls and finding the amusing details sprinkled within.

Additionally, the beer at Right Proper is easily some of the best in the city, and when it comes to sours, there’s really no comparison: Right Proper wears the crown. Our recommendations: their Brett IPA, Ravaged By Wolves, is really good, but again, go straight to the tart options here. The Whoa! is a foeder beer with cherry puree (we’re suckers for any sour cherry barrel-aged brews) and the Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champtang is their tartest berliner weisse spiked with, you guessed it, Tang orange drink. It’s like a sour mimosa– if that description makes your mouth water, put Right Proper at the top of your list.

1. Bluejacket –> Aslin Beer Garden

Down near Nationals Park was 2018’s Holy Grail of DC Brewery Hops. You had to time it just right, but if you did, it was a walkable 1-2 punch that can’t be topped anywhere else in the district. It can’t presently be executed, but DC craft beer lovers will agree that this combination is worth holding in the highest esteem– and perhaps, if the cards fall just right, it will return next spring. Either way, it’d be a shame not to sing its praises.

For those who like to start by putting some food on their stomachs (like we often do), go first to Bluejacket, a cool industrial brewpub a stone’s throw from the Anacostia (and a quarter mile from the Navy Yard stop on the Green line). Their restaurant seats 200, and you can see the tanks for a multi-story brewery above and around you. The food is all elevated pub fare: you can do the classy cheese-and-charcuterie route, or you can do the decade Jumbo Everything Pretzel route, but either way, you’ll be satisfied. Often times, a brewpub with tasty food is making up for beer that ranges from decent to mediocre, but that’s not the case here. Our recommendations: the Turning Road is, for our money, the best IPA brewed in the District. For those with a longing for peanut butter beer, the Caribou is one of the best peanut butter stouts we’ve ever had, with an insanely rich and thick peanut butter chocolate taste.

Here’s where this hop description will disappoint many: it’s no longer available now that the Nationals home season is over, and it’s unclear whether it’ll be available again next season. Still, we don’t presently have another article in which we can scream about how magnificent this brewery is, so we’ll do it here, in memoriam of their SE DC beer garden: Aslin Beer Company, we love you.

Aslin is currently based in Herndon, but they don’t have a tap room at the moment, so they were operating a delightful pop-up beer garden down the road from Bluejacket during Nationals games. They have, without question, many of the best IPAs and stouts in the greater DMV area. The beer garden is closed with the season over, but they’ve announced two bits of exciting news on their Facebook: they’re going to look to do more pop-up beer gardens in other places around the DMV, and they’re working on a new tap room in Alexandria right off the Blue line!

Follow their social media accounts for information about pop-ups, or make the drive to Herndon to buy cans from their current location, which is what we did. It’s worth the effort. Our recommendations: the Double Dry Hopped Dunley Place is a hoppy, juicy, and ultra-smooth haze bomb made with Galaxy and Nelson hops– for the skeptics, it sits at a 4.32 on Untappd. Finally, Dreams is a behemoth of an imperial stout, saturated with almond, chocolate, coconut, and coffee, all wrapped up in a 15% ABV flavor grenade.

BEST PLACE FOR IPAS*:

Bluejacket (Runner-up: 3 Stars Brewing Company)

BEST PLACE FOR SOURS:

Right Proper Brewing Company (Runner-up: 3 Stars Brewing Company)

BEST PLACE FOR STOUTS*:

Bluejacket (Runners-up: 3 Stars Brewing Company)

*- excluding Aslin Beer Company, which isn’t presently located in DC but would win both categories

BEST PLACE TO PLAY GAMES:

3 Stars Brewing Company (Runner-up: Hellbender Brewing)

BEST PLACE FOR A LARGE GROUP:

3 Stars Brewing Company (Runners-up: Right Proper Brewing Company)

BEST PLACE TO EAT:

Bluejacket

Which is your favorite of these brewery hops? Please shout them out in the comments below! Also, please check out our guide to nearby Virginia hops in Fredericksburg and Loudoun County, and come back next week to read our upcoming beer travel guide to Richmond!