Liz and I took advantage of a nice day in early March to check out Chocolate City Brewing near Catholic University. Well, actually, we were there to visit the BBQ Bus that catered our wedding back in August. Being Rockville suburbanites that work even further north, we don't get to partake in the food truck scene as often as possible. So two birds with one stone.
I always fret about travel, and since Chocolate City is new enough there isn't a lot of web info on it, we decided to metro. Being the environmentally friendly folks we are, we drove to Silver Spring to avoid sitting on the metro a hour coming from White Flint. (We need a purple line already folks!) The brewery is about 10 blocks from the Brooklyn metro stop, which helps you burn the calories you drink (or drink and eat in our case). Aside from getting through some construction at the university, it was an easy walk. It turned out, there was plenty of parking on the street adjacent to the brewery, so parking wouldn't have been an issue. It is sort of a gritty industrial/resident area, but was pretty void of too much activity on a Saturday afternoon.
There was a pretty good crowd for a small and fairly new brewery. About a constant 20-15 people (mostly hipsters) throughout the hour or two we were there. You'd have no idea it was a brewery had a garage door not been opened up on the side. Pretty non descript brown and red building. Inside, there were about 8 smallish tanks and a table with a cooler keggerator set up serving 3 beers. They had you a plastic cup and walk you through that day's tastings at your own pace.
They were offering up their Cornerstone Copper Ale, Cerveza Nacional De La Capital, and Mothership Connection. The copper was a really solid leadoff. It had a nice subtly sweet malt flavor. The Cerveza Nacional was not at all what I expected. It was a dark Vienna Lager, not what you usually imagine when you hear "cerveza". I did not realize that the German's had been introducing beer to Mexico back in the day, but apparently they were. This tribute was rich, with bold toasted flavors. I was getting really excited to see what they finished. Then I hit the Mothership Connection, a weizenbock, which had a respectable flavor, but isn't my taste. The bubble gum flavor was just too strong and I could taste the sweetness of the 8.5%. Technically sound, but not my taste.
Growlers were filled straight out of the tanks. Have to love that freshness. They also had a growler exchange if you have one branded by them, which let's you quickly grab a full one and leave your old one. They do a brisk business from folks stopping on their way from work for just growlers, it seems. I walked away with a growler fill up of the Cerveza for $10. Money well spent!
Overall, a great trip, something to look forward to as the weather starts ripening.
I always fret about travel, and since Chocolate City is new enough there isn't a lot of web info on it, we decided to metro. Being the environmentally friendly folks we are, we drove to Silver Spring to avoid sitting on the metro a hour coming from White Flint. (We need a purple line already folks!) The brewery is about 10 blocks from the Brooklyn metro stop, which helps you burn the calories you drink (or drink and eat in our case). Aside from getting through some construction at the university, it was an easy walk. It turned out, there was plenty of parking on the street adjacent to the brewery, so parking wouldn't have been an issue. It is sort of a gritty industrial/resident area, but was pretty void of too much activity on a Saturday afternoon.
There was a pretty good crowd for a small and fairly new brewery. About a constant 20-15 people (mostly hipsters) throughout the hour or two we were there. You'd have no idea it was a brewery had a garage door not been opened up on the side. Pretty non descript brown and red building. Inside, there were about 8 smallish tanks and a table with a cooler keggerator set up serving 3 beers. They had you a plastic cup and walk you through that day's tastings at your own pace.
They were offering up their Cornerstone Copper Ale, Cerveza Nacional De La Capital, and Mothership Connection. The copper was a really solid leadoff. It had a nice subtly sweet malt flavor. The Cerveza Nacional was not at all what I expected. It was a dark Vienna Lager, not what you usually imagine when you hear "cerveza". I did not realize that the German's had been introducing beer to Mexico back in the day, but apparently they were. This tribute was rich, with bold toasted flavors. I was getting really excited to see what they finished. Then I hit the Mothership Connection, a weizenbock, which had a respectable flavor, but isn't my taste. The bubble gum flavor was just too strong and I could taste the sweetness of the 8.5%. Technically sound, but not my taste.
Growlers were filled straight out of the tanks. Have to love that freshness. They also had a growler exchange if you have one branded by them, which let's you quickly grab a full one and leave your old one. They do a brisk business from folks stopping on their way from work for just growlers, it seems. I walked away with a growler fill up of the Cerveza for $10. Money well spent!
Overall, a great trip, something to look forward to as the weather starts ripening.
