Written by Greg Kitsock for washingtonpost.com
This week is shaping up to be a busy one for beer events. Birch and Barley/ChurchKey will tap beers from two breweries new to the Washington area: Tonight, the Logan Circle establishment will bust out eight ales from Loupe Rouge, a tiny French-Canadian microbrewery, and then on Tuesday, it’ll open five ales from California craft brewer, Black Diamond Brewery. (See the restaurant’s events calendar.)
Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y., is premiering a new beer, Belgian Independence Day Spiced Saison, as one of the highlights of Belgian Restaurant Week. The beer is spiced with lemon peel, white pepper, coriander and grains of paradise, and fermented with a Wallonian yeast strain to yield the fruity and earthy overtones appropriate for this style. Belga Cafe will reportedly get the lion’s share of the limited-edition beer, but there should be enough left over for other key Belgian outlets such as Brasserie Beck and Granville Moore’s. The three will also be tapping a trio of Duvel beers (regular Duvel, Duvel Single and Duvel Triple Hop) on Wednesday.
Latis Imports, which markets Palm Ale and Rodenbach, is especially active this week, hosting about a dozen local promos and glass giveaways. You can catch them at R.F.D. Washington on Tuesday, Brasserie Beck and Bier Baron on Wednesday and at both Rusticos and the Mad Rose Tavern in northern Virginia on Thursday, Belgian Independence Day.
In the planning stages for next month: a food truck beer dinner featuring Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head brews. More on that as dates and beers are finalized.