At the Capitol City Oktoberfest a few weeks ago, I happened to meet Port City's Jason, who is a market manager for the brewery. We got to talking, and he kindly offered to set me up with a tour of the Port City Brewery right downriver in Alexandria, Virginia. I've been to breweries before (like Troegs up in Pennsylvania) but I've never featured one on this blog. So here goes!
Port City Brewing Company occupies an unassuming brick building a mile or so from the King St. metro stop. I took an Uber there and it wasn't more than 10 minutes.
Inside, they've got a pretty lively tap room with two bar areas, a gift shop, and a growler fill area. They've also got some tables and a fridge set up with Port City offerings (and a chalkboard that says when each batch was bottled!)
A pizza food truck was parked outside, and looks like lots of the patrons inside grabbed a pie from the truck. My friend Andrew, who is visiting from Connecticut, accompanied me. However, we weren't here for the pizza. We had a tour to take!
Dan, one of my contacts at the brewery, met us at the bar and immediately provided Andrew and I with cold glasses of Port City's Optimal Wit (one of my favorites, and a great hot day beer.) Justin, our bearded cicerone, rang the big silver bell and took a group of 20 of us through the back door, past the beer garden, and into the brewery proper.
Justin began by giving some background on the brewery and the founder, Bill Butcher. He also discussed some basic beer knowledge and talked about how the machinery behind them was made and what each element is for.
Rose, his colleague (and former resident of Hartford!) passed around some of the malts they use in the brewery. Mmm, crunchy!
They also made a dry-hopper, called the "Hopzooka." Dry-hopping is the process of adding hops to beer during the fermentation stage or even in the keg itself. Hops are normally added during the boil, but you can let dry hops sit directly into finished beer for up to several weeks. This adds the tangy hops flavor to the beer.
Justin took the group through each stage of the brewing cycle, describing as he went the steps the brewers take. He also put a heavy emphasis on how each step came to be; since the brewery is only a few years old, they've been refining and expanding and adjusting as needed. It was really cool to hear about how a start-up brewery handles initial public demand as well as plans for the future. Meanwhile, Rose came around with a pitcher of some super-fresh Monumental IPA. It can't get much fresher or tastier than this!
Here's Justin talking about the next stage, fermenting. Yep, behind him is three vats, each containing 3780 gallons of beer. The closest one houses some Optimal Wit. On the chalk cards, the brewers would write the music they were listening to at the time the finished the batch.
Next we moved over to the where the beer is kegged. As Justin was explaining how they fill and haul (heavy) kegs by hand, I leaned up against a door - and it was icy to the touch! That's because it was the door to "the Vault" where they keep all the beer cold. So many kegs! They also have an area outside the cooler where they keep kegs ready for transport.
They also have a $500,000 Italian-made bottling system, capable of bottling one 12oz bottle of beer per second. They got this system second-hand, from the awesome brewery Southern Tier in Lakewood, NY. Because they were able to get the bottling equipment second-hand, they were able to immediately start to bottle beer right after launching the brewery. It think it's cool they got it from Southern Tier; maybe Pumking was bottled on that line!
The tour finished with a Q&A session; I asked if they planned on bottling beer in any formats other than their usual 12oz bottles (like cans, or 22oz bombers.) Justin said they may in the future, but since doing so would require a new and separate bottling system, it would probably be some time before they got to that point. Can't blame them - at half a million a pop, bottlers do not come cheap!
So the tour concluded, and we made our way back in to the tap room for a tasting. Andrew and I each received 6 tickets gratis, each good for a 2oz taster at the brewery's tap room. Also - as a disclaimer - the dudes at the brewery did waive the entry fee for Andrew and I, which included effectively all the free beer I could drink. But please know that I never accept money or goods in exchange for a positive review on this blog - everything is totally genuine.
Anyways - on to the beer. They had numerous beers on tap, including many I'd never had before. Here's what I ended up having:
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| Ways and Means |
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| Colossal Two |
Scanning the fill menu for my next drink, I came across their 9% ABV "Colossal Two," an imperial smoked porter. Oh yeah! A nice mix of chocolate, chicory, with a sweet roasted taste to it. Very enjoyable, but not sessionable at all - way too intense!
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| Long Black Veil |
Next up is their "Long Black Veil," a 6.8% ABV black IPA. It's dark, sweet, and hoppy - the beer board calls it their "light roast" of beers. Pretty apt! It's a nice beer and very smooth.
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| Northwest IPA |
I ended with a glass of their Northwestern IPA, a 5.3% ABV IPA. It's made specifically for Chef Geoff's restaurants. I enjoyed it - it was crisp, hoppy, and smooth with interesting floral notes. Kinda reminds me of Rogue's Juniper, which was great.
In closing, I had an awesome time at Port City. The folks there are very welcoming, laid back and very friendly, and it's cool to see a brewery up close and personal. They're located on 3950 Wheeler Avenue in Alexandria, VA, and are open 7 days a week. I'd also like to extend a big shout-out to Justin, Jason and Dan at Port City for all they do (and for making sure Andrew and I were all set up for a tour!) I'd definitely suggest a trip down there to check it out, and I'll sure be going back with friends.
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