DC Brau / Flying Dog / Manor Hill / Waredaca / Vanish - "Family Tree" pale ale

I can't believe I forgot to post this! Today's beer is a special, once-only Belgian Pale Ale made for the Craft Brewers Conference a couple months back. According to the Brewer's Association website, each year they work with the local or state brewer's guild in whichever state will host the Craft Brewers Conference to create the recipe for a special beer, to be given out locally and at the conference.

This year's beer, a 6.0% ABV pale ale, is a five-way collaboration between Flying Dog Brewery; Manor Hill Brewing (based outside Baltimore in Ellicott City, MD); Gaithersburg, MD-based Waredaca Brewing Company; Vanish Farmwoods Brewery in Leesburg, VA; and of course Washington DC's own DC Brau. Just like the fancy tasting glass, this can was part of the swag bag concertgoers received upon check-in.

According to the can:

"The brewmasters of DC Brau, Manor Hill, Vanish and Waredaca all have one thing in common: they got their start at Flying Dog. It's no secret that craft beer is a brethren band of misfits. And this beer, like the industry itself, is a family affair. Family Tree was brewed for the Brewers Association Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America, April 10 - 13, 2017, in Washington DC."

Collaboration beers can be tough, but when there's five breweries in the mix? Not easy at all. In an interview with Brewer's Association, Ben Clark (the head brewer behind Flying Dog Brewery) discussed how brewers from the five participating breweries sat down to figure out this project. According to Clark, they focused on two ideas - one, what kind of beer would they want to drink after a long day of conference-ing; and two, what common experiences do they all share as brewers? 

As I discovered, the conference is a busy whirlwind of beer, people watching, and lectures, so it makes sense these five breweries settled on a Belgian pale ale, influenced heavily by their love for easy-drinking beers (and their enjoyment of previous CBC "Symposium Beers"). After all, who wants a super-heavy stout after a busy day?

So let's crack it open. Pours hazy orange from the pint can into my new Fermentis pilsner short glass (also a swag item at the conference.) There's a nice aroma of light spices and fresh hops.

Surprisingly, it's quite hoppy. The first taste shows some soft Belgian yeasty flavors, but with a nice bite of brassy hops - not quite metallic, but almost. I think the most prominent flavor is orange rind, with a smattering of other, harder-to-place spices. The beer leaves a typical Belgian spice flavor in the mouth after drinking. 

I like the hoppiness here, it adds an interesting dimension you don't see too often to a Belgian pale. Overall, nice and refreshing and would be great for those who like Belgian beer and IPAs.

Another interesting note: both Waredaca and Vanish are farm-breweries, meaning they grow on-site a lot of the ingredients they use to make beer. Another famous example of this is Rogue Brewery, which has a huge farm where they grow a lot of experimental hops and other ingredients. There's some value in this vertically-integrated business, since breweries can control all aspects of their production and can exercise greater (or total) control over the ingredient's quality and sourcing.