The holiday week is upon us, and we all know what that means: Tumbleweeds roll through the half-empty offices, phone calls and e-mails go unanswered, and the anticipation of a long, football-filled day of binging lulls everyone into a sort of fugue state in which time passes slowly but little happens in the way of work.
We might as well take advantage by getting a jump on our holiday drinking. Jack Rose just tapped Allies Win the War, a date-brewed barleywine collaboration between 21st Amendment in California and the great Ninkasi, based in Eugene, Oregon. Churchkey, meanwhile, has the Hitachino Nest White from Kiuchi in Japan. That brewery makes very nice beers that are packaged in little bottles with charming owls on the labels—graphic testimony to the Japanese people’s well-established reputation for being the ultimate connoisseurs of cute.
There’s a Black Spirits party at American Ice Company on Wednesday, November 23. It begins at 10 PM and features drinks by American Ice bar manager Patrick Owens, along with Dan Searing, punch authority. Musical pleasures arrive by way of Andy Myers, sommelier at CityZen, KevLam (from the band Beasts of No Nation), and one “Peter Etcetera” of 13th Street Meats.
Also on Wednesday, Smith Commons is hosting a launch party for Vermont brewery Long Trail from 6 to 9 PM with tastings and giveaways. (Note to anyone hunkering down in the District for the holiday: The bar will be open Thursday night, too.)
And looking ahead: The DC Craft Bartenders Guild’s Repeal Day party looms large. The event, held in celebration of the end of Prohibition, of course, happens at the Halcyon House on December 3. We have been advised to buy our tickets early, and here we pass that advice on to you.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
