Take a Tour of Washington D.C.’s Emerging Craft Beer Scene

In September of 2013, Justin Cox and Will Durgin, friends from college, opened Atlas Brew Works about a mile from D.C.'s Union Market—and named their brewery after the mythical Titan who held the universe on his shoulders. The Justin had been brewing in his home for years, and had been trying to convince Will, who had moved West to make beer for breweries like Telegraph Brewing Company in Santa Barbara and Pyramid Breweries in Portland, OR, to join him in a local brewery endeavor. The leap paid off—though the brewery hasn't even been open for a full year, it's garnered media attention from outlets the Washington Post, and earned the duo a permanent tap at Nationals Park (which serves an exclusive Atlas beer available only at the stadium).

"We chose D.C. for a reason, and it wasn’t just because Justin lived here. We wanted to be part of a developing community and a developing scene," Durgin explains. "The city has been really welcoming and really receptive. It’s really a great city for food, and it’s going to be a great city for local beer."

Currently, Atlas Brew Works opens its brewery to the public on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., offering tastings, tours, and growlers or bottles to go. In the coming months, the brewery will start serving up pints of their beer, as well (which is currently only available as drafts in the District). Also in the coming months, expect to see a re-release of a beer that was last available at the brewery's launch, as well as a project experimenting with aging beer in barrels.

Greg Engert has been involved in the D.C. beer scene for 12 years, but only recently as a brewer—before that, he cut his teeth by purveying beer for some of the city's most popular restaurants and bars, including ChurchKey and Birch and Barley on 14th Street. But he had always wanted to try his hand at making the stuff he was so good at buying—and when a space opened up in the Navy Yard neighborhood, Engert jumped at the chance to dive in to brewing.

The result is Bluejacket Brewery, which opened its doors in October of 2013. The brewery, which features tours and tastings as well as a restaurant, has made over 70 different types of beers since it first opened. "We wanted to build a brewery without boundaries," Engert explains. "We didn’t want to make a standard brewery: we wanted to make it something new."

That new approach includes featuring 25 different beers at all times—20 on tap and five from casks. And Engert prides himself on his breweries ability to create a diverse range of beers for patrons to sample. "We’ll never have 20 different IPAs on tap. We’ll always have something hoppy, but also something sour, something smoky, something crisp and refreshing," he says. "We’re trying to represent the myriad of flavor profiles you can find."