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Today is the busiest day of DC Beer Week, so if you haven’t gotten out yet, it’s time to start. Tonight’s choices include the usual tap takeovers and beer-pairing dinners, but also unique events like a beer festival at Nationals Park and, of all things, a beer-themed tribute to Neil Young and poutine. Below are our top picks. Check out the full list of events here.
Beers, Burgers, and Baseball at Nationals Park
The Washington Nationals have teamed up with The Beer Institute, Destination DC, and Premium Distributors to host a post-game beer festival with live music at the Red Porch. Tickets are $55 and include a seat to tonight’s game against the San Francisco Giants, entrance to the two-hour after-party, unlimited beer samples from more than 15 craft breweries (full list here), and a Shake Shack burger with fries. The first pitch is at 4:05 p.m., and the two-hour after-party will start 45 minutes after the Nationals win, er, the last play of the game.
Maryland Cask Night at Meridian Pint
Starting at 5 p.m., Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights will be pouring 16 drafts and 12 casks from four Maryland breweries. Casks will be on the patio, and pours are $5 each all night. Highlights on cask include DuClaw‘s Bourbon Barrel-Aged Bare Ass Blonde and Union Craft Brewing’s Blackwing black lager. On draft, don’t miss Evolution Craft Brewing‘s Lot No. 6 Double IPA and Oliver Breweries’ A Terrible Lie, a 8.5-percent alcohol Belgian-style brown ale brewed with “the tears of a thousand angels and aged on powdered unicorn horn.” Oh, and they’ll have some of this chocolate peanut butter porter, which is hopefully better than this doughnut chocolate, peanut butter, and banana ale. Drool over the full beer line-up here.
Bell’s Brewery Tap Takeover at ChurchKey
Midwestern transplants will be grateful to ChurchKey for tonight’s Bell’s Brewery event. Starting at 6 p.m., the Logan Circle beer mecca will have 20 drafts and casks from the popular Michigan brewery. Standouts include Black Note, a blend of the brewery’s Expedition Stout and Double Cream Stout aged in freshly retired oak bourbon barrels, and a firkin of Two Hearted Ale, one of the world’s greatest India pale ales. They will also be pouring all three of Bell’s jazz trio series brews—Le Batteur, Le Contrebassiste, and Le Pianiste—each an interpretation of a French-style Biere de Garde named after a different jazz instrument.
Allagash and Boulevard Tribute to Neil Young and Poutine at Smoke and Barrel
Fans of Canadian crooning and culinary treats should head to Smoke and Barrel tonight for a Neil Young and poutine party hosted by Allagash and Boulevard brewing companies. From 6 to 10:30 p.m., chef Logan McGear will serve several different dishes of gravy-topped fries paired with any of 24 drafts of Allagash and Boulevard brews. Check out Boulevard’s newest, Reverb Imperial Pilsner, or the rare Allagash Golden Brett, a fruity, slightly tart ale fermented in an 800-gallon oak barrel.
Image courtesy of DC Beer Week