While inebriating ourselves during the DC Metblogs happy hour (more details to be released soon, if not already), we got to recapping some current news regarding our venue of choice, the newly opened Old Dominion Brewhouse at the DC Convention Center. Much fun was to be had and many beverages were consumed (as well as many plot conceived). I was also, with a heavy heart disclosed (as covered recently in the Washington post as well as the DC Beer List) that Old Dominion, one of the original “new brewers” of the D.C. beer Renaissance was sold to Anheuser-Bush and Fordham Brewing in a 49/51 split. What was more unconscionable in the discussion was the news disclosed that the old guard brewers were dismissed (as were many other staff) without as much as severance pay, let alone being kept on to familiarize the new owners with “how things worked” at Old Dominion. Do we want to drink beer (or root beer)`, now, from a company that behaves in such a fashion?
While this may be old news in the brewing community, the acts purported to have happened due the the relatively haphazard take-over of a local institution of brewing in the DC Metro area raises some alarm. Are we to loose such a unique fixture as Old Dominion to the faceless macro brewery conglomerate, known unaffectionably as A-B? Will the known Old Dominion Ale and other local favorites as Tupper’s Hop Pocket Ale go the way of the Do-Do (or at least the way of Foggy Bottom Brewing)? Voice your opinion here, on the possible overthrow of the evil overlords that may possibly erase a tradition in DC that has just celebrated it’s 15th Anniversary of life. Will D.C.’s brewing history start to fade away as many other traditions that are uniquely D.C. as globalization and big-business eat up countless local flavors?
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
