18 November 2010

Changes to Capitol City Brewing in DC

Those who have been around here drinking for a few years will probably have had flashbacks, during all the recent hoopla over caffeinated alcoholic drinks, of one of the nation's finer coffee stouts, which originated here in Baltimore. Capitol City Fuel was the creation of Mike Morris  Tod Heatwole, Cap City's first brewer in Baltimore, and was a winter seasonal at the Harborplace brewpub, thick and rich at 9-10% and laced with coffee--ten pounds per batch, originally. 

So whatever happened to them?  The Harborplace location closed in September 2007, a victim of sluggish sales and increasing rents.  The company is still alive in the DC area, but is poised to shutter its Union Station/Capitol Hill location in the spring, leaving them with only two locations: the downtown location in a former Greyhound terminal, and the Shirlington, Virginia pub and brewery.  Greg Kitsock has an overview of the company and its numerous pending changes, as well as the 2,000th beer, 2G-IPAat his Washington Post blog.

Mmmmmmmm. . . . . . . Fuel...............

4 comments:

Jay Zeis said...

Fuel was a great beer. I truly miss it being in Baltimore.

stevejones said...

Mike wasn't the originator of Fuel ... check out Tom's blog piece http://www.yoursforgoodfermentables.com/2007/09/nevermore-for-baltimore-brewpub.html. Fuel is a fantastic brew, I enjoyed a few pints with Abe who, sadly passed away some years ago ... I'll raise a glass to him this Thanksgiving, the brewing community misses his talents!

Alexander D. Mitchell IV said...

Steve, thanks for the correction. I kind of knew as soon as I typed it that someone would correct it. I think Morris did claim credit for at least adjusting the recipe downwards slightly in strength to what we called a "less flammable version" of the original.

JohnM. said...

@ Jay

I may be wrong about this, but I believe you can stil find Fuel in Baltimore from time to time. Am fairly certain I've seen it on tap over at Max's the past couple of winters when they have their X-mas beer event (not really an event, just a time period during which the tap list is especially X-mas beer heavy).