Upweller with Josh & Jenna Chapman

Welcome, everyone. We are @DCBeer across social media. It's The DC Beer Show. Stein, what's in your stein this evening?

Well, hiya, Jake. I am drinking Plank beer, Dunkle Weitzenbach ale. This is a beer that's actually going to be at Snallygaster coming up. Brandy, what are you having on the DC Beer Show? Well, what am I not having? I had the day off because I'm in between things. And so I started with an 838 Irish stout from Dynasty, and then I shared a lovely IPA called Proper from Wheatland Spring. Thank you. This is one of the best IPAs. Like, it's like a farmhouse IP. It's not super

hoppy. It's so herbal. It's very, like, fresh. Ugh, lovely. And now I'm literally cracking open a service Hellas Lager beer from Wheatland Spring. If you guys couldn't tell, I was at recently at the Wheatland Spring Oktoberfest, which was a blast as it always is. Mister mister Berg, editor in chief, what she got over in your mug, Stein. That's blast. 3 beer podcasts. I like it, Brandy. I have here a beer that may be at Snally, also might

not. It is Bright Side, which is Ocelot's replacement for Sunnyside Dweller. They, decided they were going to not bring that one back, which is a shame, but Bright Sides here, a lovely American style lager, noble hops, little bit of corn, nicely done. If they bring it to Snally, you could drink a lot of it. So, hey, Virginia's for lagers. Cheers. Good choices, everybody. You can, get a

shirt that says Virginia is for lagers. Hey. Where can I get a shirt? Where? Where? Mike Stein. Do you know? I think it's dcbeer.com, and you just click on our merch tab. And our members actually get a discount on merch. So you should sign up. Not only do you get a discount on cool DC beer swag, like hats and shirts and tanks and stuff, but you can also get discounts at our local breweries, our partners, like DC Brow, Streetcar 82, and Port City, just

to name a few. So, yes, cheers to our Patreon members. Thank you for listening and supporting. Even if you're not a Patreon member, we wanna say thank you DC Beer Show listeners because you could have been on any podcast, millions of podcasts out there in the world. We just wanna thank you for letting you be ourselves today and every day. So thanks for tuning in. We're so excited to share with you. You listen to the DC beer show

because you're gonna get some valuable information. So let me drop a hot

one on you right now. Because you tune in and give us your precious time, the one nonrenewable resource, I have to say, we are super pumped to be brewing a beer with the Biri godmother. It's really happening. Can you believe it, Brandy? It's really happening. Stein. I'm so excited. And as much as I am just over the moon about Snally, it there's, like, icing on the cake with some cookie crumbles, sprinkles on top and stuff because

Latrice is coming, the Beery godmother. I I was visiting with the Beery godmother when she visited this past March for the women's panel at Other Half, and she is the most wonderful, most lovely, incredibly beer smart human. And we actually went to Wheatland Springs together, so I know that we're doing some fun stuff when she visits. We are brewing lager, of course. Latrice and I had exchanged some DMs on Instagram, and I was like, oh, this is

so great. She had just brewed a beer with, I think, lesser known. It was a Hellas beer in North Carolina. And she, was like, oh, we should totally brew some beer. And I was like, awesome. And then we made it official via email. I was like, here's a half dozen breweries. We love these breweries at DC Beer. I love them as the leader of Lost Lagers. Let's do a tripartite collab. And she's like, oh, that'd be so great. And then she's like, of course, we gotta bring Brandy in. I

said, of course, we gotta bring the women's beer culture club in. So it's a quadruple collaboration, and we're gonna be brewing tmave, otherwise known as Czech dark lager with Josh Chapman. One half of our guests for this show. We've got Josh and Jenna Chapman coming up, but we cannot wait. We're doing like all the cool kids do during Snallygaster, post Snallygaster, and brewing some beer, in this case with the Beery Godmother. Oh, I

cannot wait. Make sure you make sure you stay tuned for all the details because as we have more specific details, we'll let you know. But, yeah, I'm so excited. It's gonna be such a Right, great time. If we're gonna talk about

collabs, let's talk about Other Half because I know Other Half is such a huge part of Snallygaster because not only have they hosted Oyster Wars either there or at Salt Line, which is gonna be this year, but they always do collaboration beers around this time, a for Snally, but their anniversary. And I know for a fact that Other Half is collaborating with 9 local DMV breweries, 3 from each, the d, the m, and the v. And I know who they are. It hasn't been announced yet, so I'm supposed to stay

zippy zipped. But I might put out a little fun poll on the Instagrams and Twitters getting your input. Who do you think it's gonna be? Are you gonna do a wild card poll, Brandy? Like, is Other Half collaborating with Hype Brewery a or Weinstefanter, Ying Ling, or, AB InBev, Upweller, Koros Heineken? You know, I won't know until I make

it. It's gonna be a game time decision for sure. But, but Oyster always will be fun, and it'll be good for all the hungover people because it's gonna be all you would eat all you can eat, like, delicious seafood and oysters from 8 different oyster vendors and local breweries, and it's gonna be so great. So we'll be we'll be there. No. It's

also a cool collaboration. DC beer and our friends, Metro Bar on the Met Right trail over by Rhode Island Avenue. Come see us at Metro Bar this upcoming Saturday. I believe, Brandy, you and I will be there. Jordan will be there. Mike, we hope to see you there. Gonna be a blast. We've got, like, a nice wide array of stuff. A red IPA from Union. I did talk them into Port Cities, Rauchbier, one of the 2 local canned commercially available

ones. Go check out the Denizen's one as Upweller. But we got breweries, brewery reps, swag, us. It'll be a good time. Deets over at metrobar. Deets over at dcbeer.com. And the Women's Brew Culture Club is meeting up that day. My friends, the Women's Brew Culture Club, open to all women and nonbinary folks in the DMV looking for more beer education and a fun inclusive drinking community, they get a special discount. Thanks to Metro Bar for offering our group a special

little deal. Really appreciate it. Cheers. Cheers, Metro Bar. You love to hear it. Jake, if your fest doesn't have a Right beer, a smoked lager, in this case from port city, is it really an authentic fest? Many are asking. Many are asking this, Mike. I'm glad that you brought this up. So what have we not talked about? Oh, Snallygaster. So I

know that a lot of you may remember last year was the 1st year that there was a podcast stage at Snally. Thanks to Greg and our wonderful friends over at the NRG, Tim and Bruno, and, of course, the awesome Upweller team that they have to set up Snally. But they brought us back again this year. This year, it's gonna be the DC Beer Show podcast stage, and we're going to have the award winning beer geek drooling, goosebumps all over your body panelist visiting from all

over the country and locally. And you're gonna get to see them, hear them, meet them afterwards, and they might even bring up a special beer or 2 kind of like, 3 Fontanain did last year. So if you, are interested in some special pours and you're you and I meet some of your cool beer idols, you should linger around the DC beer, podcast stage. Speaking of Snally,

our guests at Upweller, they'll be at Snally. Josh, welcome back to the DC Beer Show. Jen, welcome. Thank you for having us. What's going on, Jake? I'm getting ready for Snally over here as I assume you all are over there. Indeed. So excited to be pouring again this year. It's I mean, aside from October ForestFest, which obviously I'm biased about, that that we continue to do, Snallygaster is just

one of my absolute favorite festivals in the world. I think especially now that it's on, you know, Penn Ave, it's just such a great location, rain or shine, as you guys know. It is phenomenal, so can't wait for that. My understanding though is before Snally, you all have a little, roadshow. You'll be popping up at a couple of different spots.

We will indeed. First thing we've got is our launch on Sunday, October 6th out of Right Proper Shaw. Very excited for the Upweller launch. So thankful to Thor and Leah and the relationship that we have with Wim to be able to bring these beers that represent, the time and place of Eastern Shore to the folks, in the city and around Nova. We're just really excited. We're giddy. So today is Friday, October 4th. So in 2 short days, we have the release at Right Proper Brewing Company.

Tell us a little bit about that release and what folks can expect on Sunday. We are so passionate about tying people to kind of time and place. Right? It's it's something that we're, we're so geared towards in the beers that we brew from the ground up. Right? Everything that we do, every ingredient we use is built to help kind of anchor folks to particularly, I feel like nature and the environment that you have out here on the shore. Absolutely. And what we also try to do is use and be really

sustainable in our beers. So, like, using oyster liquor for our salt's beer that would otherwise be dumped out and, using just different different foraged ingredients in our beers that people, don't really know a lot about, like the yellow wood sorrel and our collaboration that we're drinking right now. Yeah. We're sipping on, our collab with Lost Gen,

which is influence of the earth right now. American IPA with Ford Sorrel, which was a really great kind of microcosm of what Upweller was all about. The day that we went with the Lost Gen crew to, forge that Sorrel, I remember looking at them, and everybody was concerned about how long it was gonna take. Are we gonna have to go on a long hike? Should we bring Camelbacks? Like, do I

need protein bars? Do I need to call somebody and let them know where I'm going so they can find me tomorrow if I don't come home? And it was literally across the street from the from the doors to the brewery but we found the sorrel for that beer.

And it's a it's a great little example of what we're trying to do, with Upweller is just help people see that, right beneath your feet, kind of wherever you are, there's something that can tie you to that place that you can enjoy in so many different ways, beer being a fantastic, you know, iteration of those. But, so we'll have 4 beers on for the launch on Sunday. We have a great, I mean, Right Proper low key has had one of the best cheese programs in DC for many,

many years at this point. Certainly, not talked about as much as it needs to be. Kescar, manager there, aside from just being a fantastic union in general, incredible cheese monger. I got to do the, the the tasting Proper for the launch the other day, and I may have asked to go back through a couple times to quote, unquote double check,

some of the pairings, but it's fantastic. We'll have so Wayne's got oysters on hand being shucked for everybody, which are the same oysters that, we use in the oyster goes up. So it should be a fantastic time. Jen, I know, is gonna bring a whole bunch of the euphoria and fauna of the Eastern Shore Yeah. Yeah. To kinda fill up the space and help people know what it's like to be to be out here. So Absolutely. So let's let's back up a little bit. We're

talking about Upweller, beer company. And and people know, Jen and and Josh Chapman, they know you around town. But I wanna talk a little bit about some of your work outside of town. Right? I am a city mouse. And as such, I know some country mice. But being born in New York City, I'm a city mouse. You folks kind of you straddle the line. You're both city mice and country mice.

Tell us a little bit about straddling those lines and some of your work further, a field, maybe some of the work you've done with The Nature Conservancy in Virginia. Yeah. We,

we love working with The Nature Conservancy. It all started really with Josh's idea to brew with pine needles. And, originally, here when we were living on Chingoteague Island, but here across the shore, there's a lot of loblolly pines. So we are experimenting with the, loblolly species. But, Valerie, you read an

article, and it was about longleaf. And that's how it kind of all got started, where we started to realize that there was this forgotten forest that was originally here and around all other parts of Virginia. And we wanted to kind of investigate that a bit further, so we got in touch with Bobby Quants at the Piney Grove Preserve. And, and that was just a really exciting venture for us because that was kind of our first intro into The Nature Conservancy,

like, working with them on a beer. And from there, I mean, you take it from here, we we went close to home after that. Well, I think so I like that you're keying on city mouse, country mouse sort of thing. I I I think the heart of what we have always been about, I mean, you you and I in general, Jen Right. Is trying to get to the heart of the matter a little bit

and using the work of our hands to do that. Right? I love that beer is the work of my hands at this point because it's a great I mean, it's a it's a fun, you know, vehicle to utilize. It's built towards community and celebration, but I think it I think in bringing people together, it just allows us

to get to something a little Proper. Something that I know myself and a lot of other brewers talk about is, like, at the end of the day, if they say they made great beer, okay, like, that's a that's a nice thing to have as your epitaph, but, man, I hope it does something more than that. So The Nature Conservancy, October Forest Fest, that whole thing for us was born out of that kind of heart.

Right. I had such we had such an experience with The Nature Conservancy as a family, this kindred this kinship, right, out in UTVs with the folks that manage that landscape and just seeing how these guys that the world kind of doesn't see doing this incredible work had such a symbiotic relation a heart with us to what we were doing through our beers that it bridged that gap between,

what you do, what I do, what somebody else does. We're all really here trying to, I don't know, make everybody else's life a little better, to to to be a little more tied to where we are, and to live in community as best as possible. So we felt like we had to grow that project from our one beer, share it with other like minded brewers and with the other awesome landscapes that TNC has in Virginia. We got to watch those tiny communities and partnerships

grow, you know, beyond anything we could have planned for. It became a great festival. We started inviting more guest breweries. Those guest breweries were excited to start brewing beers where they forged and found ingredients and partnered with, you know, gatherers and farmers and producers around

their areas. There was just such a great, I don't know, collaborative Right, and I think at the end of all of it, that's that's the the goal in this whole project is to continue to do things where we use what we're passionate about to help people realize they matter because they exist. Mhmm. And that when you can when you can do that, that they can also see that they can be part of something bigger. I mean, that's that for me is when beer and anything we do, but particularly for me, beer is is

really batting a thousand. Yeah. And I think it's obvious when someone meets you, Jen or Josh, your passion for local ingredients, but also telling the stories. I know. I think the first time I heard the term merroir, like terroir, but in reference to, the waters was from one of you or maybe both of you.

But in in in knowing some brewers locally, some close to DC, some in Northern Virginia, some further afield down in Norfolk or or, you know, closer to Chincoteague, it seems that you have convinced brewers to want to use really unique ingredients, local ingredients, and that sort of locavore concept has been pushed, not in an aggressive way at all, but just kinda through your association with them.

But it's also nice to see, you you know, you just had this, not tap takeover, but calm influential, work with The Nature Conservancy at Evening Star. They had your beer in in in Alexandria and then Andy's Pizza Noma. What was it like working with some folks closer into town? Is that kind of, getting the band back together? Or is it, hey, here's a new concept because you've never had Upweller beer before even though maybe you know Generi for for a decade now? Yeah. It's I mean, evening star

man. I mean, talk about a a formative part of our lives. I mean, they're all family. Coming home to our family, for sure. I mean, the I have a picture we have a picture of me holding Emma. She was, what, a year and a half old, maybe? She was probably around 2. Yeah. And I'm in my chef coat, you know, at the blue back door to the Majestic Lounge. We lived above Planet Wine for, like, a year and a half. So that that place is literally coming home a little

bit. And it's just such a great, I don't know, embodiment of, again, everything I love about the industry because that place was home to so many people in that community. I mean, folks that would finish their day, whether it was them and their kids or just a guy finishing work at the moving company, Sleepy Dave. Remember Sleepy Dave? I remember Sleepy Dave. Sleepy

Dave was the best, you know? And, like, but Sleepy Dave was, you know, a mid fifties single guy, and we were the family there at Evening Star, you know, at the downbar. Us and our baby monarch. And at the bar, yes. Because and Emma was sleeping upstairs, so we had it good. That's true. The baby monitor at the bar was certainly, I don't know, a Rorschach test for folks, that were that were sitting kinda near

us. But, yeah, no, it's been it's been amazing working with folks that, I don't know, you get to you get to do this life with and everything everything changes. Right? Like, everybody goes through, sort of, different iterations of what they think they're gonna be and then what they become and then what they wanna be all over again. Josh, since you mentioned it, with both NRG and Snally coming up, who are you excited to see at Snally? And, Jen, that goes for you as well. Oh, man.

That's tough. I mean, personally, I'm hoping John Laffer actually shows up again this year like he did last year. Off Color for me, was one of those formative breweries. I mean, gosh, we lost Ron Jeffries, you know, this week from Jolly Pumpkin, which was, you know, again, one of those pseudo Rushmore brewers for a lot of folks in the industry. And Lager is one of those for me.

He's just always been so genuine with his beers, with what they've tried to produce, and how they've communicated with their consumers. I I mean, gosh. They didn't brew an IPA. What? For their their first, like, almost 10 years of existence. So, very much on a personal level, hoping, Lager gets to come out and, you know, enjoy the festivities here with everybody. And I'm so excited to taste friends who have just opened, see what they're brewing lately, because I haven't been able to

get my butt down there across the bay. So I am really excited to see what they're gonna be bringing to the festival. I'm also interested in, you know, just being surprised by someone. That's one of my favorite things about Sally is going to the festival and tasting all these wonderful beers. And, yes, like, there's different people that you look forward to. There's different hype beers. There's different styles that are on

trend. But for me, my favorite thing is to be surprised by someone, by an ingredient, or by a style that's done really, really well. You know we're gonna have corn lager on side pole on a Jockey box. Like, that is that is 100% happening again. How about it? How about it, though? How about it? So speaking of how about it, what's it like brewing How About It

at Right Proper Shaw as opposed to at Chikatig, the late great Black Narrows? So, I mean, I one of the things I appreciate is that Mike can actually speak into this a little bit as well because I guinea pigged him the other day. It is it is so strange having these beers that are, you know, family members at this point, little, little children. I always talk about my beers as kids. Babies. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, you love them all equally. They all have

their strengths. They all have their quirks. Right? But, man, how about it is one that for me is just it's my beer. It's a brewer's beer. It's a cool, you know, American lager with this fantastic bloody butchered corn that we flipped on its head. And in a time, I mean, gosh, especially when we were brewing it, you know, at the late Right Black Narrows, I mean, we're talking we were piloting that beer like 8a half, 9 years ago at this point. That's

wild. It's wild. That's wild. I mean, corn was still I think we had just gotten past corn being like a disqualifier in the b yet. You know? Like, so it was still this very, oh, you don't mess with this ingredient because it's been, you know, I don't know, usurpers and destroyers first them, have taken this awesome ingredient and and wasted it, and we flipped

them instead and tried to highlight it. So to brew it again was such a surreal experience because I just wanted it I wanted to know that we could have that again, particularly to highlight this corn that one of the one of the beauty, beautiful parts of, I don't know, loss is how you come out on the next side. Innovation.

Yeah. Right? Absolutely. So one of the things that one of the silver linings of going from, you know, the brewery on Chincoteague Black Narrows to, like, doing beers like this again, is having to find new ways to do them. So we had previously been working with the farm that had saved the seed forever ago, in, at Pongo Creek. They shut down, they stopped growing it, and we had to kind of take it ourselves and work collaboratively with a great guy Aaron Cooper, in Eaton, Maryland on the shore.

So we took this corn that was already beautiful and then this, heirloom ingredient that was gonna be lost forever, and now it's grown organically and regeneratively. So we have almost, you know, 2.0 this thing. So now brewing that at Right Proper Shaw, I remember getting to taste it, you know, throughout the process and every step of the way just panicking over if my memory was really, you know, accurate or my, my own desires for it to be spot on were betraying me, but it

is fantastic. It's 100% how about it. I mean, Mike, you had it the other day. I mean, I feel like you had same sort of thing like, yep, this is this is how about it. There are certainly some tweaks. DC's water is much harder than the, reverse osmosis water that we had on Chincoteague. But the benefit is we didn't need reverse osmosis water in DC, ironically, because the water,

wasn't doused with flame retardant like our sinking water was. I will go on record and say, it's the same how about it that I remember over the last 9 years, but it's better in my humble opinion. Oh. It's the same. Yeah. I mean, I just I feel that way. And, yeah, maybe, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Could be. But 9 years ago, you know, you y'all weren't corn farmers, seed savers, corn brokers maybe is more accurate. I don't

know. Oh, I can feel it. So there's been a lot of change there that's it. There's been a lot of change. So it's different. I think it's better, but it's still the same how about it as I remember it, down to the to the bones and the foundation of the structure, I think. That's exciting. Yeah. I'm stoked. Got one more question for you, Josh and Jen, and that is Right Proper is about to grow with a brewery, brew pub in Eckington. What does that mean for

Upweller? Oh, man. Well, at least you saved the softball for last. Okay? Yeah. Appreciate that. You know, just you know, so so long as, you know, we're gonna celebrate a launch of, the you know, this new beer brand, let's let's talk about the future. Let's talk about Upweller beyond the launch. Well, gosh. The space in Nakhonton is gonna be fantastic. And, again, it's one of those things where, I don't know, like all we build is sandcastles, right? We make these awesome things and then

the tide comes in and it washes it out. And sometimes we get to rebuild, right, something new off of what we learned. And sometimes what gets washed away is now the foundation for somebody else coming next. Right? What I think is really beautiful is that for me with Upweller and also getting to be a part of Bryte Proper is that I get a little bit of in that. And especially just so much of what we learned with Black Narrows, we get to pour into the 3rd location for Ripe Propper

in Hechington. I mean, even just an equipment selection and get him go through and talk talk through equipment suppliers, what we need, what makes the most sense, what we're going for. Like, the system will be built to be able to do decoctioning for lager, for lager beers, which I am super excited about because it's one of those things where if you can build it in ahead of time, it gives you that much more flexibility to make just that much better of a

beer that you're so excited about. So it's a great location. I think the ability just to really pour into beers that stand the test of time, I mean, it is a lager focused and kind of an American hoppy beer focused brewery brewpub. I just it fits so well with what Right cropper is all about too. I mean, we know them as the OG, you know, kind of DC wild, funky, sour, mixed culture kind of brewery. But at the same time, like, I mean, Raised by Wolves, that is about as, you

know, OG of a of a pale ale as you can get. I mean, it's fantastic. So to have a brewery come online that we can really, you know, punch out that kind of core core value of a beer portfolio is really exciting. Josh and Jenna, thank you so much. A pleasure as always. Proper opportunities to see them in DC over the next couple weeks. Right Proper this Sunday and then Pennsylvania Avenue, Saturday after that. But the best time to go to Eastern Shore is actually probably right about now. So

go to Chincoteague. Stop by. Visit. Yeah. It's a it's it's a beautiful time of year. The bugs are basically gone. Yep. The tourists are too. You'll have it to yourself. It's gorgeous. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, Josh. Alright. More

Oktoberfest goodies happening this weekend as well. I know Atlas is up. Aslan is up. There's certainly gonna be some more. Dcbeer.com/events for all of your various Oktoberfest and other beer needs. And, also, that day, again, the same day that we're at Metro Bar, Monkish Cans are gonna be at Church Key as we start bringing in those Snally out of market beers. When Snally ends on Monday 14th, Indigenous Peoples' Day, they'll have Fidens Cans for sale. Again, we have the details over at

DC Beer. Alright. Who wants to take us out? I'll just say I am so excited for Snallygaster, specifically our little place in the gargantuan monstrous Snallygaster universe. The beast. Yeah. The first podcast stage ever and then hopefully the best podcast stage ever as we look to revamp and improve. We're trying to funnel Greg and Tim and Bruno and take all the feedback, channel it, make it better than ever, and just work tirelessly to improve and

build upon that. I wanna say thank you to all the folks who've been reaching out and asking questions. You know that DC Snally Central. You you got you come to us for your Snally info all all in one place. We're still getting confirmations and events submitted from all of our friends, but we will be the one stop shop for you to figure out what's going on, what you're doing. So thanks to all of the folks messaging us and asking what the details are.

Once we have them, we promise they're coming straight to you. Alright, folks. Watch this space @dcbeer and dcbeer.com. Be well, and we'll see you out there at all of these events.