Three Beautiful Things 10/24/15: Power Chords and Fresh Beer, 16 Tons Alumni Meeting, More Beer at D C Brau

1. It took the Deke and me a while to get ourselves in gear today, but once we did, we decided to go down to Atlas Brew Works on West Virginia, NE in DC and have some fresh brewed beer. Atlas Brew Works' concrete warehouse walls thumped with hard driving electric guitar power chords, signaling that the Deke and I were (and would be) the senior members of the crowd gathered in this brewery. No problem. We shouted out our flight order, the most friendly and helpful beer server in the world shouted back to us what beers she was pouring, put them on a tray, and escorted us to the wobbly picnic table where we sat down and sampled tasters of their lager, California common ale, Belgian lager, anniversary ale, saison, and rye beer.

2. The most remarkable thing happened this afternoon at Atlas Brew Works. Two people finished their beers and left our table and a couple who had been one table over sat at our table, since we were there alone. The Deke remarked to me that drinking these different beers reminded her of tasting different beers at 16 Tons and suddenly the woman who'd just sat at our table leaned over and said, "Eugene's 16 Tons?" "Yeah", the Deke replied with her radiant smile. It turns out that our table mates, newlyweds Sarah and Brian, like us, just moved to the D. C. area from Eugene about a year ago. Sarah is a new Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Human Development at George Mason University and Brian teaches art via distance learning.  We had tons (about 16) of stuff to talk about -- Eugene, being new in D. C., teaching, work -- and we carried on for a good part of the afternoon.  It is really fun to rediscover from time to time how small the world really can be.

3. Not far from Atlas Brew Works is D C Brau, another warehouse brewery with concrete floors and walls and few places to sit and really good beer. The Deke and I dropped in and discovered we really like their Corruption IPA, so we had one last taster a piece and bought a six pack for later enjoyment at home. We didn't make any new friends at D C Brau, but I marveled at the crowd of youngsters, none of them fashionable, none of them part of the beautiful people crowd, enjoying beer, talking, laughing, and making this somewhat new brewery in this old cement warehouse come alive. (Uh, once again, the Deke and I were the senior members of the tasting room crowd, but no one came up to us and said anything like, "Wow!  It's great how people your age can still get out and enjoy a place like this!")