The amount of local breweries in the DMV area is growing, creating friendly competition among brewers to please beer aficionados around the District. In Washington, D.C. alone there are 10 breweries and brewpub locations, according to DC Beer, and almost 20 others in a 30-mile radius from D.C. in Maryland and Virginia.
One brewery is taking the sustainability route to attract business and set itself apart from the rest, using science to create quality beer that can be replicated precisely. Being sustainable is an inevitable business practice of the future, so if it’s something all companies should be mindful of, what better to pair it with than the business of making beer?
Hellbender Brewery, named after the endangered Hellbender Salamander, incorporates sustainable business practices into everything from brewing the beer to recycling the leftover grain.
Co-founders Ben Evans and Patrick Mullane fused their passions for home-brewing beer and their different career backgrounds to open the brewery in 2014. Evans, president and head brewer, came from a career in microbiology and neuroscience research. Mullane, director of business, sales and marketing activities, worked on the Senate Budget Committee on Capital Hill.
Located in a residential neighborhood five blocks from the Fort Totten Metro stop at 5788 2nd Street, NE, Hellbender involves the community in events at the brewery like yoga classes followed by happy hour, and partnerships to raise awareness for the namesake salamander.
“I wanted to have a local name without being obviously local,” Evans said when he and Mullane decided on the name. “Hellbender really stuck in both of our heads.”
Using the name Hellbender works with their mission of sustainability and has allowed them to work with the Smithsonian National Zoo, Freshwater Services and more on projects for endangered salamanders. Why salamanders? Eastern Hellbenders are the largest salamanders in North America. You can find Hellbenders in the National Zoo and in the wild within 60 miles of D.C., but they’re endangered and threatened in many states. The goal of the brewery is to use environmentally safe brewing practices and raise awareness of programs that work to return the animal to rivers where it used to thrive.
The sustainability factor comes into play when you break down Hellbender's brewing process. All the equipment was made to fit and works in tandem with the key piece: the mash filter system. Made outside of Leuven, Belgium, it saves the brewery money and grain through its efficient design.
“It allows us to use 15 percent less grain per batch and 30 percent less water per batch, so we get more out of the grain that would be thrown out at the end of the process,” Evans said. Using 15 percent less grain per batch really adds up, Evans said, especially when on a busy week of production the brewery can go through 4,000 pounds of it.
The waste also goes to good use. “Once the grains come through the mashing process, we give the leftover to famers,” Evans said. “Farmers get free animal feed from us instead of it going in the waste bin.”
And leftover grain from the beer process doesn’t smell pleasant, Evans said, and giving away the used grain also keeps neighbors happy. Connecting with local farmers has its perks, too.
“My favorite part of the interaction is we trade cheese for beer with our farmers,” Evans said. “ a beer, cheese and charcuterie pairing with them at the brewery.”
Hellbender’s grain comes from Wisconsin, and all of the ingredients for their flagship beers are from North America, Evans said.
“We do use some locally malted barley and wheat from Virginia and Maryland for different batches,” Evans said.
Evan’s background in microbiology has shaped the brewery into a laboratory of beer, incorporating science into the detail-oriented process.
"I would say that anybody can make a great beer but if you want to make the exact same beer again, that’s where all the science comes in," Evans said.
They have an in-house microbiologist quality control lab, which grows single colony yeast to precisely replicate batches. It is also where Evans does his testing analyses.
“Yeast is a living organism so shipping it across the country, some cells are bound to die,” Evans said. “We’ve got yeast stocks of all the strains of yeast we use for the beers, it’s nice to only have to transport the yeast a few feet.”
To prevent Hellbender beers from tasting similar, which can happen in microbreweries and breweries alike, they switch it up.
“We tend to work with a lot of different yeast strains,” Evans said. “The purpose of that is to make all of our beers different from each other.”
The popular beers are the Southern Torrent Saison, Red Line Ale, and the Ignite IPA, which was released in March.
“We’re making a lot of the Saison right now; Belgian Saison,” Evans said. “It has a really different flavor profile that is great in the D.C. summer. We had so much demand for it that we’re going to make making it year round.”
Bars in the area are always looking to change up their menu, Evans said. So the demand for their beers at restaurants and bars dictates their business' livelihood.
“Our entry to the market isn’t through customers yet,” Evans said. “We have to catch the interest of a beer buyers at bars and restaurants.”
Currently, Hellbender only sells kegs, growlers, tasting flights and pints in their tasting room. Evans and Mullane are looking to expand into selling cans, which is a long process of getting approvals from the government and setting aside funds for more fermenters. Other things to consider are designs and approval of the cans, and the financial commitment and risk of production.
“ putting a lot of effort into can design so we can get cans out by the end of the summer,” Evans said.
Hellbender is looking into ‘mobile canning’, a process in which a truck pulls up to the brewery and cans on-site. The truck hooks up the fermenters and leaves you with full tanks and disappears. It’s an entryway into canning and another way that they are staying local.
“You’re at a disadvantage if you don’t go into small packaging,” Evans said. “We’re doing well in kegs and very well in our tasting room but to really get to that next stage it’s really important our business plan.”
The tasting room is open from 5 pm to 8 pm on Thursday, 12 pm to 7 pm on Friday, 12 pm to 7 pm on Saturday and 12 pm to 6 pm on Sunday. On Saturdays they give free tours at 2, 3, 4 and 5 pm.
Featured image via Hellbender, photo credit: Justin Stone.
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