ALEXANDRIA / ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

Visited two worthwhile brewpubs in these northeast Virginia-based Washington DC suburbs post-X-mas ‘04. Firstly, historic Alexandria’s quaint downtown section boasted FOUNDERS RESTAURANT & BREWING, with its beautiful turn-of-the-century ‘Old Town’ murals, wooden interior, modest loft area, and generous cuisine (great burgers and barbecue nachos).

Though the pub lost its license and operations ceased, December ’05, established brewer Bill Madden’s front-windowed copper kettles supplied admirably varied brews and non-alcoholic honeyed sugar maple bark-bitten Root Beer. Politely acidic orange-dried lemon-tart Dick’s Kolsch and Belgian-styled berry-soured plantain-tangerine-nectar-backed Raspberry Blonde suited lightweights. Bitter-hopped citric-fizzed American Pale Ale, buttery caramel-malted chocolate-draped Scotch Ale, snazzy pumpkin pie-spiced blueberry-embittered Punkin Ale, and creamy cappuccino-milked nut-tinged Stout satiated heartier thirsts.

Though Founders is gone, nearby Arlington’s Capitol City Brewery, located in Shirlington Village,  continued to thrive til 2018.