RAMW Celebrates Beer Program of the Year Finalists

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s 2024 RAMMY Awards Beer Program of the Year Finalists have exciting events and promotions planned for the last week of June. From Monday, June 24, through Sunday, June 30, the region’s top beer programs will showcase their outstanding in-house offerings.

While this promotion is happening all over the city, we here at TheListAreYouOnIt.com wanted to know what these fine nominees thought of the current state of the artisan beer scene. So we asked, and they answered!

The Question:

The US craft artisan beer sector has grown exponentially, in both styles and tastes in the last 20 years. In curating your beer selection, what process do you use to narrow down offerings, and what's new out there that you are really liking?

The Answers:

Justin Cox

Atlas Brew Works Founder & CEO 

At Atlas, we approach our beer recipes and design with inclusivity in mind. We want our beers to be balanced and approachable. The art really comes into our process when we are able to capture unique and interesting flavors while keeping the beer profile very balanced.

Simon Bee

Director of Operations & Founder, Red Bear Brewing Co.

Being a small brewery we are able to be very flexible in having up to 16 styles at any given time. We tend to balance styles that stay true to our West Coast PNW roots as well as what is popular in the DC beer market. We always have some of our classics like our West Coast IPA “Tastes Like Flannel” but we also have been experimenting with some specialty lagers, sours, big stouts and the occasional farmhouse/saison styles. Aside from our amazing house made beers and delicious pub style food, we have a selection of local ciders and a great cocktail menu utilizing many locally made spirits as well as a fantastic N/A Cocktail program. There’s always something going on with events whether it’s drag brunch or our wildly popular weekly trivia nights. 

Elliot Howe

General Manager, Tallboy

We are so lucky to be located in a beer centric hub like Washington DC. We have an amazing bar manager, Sara Philips who scavenges beer lists during the week to find us some great beers. It being summer right now, we are crushing hefeweizens and kolsh’s. We may be up for the best beer program in the city, but what we love to hang our hat on is our wings. Our wings I think are the best in DC after years of being a pretty low key neighborhood spot, where if you know, you know, now has folks coming from around town trying our wings. We love Leeds United, Wings, Beers, and beer shot combos!

Trent Allen

Founder, The Midlands Beer Garden

I run the Midlands Beer Program with our General Manager Ben Brown and, as always, with the feedback from our customers and bartenders. At The Midlands we have 26 draft lines.  When we decide the lineup, it begins with style. Taking a step back and looking at the best combination of beer styles that please the very different palates that come into the bar.  It’s important to us that there is something for just about everyone who comes in, whether it’s a seasoned west coast hop-head, a german lager fanatic, a sports fan who just wants a big cold beer, or your friend that you dragged to a beer garden that doesn’t think they like beer at all. We further break it down into four broad categories: Local, German, Belgian, and just really good beer.  Within each category are several beers that are our favorites and never come off the menu, but many that rotate, so even if you come to the bar every week, there will likely be a beer that you’ve never tried before.  We have everything from hard kombucha, to a Swedish pear cider, to a vanilla porter. My favorite beer is Kostritzer’s Schwarzbier, so that will always be on the menu!

The latest emerging beer trend that I am thrilled about is people rediscovering their love for West Coast IPA’s and lower alcohol lagers.  I’ve always been a big fan of Kolsches, Altbiers and Czech pilsners, and our customers are trending more and more in that direction.  So it’s not necessarily any sort of innovation creating a new milkshake sour or anything like that, it’s an appreciation for the mastery of styles that have been around for centuries.

Mike Rothman

Director of Hospitality, Zinnia

We're extremely lucky and grateful to be located in a hotbed of craft beer production.  As of 2023 there were 143 craft breweries in Maryland alone, so we have a fantastically large pool of fresh local brews to choose from.  These beers make up the majority of our draft list because we believe in being proud of our local breweries. The rest of our draft list as well as our bottle and can selection is meant to highlight beers that are recognized nationally and globally as examples in their styles.  We generally want there to be something for everyone on the menu whether it's a bottle or can or from one of our taps, but we also want the beer to be fresh.  For those reasons, we try not to have more than one of the same style of beer on the menu at a given time (Oktoberfest is an exception).  I'm super excited about all of the new energy being put into lagers, both in perfecting traditional styles and creating newer styles.  A lot of the past 20-30 years of brewing has focused on pale ales and IPAs, so it's nice to see the pendulum swinging back the other way.