American Craft Beer Week: Where To Celebrate In Herndon

HERNDON, VA — Eighty-five percent of adults age 21 or older, as the Brewers Association puts it, live within 10 miles of a brewery, including the residents of Herndon.

With three breweries in or near Herndon, the Brewers Association is urging craft beer drinkers to support local breweries as American Craft Beer Week approaches. The 15th annual weeklong observance will run from May 10-16 this year.

• Aslin Beer Company, 767 Elden St., Herndon, VA 20170
• Bike Lane Brewery, 11150 Sunset Hills, Reston, VA 20190
• Lake Ann Brewhouse, 11424 Washington Plaza W, Reston, VA 20190

"I don't think we're holding any particular events, other than just selling and releasing beers as we have," said Graham James, general manager of Aslin's taprooms. "We typically have four to five new releases a week."

Bike Lane Brewery in Reston isn't planning anything special for American Craft Beer Week either, but they've just released a new Berliner Weisse at 4 percent alcohol by volume that Ross describes as a nice, tart, light beer that's perfect for the warmer weather.

"We're thinking about doing fresh, fruit purees with it, a dose in the glass as a serving, kind of like a more traditional woodruff syrup that Berliners are served with," he said.

Bike Lane also has a fresh hefeweizen and New England IPA available, along with a cream ale that's light and crisp. In addition, the brewery will be releasing a "hoppy" and India Pale Lager on the weekend of May 8.

Many other breweries have had special releases for the week in years past. Those included on the South Side of Chicago in 2018, when two breweries — Open Outcry Brewing and Horse Thief Hollow — teamed to create a flight of beers as a tribute to the four flavors offered by the “Rainbow Cone” ice cream shop.

Newer releases, discounts and other creative ideas will be offered at craft breweries across America this year as well, the Brewers Association said in a statement.

American Craft Beer Week in 2021, which takes place 14 months after the coronavirus pandemic began its significant financial impact on local businesses nationwide, presents a prime opportunity to support local brewers, association officials said.

“America’s small and independent craft breweries have faced many hardships over the past year,” Brewers Association marketing director Ann Obenchain said in a statement.

In recent decades, craft beer has become the more popular choice for Americans. Craft breweries in the United States date back to the late 1970s, the first opening shortly after President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that made home-brewing legal in 1978.

Like many local businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on Bike Lane Brewery.

"At first, much like everyone, we were just trying to figure out how to get beer to people without them hanging out," Ross said. "That translated into a lot of can and growler fills to-go."

As a small brewery, Bike Lane doesn't have a canning line to mass-produce beer for takeout. Throughout the pandemic, they've been using twist-top cans with oxygen scavenging caps that they were able to quickly fill like growlers.

"Luckily, people were still coming in and buying us out with stuff to-go, Ross said. "Aside from that, we just tried to put out relevant styles at different times of the year to meet everyone's needs."

Aslin's Herndon taproom wasn't even open when the COVID-19 restrictions went into effect, but the owners still had to shift their business model a bit to weather the pandemic. This included adding outdoor facilities at both its Alexandria location and the one in Herndon, when it opened in December, and expanding its beer-to-go program."

"We started deliveries beer, which we haven't done before," James said. "We started shipping beer to states that we could get licensing for, which we hadn't previously done. We were force into some models that we weren't doing, and as we start to come out of the pandemic, we are going to continue to ship and deliver beer as the states allow."

Now, craft breweries are opening in communities across America. Small and independent brewing companies accounted for 40 of the top 50 top producing craft brewing companies in 2020 based on beer sales volume, according to the Brewers Association.

Even as in-person craft beer consumption and unique local events were shut down for months following the pandemic’s start, craft breweries in the country provided more than 138,000 full- and part-time jobs in 2020, according to the association.

Now, with COVID-19 restrictions eased in many areas, 2021’s American Craft Beer Week “is about more than just delicious craft beer,” Obenchain said.

“It’s about community and showing support for hometown taprooms, brewpubs and breweries,” she added.