American Craft Beer Week: Where To Celebrate In Fairfax City

FAIRFAX CITY, 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 the City of Fairfax.

With four breweries in or near Fairfax City, 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.

• Ornery Beer Company, 3950 University Drive, #209, Fairfax, VA 22030
• Chubby Squirrel Brewing Co., 10382 Willard Way, Fairfax, VA 22030
• Caboose Commons, 2918 Eskridge Road, Fairfax, VA 2203

One of the Fairfax breweries that will be celebrating is Ornery Beer Company, which will be tapping two new IPAs on the Wednesday, May 12.

"We always do $5 pints on Thursdays, so we're going to extend the $5 pints through the weekend, Thursday through Sunday of American Craft Beer Week," owner Randy Barnette said.

According Boyd Harrison, owner of Chubby Squirrel Brewing Co., the city's first craft brewery will be rolling out some new beers as part American Craft Beer Week, including a new edition of FUCOVID stout. The beer will be cinnamon roll flavored, with hints of vanilla and bread flavors.

Chubby Squirrel launched its FUCOVID line of beers a year ago Friday, when the coronavirus pandemic started, according to Harrison.

"We've been doing mostly sweets and sours every two months or so," he said. "This coming Saturday, we're going to do our Finnish 'Vappu,' our May Day party. We'll have cardamon and sugar dusted funnel cakes. We're going to have our Finnish Sima roll out, which is Finnish lemonade — low in alcohol and easy to drink."

At Caboose Commons in nearby Merrifield, the brewers are planning to add a variety of new flavors during American Craft Beer Week.

"Our brewers are doing a bunch of sixtels and kegs of beers that we already have and adding something fun to them, whether it's figs, spruce, or something like that," said Derek LaMarr, front of house manager at Caboose Commons. "We're giving them the go-ahead to experiment and basically surprise us."

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.

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.

All three Fairfax area breweries felt the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions, which forced them to stop serving customers onsite.

"With the pandemic, people want to drink beer at home and do so safely," LeMarr said.

In response, Caboose Commons ramped up its canning process to make beer available for curbside pickup. Their brewers also started stockpiling beer in barrels.

"We've been barreling beers and we've been doing funky, weird beers and just experimenting," LeMarr said. "We're releasing way more cans than we probably would've if it wasn't for the pandemic. ... Our new head brewer, who got the position over the pandemic, is going wild."

Before the pandemic, Chubby Squirrel was canning "a conversational amount" of beer, according Harrison. "We were able to say we were doing it, but it was only a few cases here, a few cases there."

When the COVID-19 restrictions went into effect in March 2020, onsite sales went from 99 percent before the pandemic to 100 percent cans-to-go after.

"We worked with an importer using German-made, stainless steel cans that the restaurants started using after we did for canned cocktails," Harrison said. With this switch, Chubby Squirrel has been able to hang on to its customer base.

Now that restrictions are being lifted, Harrison is planning to expand into an adjacent storefront in the Courthouse Plaza Shopping Center and add more inside seating for his clientele.

"We're going through permitting right now," he said. "I'd like to be open for our third anniversary, which will be right on the Fourth of July."

Ornery's Public House on University Boulevard was hit hardest by the pandemic.

"We're in the middle of a relocation because of it, really," Barnette said. "We were able to pretty much survive. Obviously, governmental help helped, but the long and the short of it is, that as a restaurant and brewery together in a large space in Fairfax, we've had some difficulties."

Barnette has been able to work out a deal with his landlord to move the Ornery Public House to another, smaller location within the Old Town Plaza Shopping Mall.

"We'll still have a dining room, bar, and our brewery in the space," he said. "It's just losing a little space. We are trying to get the new space open for Fairfax City Restaurant Week, which starts on May 24."

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.