Your Beermonger: Lager in the Time of Corona

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and also receive exclusive discounts and offers.

This was supposed to be a column about beer this week.

Well, it’s always supposed to be about beer but this one was supposed to be about the Lager I just got at Arrowine from Únětický Pivovar in Únětice, Czech Republic.

The beer is stunning: a double-decoction mashed, open fermented, honey golden dream of a Lager featuring malts from the 500-year old Malthouse Kounice and hops from the Žatec region. My friends at B. United sent a pressure — and temperature-controlled tank over, brought it back, and kegged off of it quickly enough to get this unfiltered, unpasteurized gem to a few accounts all over the country — and Arrowine was fortunate enough to be one.

Not only that, but of 3,500L brought to the States, we got 60L worth in the form of a pair of 30L kegs.

Make no mistake, I’m enjoying the hell out of the beer. So are many of our clients at Arrowine (I don’t expect it to last much longer past the time this column is published). It just feels… wrong to focus on it, and it alone?

So: How are you?

We’re holding up okay. Every day is an adventure right now: new guidelines, new closings, new SOP, but we’re here. We’re making it work however we can. Every day we’re getting a little more dialed-in on how the shop’s going to run to get us to the other side of this. I’ve been bowled over by our clients.

I assume a couple of you are on here reading right now, so thank you thank you thank you for your support. Not only in terms of the business itself, but for how many of you have reached out just to ask how we’re doing. I’m not sure I can truly explain what that means to us.

Perhaps I don’t have to. We all have friends in the hospitality industry and have had to watch it be just wiped out by this seemingly overnight. There are so many bars, restaurants, and yes, breweries that are just hanging on for dear life right now and those are the ones that haven’t already folded.

There are dozens of people I know who are suddenly out of work, and many who are putting in Herculean efforts to keep their ship afloat. Over the coming — who knows, weeks, months? — I’m hoping to be able to bring you some of their stories, and let you know how you can support them.

For now, stay safe, and enjoy what you can when you can.