Those looking for a handy example to illustrate just how fast the U.S. craft-brewing industry has changed might look to DC Brau. When it poured its debut beers in Spring 2011, the Washington, D.C., brewery was the first to revive packaged-beer brewing in the District in more than 50 years. It was one of the earlier craft breweries to embrace cans, following Oskar Blues, and it successfully pushed for local law to allow breweries to open taprooms. At that time, there were fewer than 2,000 breweries in the country.
It bears repeating: This was just a decade ago.
Today, DC Brau inhabits a very different world, both in the D.C. area and nationally. Today’s 21-year-old drinker can’t imagine a time without an entire wall of local beer at the grocery store and tasting rooms in every part of the city. DC Brau cofounder Brandon Skall says that for the brewery’s first years in business, the mere existence of their taproom—or even of D.C.–brewed beer—was a novelty.