The Many Lives and Deaths of Bardo, America’s Weirdest Brewery

I feel most of all I bear in mind the rubbish.

In a largely vacant lot in certainly one of Washington, D.C.’s worst neighborhoods, I used to be poking at chunks of macerated fruit in my beer and questioning what individuals noticed on this place. Scattered round me have been picnic benches, varied items of brewing gear, an aluminum cranium with beer cans for tooth, and a picket armoire, all of which have been both meant for use or had been left to rot. It was tough to evaluate which.

That was my one and solely go to to Bardo, which round this similar time in 2015 earned a spot on Time Out’s 22 Finest Beer Gardens in America. Even at this time the enchantment is tough to parse, however perhaps it’s value doing so in gentle of beer’s tanking market share and at this time’s mass closure of craft breweries. As Individuals flip a colder and colder shoulder to their as soon as beloved craft beer, there’s quite a lot of knowledge to be gained by contemplating a brewery that really pushed the boundaries of weirdness — and received away with it.

Arts & Crafts

In 1995 Jonathan Reeves took a pay lower to chase a dream and have become the fourth particular person ever to work in Bardo’s brewhouse.

“I met [the owner],” Reeves says, “and he stated, ‘Effectively, one of the best ways to find out about working a brewery is to come back work for one.’”

Bardo’s unique location was a repurposed automotive dealership within the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The signal out entrance stated “Brewery” although the phrase “Oldsmobile” was nonetheless plainly seen beneath. There was an previous Plymouth Fury that had been made to appear to be it was crashing into the constructing, and on the within there have been large murals that will be labored on for months after which utterly deserted.

“Whenever you got here in within the morning you possibly can hear the items of paint falling off the ceiling,” Reeves recollects. The primary-time brewer was preceded in his job by a man who had just lately give up, leaving the brewery within the arms of two drug addicts named “Skinlover” and “Shitfreak.”

“They basically ran the place out of beer,” Reeves says, describing the coworkers who nearly killed him on multiple event. In a collection of what have been presumably “pranks,” the brew staff’s two senior members had Reeves climb into tanks filled with CO2, and as soon as turned the brew kettle on whereas he was within it.

“They ended up getting fired,” Reeves says. “And I ended up turning into the brewer with about perhaps two months’ expertise.”

The chaos of Bardo’s early days wasn’t confined to the again of the home, both. In late 1993, a member of the Kennedy household picked a battle with a doorman, and my very own father upon listening to I used to be penning this story advised me he as soon as intercepted an airborne pool ball at Bardo that was about to hit his buddy within the nuts. Favio Garcia, a later member of the brew staff who additionally picked up bar shifts, advised me a couple of rollout of a 12 % ABV beer that hit a couple of snags.

“There have been these two ladies who have been consuming this barleywine,” Garcia says. “They received in a battle — like a bodily battle. And I bear in mind [the other bartender] turned to me like ‘perhaps we shouldn’t serve these in pint glasses anymore?’”

Regardless of the “Street Home”-style vibes the beer was good. Like, actually good. A number of of Bardo’s brews took dwelling awards at native and nationwide competitions, together with GABF wins for the brewery’s ginger beer, the aforementioned barleywine, and the “Dremo Tibetan Sasquatch” robust ale.

“I feel he was the primary in that regard,” says former common Rick Otis in reference to Bardo’s enigmatic founder. “There’s at that time no brewpub that makes a speciality of Brettanomyces and bitter beers; no brewpub that makes a speciality of Belgians. No person had craft beer round.”

City & Nation

Craft beer in 1993 wasn’t practically as accessible as it’s at this time. Family names like Victory and Smuttynose didn’t exist but, and a plucky little upstart known as Lagunitas was nonetheless getting its toes below it in California. In the meantime, a restaurateur within the D.C. space named Invoice Stewart had seen how tough it was to get good beer on faucet at his three bars in Virginia and the District. So he determined to make his personal.

Stewart leased the defunct automotive dealership in Arlington, Va., in ‘93 and set about changing it into one of many nation’s first brewpubs. The showroom turned the bar, whereas the sound system of the automotive crashing by the window turned the jukebox, stocked with CDs for every thing from Elvis to the Flying Burrito Brothers. The remainder of the cavernous area turned the brewery. In an period the place it was tough to get a lot past Miller and Bud, Stewart’s store was churning out creations just like the Marion Berry Lambic, made with marionberries in a not-so-loving tribute to D.C.’s mayor.

As of late, most individuals who know him describe Stewart as a temperamental savant who mainly assembled a complete craft brewery from retrofitted elements he purchased at public sale.

“These people are often fascinating and odd individuals as a result of they’re simply starting one thing that no one else thought to do,” says Otis. “I imply, who would consider sticking the entrance finish of a 1965 Plymouth out by the window of the constructing? Fairly Neat.”

In 1999 Invoice Stewart moved brewing operations for Bardo to Rappahannock, Va., 70 miles west of Washington. The concept was to make the beer there and promote it on the bar, however that plan ran afoul of America’s notorious three-tier system. Finally, Stewart had had sufficient.

“I simply form of received sick of it,” he says.

After a couple of years Stewart put his brewing gear into delivery containers and moved to Australia. An try at a Bardo spinoff down below by no means received off the bottom however lived on for years within the brewery’s “bardo.au” net deal with. Stewart later wound up in India, the place his brother and occasional enterprise associate tracked him down within the early 2010s. It turned out that after a marked downturn within the early aughts beer was cool once more, and the remainder of the previous Bardo staff wished to capitalize.

There’s a studying of this second that comes off as wildly cinematic: the previous grasp, pulled out of retirement for one final large rating. Stewart nonetheless, doesn’t see it that approach.

“My brother’s like, ‘Hey, I’m eager about doing a factor,’” he recollects. “And I used to be like ‘OK, I can in all probability pull the brewery out of storage and do one thing.’”

Trash & Treasure

The headline in The Washington Submit from 2013 reads “Bardo is again, with out Bardo beers.”

Bardo 3.0 existed on a plot of land in Northeast D.C. that was largely empty, save for a low-slung construction that had beforehand doubled as a barbershop and unlicensed strip membership. The plan had been to start out brewing as quickly as they might however there was an issue with the allow. When Stewart submitted his plans, town had assumed that he supposed to surround his brewery inside partitions and a roof. They have been incorrect. For a 12 months Bardo’s bartenders served visitor faucets like native hipster darling Natty Boh. The tanks and tuns and different items of brewing gear have been there however empty and unused, an impromptu sculpture backyard to the thought of beer.

Finally, Stewart was capable of finding somebody in D.C. authorities with a sympathetic ear.

“‘Should you’re gonna make shitty beer as a result of it’s exterior, then no matter,’” says Stewart, paraphrasing town’s official stance. “‘It’s not like seafood or one thing the place you get a bunch of unhealthy oysters and individuals are gonna be useless. [If] you make unhealthy beer you’ll go outta enterprise so I’m not gonna actually f*cking fear about it.’”

Allow in hand, Bardo nonetheless declined to rent a head brewer for the brand new location, deciding as a substitute to depend on visitor brews and previous recipes from the ‘90s. By a number of accounts, the beer suffered.

This might have occurred for a number of causes. The dearth of anybody in cost day-to-day might actually have led to a drop-off in high quality. Bardo was now its personal landlord, that means they might fear much less about beer gross sales whereas ready for the land to understand. However then in fact there’s the elephant within the wall-less, ceiling-less room.

Stewart poo-poos the concept that brewing outside might in any approach negatively have an effect on the beer however his two former workers see it in a different way. Reeves cites the problem in protecting issues clear and sanitary in an out of doors setting whereas Garcia has an easier take.

“I imply, you may make beer exterior,” he says. “However I don’t know why you wish to.”

Apathy & Entropy

Not lengthy after they’d lastly secured a allow, Stewart and co. picked up stakes once more. They’d secured a one-acre plot alongside the Anacostia River, and traded a notoriously crime-riddled neighborhood for a few of D.C.’s most beneficial actual property.

Plans to relocate the Montreal Expos baseball staff to the nation’s capital have been introduced in 2004, with town’s as soon as infamous Navy Yard neighborhood taking part in host to the brand new stadium. This flipped D.C.’s southwest waterfront from unhealthy to bougie in a single day, ensuing within the homogenous really feel and sterile vibe that always occurs when gentrification takes place at warp pace. Many of the institutions down there have been — and are — secure, conservative, and predictable.

With one exception.

“The doorway appeared prefer it was constructed by the youngsters of ‘Lord of the Flies,’” recollects Mary Myers, an actress and D.C.-area native. “It simply appeared like a land of forgotten issues. It appeared like shit was simply there and folks had left it.’”

Bardo’s new dwelling on the waterfront butted up in opposition to a yearslong mission aimed toward restoring the South Capitol Avenue bridge. This led to some confusion about the place, precisely, the beer backyard started and ended. “Should you wished to sit down on tires and obscure benches that have been a bit bit extra artfully constructed, you possibly can try this. However you possibly can additionally take your beer below a literal goddamn bridge subsequent to a literal goddamn development web site,” Myers says. “No person was there to be like, ‘I’m sorry the bar not exists right here.’”

Regardless of some great benefits of being strolling distance from a serious league stadium — and the positioning of a 2019 World Sequence win — Stewart describes gross sales on the riverfront location as merely “OK.” He lays the blame on the locals’ toes.

“They’re like, ‘I pay loads for my flats and I’m very type-A,” Stewart says, describing his neighbors. “And I don’t actually perceive this type of like, off-the-wall stuff.”

That’s actually a chance. Stewart’s aesthetic has at all times lived on the periphery of the established order and customary sense. The declining high quality of the beer itself might have additionally been an element. However perhaps the brewery was bending to elements better than itself. Beer gross sales cratered post-pandemic whereas competing classes like onerous seltzers and RTDs soared. Alcohol consumption is down with individuals below 30. Bardo, in its three different incarnations, at all times had a knack for displaying up proper earlier than beer received sizzling, and leaving proper earlier than it crashed. Possibly this was no exception.

Regardless of the case, Stewart let an area restaurant group purchase out his lease in 2021. The brand new tenants rebranded the 45,000-square-foot plot as “The Cove,” a tropical beer backyard with plans to maintain Invoice Stewart’s previous MacGyvered beer tanks pumping out product. However as of at this time, its menu lists Modelo, Corona, and Excessive Midday, however nothing unique. The tanks are nonetheless there on Instagram. However they’re as soon as once more quiet.

The rationale may be simple to see if we evaluate Bardo’s legacy to the early advert campaigns of locations like Stone and BrewDog. Beers like Smug Bastard and Anarchist Alchemist didn’t simply push the boundaries of ABV and IBUs, they pushed the boundaries of excellent style. Ingesting them made you are feeling such as you have been taking a threat, such as you have been engaged in one thing harmful.

Bardo might need appeared the identical from sure angles, however the brewery went one step additional. It bought hazard. Actual, precise hazard. Whether or not you have been a patron consuming beer al fresco in a development web site or an worker dodging junkie coworkers making an attempt to kill you, Bardo carried the sense that one thing genuinely unplanned and unpredictable might occur at any second. Examine that to the tepid ubiquity of the craft beers on supply at any grocery retailer, and it’s simple to see why beer has turn into unrebellious, and due to this fact uncool.

Favio Garcia and Jonathan Reeves just lately sat down for a beer collectively at Maryland’s Silver Department Brewing. Reeves is now the brewmaster there whereas Garcia serves as director of brewing operations at Dynasty Brewing Co. It was the primary time the 2 former Bardo workers had seen each other in a very long time.

“Favio has this principle that the entire level of it was entropy,” Reeves says. “That it’s simply all alleged to form of crumble.”

“I feel that if he had actually wished to, he might have been like Dogfish Head earlier than Dogfish Head,” he provides, talking of his former boss. And perhaps so. However then Invoice Stewart wouldn’t have been Invoice Stewart. And Bardo wouldn’t have been Bardo.