D.C. Brau and Three Stars Brewing Company might get the majority of the attention showered on the city’s home-grown beer-makers, but Chocolate City Beer is still plugging away, with the red-fisted taps of its signature Copper Ale seen up at bars around town. But the brewery’s latest special production is sure to tip off the most keen observers of D.C.’s beer and political scenes alike.
On Saturday, during Chocolate City’s growler sale at its brewery (2801 Eighth Street NE), the company will roll out “Mister Mayor,” an oak-aged imperial stout brewed with marionberries.
Marionberries, before the snickering begins, is a varietal blackberry engineered in the 1950s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and scientists at Oregon State University. (Widmer Brothers, a Portland-based brewery, produces beers made with the fruit, for instance.)
Now, is it possible that Chocolate City is crafting this 11.5 percent alcohol by volume stout in honor of former Rep. R. Marion Berry (D-Ark.)? Er, maybe? But, considering the funk playing in a promotional YouTube video and the tag line “Beer for Life,” it’s obvious in whose homage “Mister Mayor” is being made.
It’s worth noting that the last brewery to invoke Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8)—Frederick, Md.-based Flying Dog—ran into a bit of legal trouble when it attempted to use the mayor-for-life’s visage on an advertisement reading “Crack One Open D.C.” This seems a lot more benign, especially since Barry himself now embraces the moniker he’s earned for a lifetime in local politics.
Correction: This post originally stated former Rep. Marion Berry of Arkansas was a Republican. He was a Democrat.