Red Bear Brewing pours on M Street NE in NoMa, around the corner from the NoMa Gallaudet Red Line stop at the north end of the Uline Arena building. It opened in March 2019 as one of Washington's few openly LGBTQ owned breweries, and it has run as a neighborhood anchor ever since.
Who would love it: anyone who wants a friendly room, a long house tap list and space to bring a group. Who would hate it: anyone after a small dark cocktail den, since this is a bright, open taproom built for volume and conversation.
The space does a lot of the work. DCist, covering the opening, described a 7,000 square foot room designed as an inclusive space for beer, and the scale shows in long communal tables, a big bar and room for the crowd to spread out. Twenty four tap lines carry the house beers alongside guest pours, cider and a few cocktails.
Order from the house brews first. The lineup rotates through clean lagers, hop forward ales and seasonal one offs, and the bartenders are happy to pour a taste before you commit to a pint. Pints sit in the seven to nine dollar range, and flights are the efficient way to read the board on a first visit.
There is food to keep you anchored, with a menu of bar plates and shareables built to drink with rather than a single token snack. That, plus the size of the room, is why groups treat Red Bear as a meeting point rather than a quick stop.
The crowd is a broad mix of NoMa residents, beer regulars and the community events the bar hosts through the week, and the Washington Blade has tracked it as a fixture of the city's queer nightlife since it opened. Weekend afternoons and early evenings are the liveliest windows, while weeknights stay relaxed.
The brewery opened into a fast changing corner of the city. NoMa went from rail yards to apartment towers over the last decade, and Red Bear arrived in 2019 as one of the few places on the block making its own beer rather than just pouring it. DC Beer has tracked the taproom as part of the wave of breweries that filled in the neighborhood north of Union Station.
The calendar is half the draw. Red Bear runs trivia, drag brunches, market pop ups and fundraisers through the week, and the size of the room means it can host a private group without shutting the bar. The kitchen keeps a short menu of bar plates and sandwiches built to drink with, so a quick pint can turn into a long afternoon. For a first visit, a flight off the house lines is the honest read on what the brewers do well.
Go on a weekend afternoon for the full room, or a weeknight for an easy pint and a seat at the bar. It belongs on any tour of Washington DC craft beer, and it pairs well with the rest of the NoMa and Union Market taprooms. See where it lands in our Washington DC bar guide and our roundup of craft beer bars near you.
