Dream Team: Lost Barrel Brewing and Ryan Zimmerman Collaborate on New Beer

Written by Kaitlin Hill | Photos courtesy of Lost Barrel Brewing 

Known to baseball enthusiasts across the nation as “Mr. National,” Ryan Zimmerman’s impressive 17-year stretch with the Washington Nationals had no shortage of accolades. During his career he earned the National League’s All-Star title twice, the Golden Glove in 2009, and the Lou Gehrig Award in 2011, among others. But his work off the field is equally impressive. In 2006, he founded the ziMS Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing attention to and finding a cure for multiple sclerosis. 

“Multiple sclerosis is a disease quite close to my heart,” Zimmerman shares. “As a lot of people in the D.C. area know, in 1995, my mother Cheryl was diagnosed with MS, a chronic and unpredictable disease that affects the central nervous system. MS affects roughly 400,000 Americans and impacts the body in almost as many ways. I look back now on my mom’s condition and realize how much it influenced my development as a person.” He continues, “[Throughout] everything I’ve done and gotten involved with, personally and professionally, over the past few decades, I’ve tried to find creative ways to raise money and awareness for this cause — just like this partnership with Lost Barrel Brewing.”

“Ryan is a family friend of ours,” shares Natalie Femia, head of marketing and events at Lost Barrel Brewing in Middleburg. “He started [the foundation] because of his mom. It is really important to him, so it is really important to us.” 

Of how the collaboration came to pass, Zimmerman shares, “We started discussing the possibility last year for a fun collaboration with a ziMS Foundation donation beer and got to work!” 

“We have been working with him for months on the idea,” adds Joe Femia, CEO of Lost Barrel Brewing. He continues, “Dan put together four different formulas we thought Ryan might like.” 

Dan Sickmen, Lost Barrel’s head of brewing operations, explains, “First, I wanted to start off with the season. We are getting into the warmer months, so I wanted to go in the direction of a nice, easy drinking beer.” 

As for Zimmerman’s involvement in the process, Joe says, “Ryan [was] in the production room with us. He went through the [whole] production process, went through the recipes and the descriptions that Dan laid out.” 

Zimmerman adds that he was “very involved — we started by chatting about the styles of beer I like, then got together directly with the LBB brewing team to navigate through recipe iterations and land on a perfect hybrid batch.” 

Zimmerman and the Lost Barrel team landed on a Kölsch-style beer. Zimmerman explains, “We wanted to have a beer that would appeal to a wide audience. The Kölsch is a perfect style for summer sipping, and this beer we’ve made stands out for its crisp drinkability and smooth finish.” 

Sickmen finishes, “The beer came out amazing,” with Natalie adding, “Ryan has tasted it and loves it. We gave him first dibs on taste-testing.”

Named the No. ELEVEN Kolsch, a nod to Zimmerman’s National’s squad number, the beer’s release was celebrated on June 27 at a launch party benefiting the ziMS Foundation. “We wanted to get the word out that it’s not just a beer. Proceeds of the beer are going to the ziMS Foundation. One hundred percent of the ticket sales are going to the foundation,” Natalie explains. 

Brewery merch, a specialty of Lost Barrel Brewing, will also be a part of the No. ELEVEN Kolsch campaign with hats as a popular offering. Natalie says, “Come try the beer, get a hat, and you can match Ryan!” She also teases, “Going forward we’ll have the beer on tap, and you never know when [Ryan] will pop into the tap room.” 

Joe adds, “He’s certainly a very approachable guy. And, this is a wonderful opportunity to help the foundation. We’ll see where we can take it, but we hope to raise a lot of money for the ziMS Foundation through this effort.”

Zimmerman echoes the enthusiasm of the Lost Barrel team, and in doing so, his appreciation of the collaboration. He says, “This is a really exciting project for me, personally. I am big on community, and I am big on giving back. Launching a beer line with the award-winning Lost Barrel team is going to blend both of these aspects in a really unique way.” 

If you missed the launch, don’t worry. In addition to being on tap at Lost Barrel, Zimmerman says, “No. ELEVEN will be distributed throughout D.C. and Virginia and will also be available in craft stands at Nationals Park!” ML

For more information on the ziMS Foundation, visit zimsfoundation.org. 

Published in the July 2024 issue of Middleburg Life.