Maryland Brewery Challenge #8

In Mt. Airy, Md, Red Shedman Farm Brewery and Linganore Wine Cellars share an address on Glissans Mill Rd. We were out for a drive in beautiful Frederick County and thought we’d stop by Red Shedman and check out their beers.

Our journey to Red Shedman is actually a little more complicated. Our original destination was the Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm. We spent an enjoyable time there and completed the MD Brewery Challenge #7.

While wrapping things up at Milkhouse, I said something like, “You know, there’s another brewery about 10 minutes from here, close to Linganore, I think. The name comes from the owner/brewer’s family’s boogieman who lived in a red shed. I think the brewer had a brewpub out west. Also, I know nothing about their beer. Want to go?” After that less than ringing endorsement, I was surprised by the unanimous decision to try it out.

We discovered that Red Shedman and Linganore are actually on the same property and Red Shedman is actually in a red shed. Once inside the “shed”, we were all surprised at the size and capacity. The 4 of us ordered 2 flights and we were again surprised. Their beers were all very good!

Here are my notes on the beers:

• Farmers Daughter Blonde – very malty sweet
• Suicide Blonde – nice Belgian IPA
• Lunatic Fringe – habanero nose. Heat after a few seconds.
• Grinder Expression Stout – chocolate and expresso.
• Vanilla Porter – vanilla sweet with a hint of chocolate.
• Lights Out Oatmeal Nitro Stout – Drinkable stout — Delicious!

Several others were doing their own versions of the Milkhouse/Red Shedman brewery tour that Sunday. We met Denise and Dave who were traveling with their toddler and Dave’s father. They own Libertus Craft Brewing, a brewery in Unererthal, Germany. Unererthal is a ward of the Bavarian town of Hammelburg. The brewer, Dave,  is originally from Ellicott City, MD. Libertus is Latin for “the liberated”. As their website says, Libertus Craft Brewing wants to brew beers with passion, free from the constraints of the mass market beers and purity laws. They mentioned that one of their fellow breweries uses cucumber as an ingredient. To serve that beer, it is listed as a “liquid salad”. The American craft beer revolution is even coming to Germany!

We were pleasantly surprised by Red Shedman and all want to come back sometime. This is the 8th brewery visit this year in the MD Brewery Challenge. Here are the breweries visited as of this writing:

• Heavy Seas,
• Black Flag,
• Manor Hill,
• Waredaca,
• Jailbreak,
• Independent, and
• Milkhouse.

Cheers!

Warren