Frederick, MD

Around 11:00 AM, we left Jailbreak Brewing by bus to spend 5 hours with 3,000 of my closest friends and 40+ Maryland breweries at the Maryland Craft Beer Festival. The Brewers Association of Maryland (BAM) puts on this terrific, one-day annual event in Frederick, MD.

Taking the bus was brilliant. The bus was comfortable, safe, convenient and Jailbreak even provided beer for the morning trip. We were delivered at the Carroll Creek Linear Park entrance around noon where we received our wristband and beer glass. We were good to go.

Walking among so many people offers countless opportunities for people watching. We kept seeing people with pretzel necklaces. I asked one pretzel person where I could buy a necklace – their reply, a friend had made them. I saw a fantastic hula hoop dancer performing in front of the bands. Like most beer events, there were many men with some incredibly bushy beards.

Also, let me give a few shout-outs to some of my beer friends I saw at the festival: Ryan of Push, Sarah from Milkhouse, Brian from Black Flag, Jason from Manor Hill, Gina from Jailbreak,  and Christian and Eric of Frank about Beer.

We stopped by the Comptroller of Maryland‘s booth and I had my picture taken with Peter Franchot. I promised him I’d attend the Reform on Tap Task Force scheduled for June 24th at Towson University.

We took a few breaks from sampling ales to try some delicious food. The mobile wood-fired pizza from BrickNFire Pizza and caramel corn from Greer’s Popcorn were both big hits.

In my opinion, the beer of the day was Steinhardt Brewing Company‘s Imperial Tupelo Stout, a Bourbon Barrel Stout made with Tupelo Honey.  The nitro made it creamy, the tupelo honey gave it a subtle sweetness and roasted malts tasted of chocolate. Their Framboise was also pretty amazing. Frederick brewery in planning, Midnight Run Brewing, had a fascinating beer, White Sexual Chocolate. It was very sweet and chocolatey with very long lines waiting to for a taste.  Another planned brewery, Checkerspot Brewing offered 2 Paws, an interesting Flying Dog collaborative beer made from fresh paw paws and on cask.  Checkerspot hopes to open this August near the Raven Stadium in Baltimore.

In preparation for next year, I take home just a few lessons learned:

• Bring ear plugs; the music was painfully noisy in the seats in front of the band.
• Follow BAM on Facebook for next year’s event; deals and volunteer opportunities will be posted.
• Follow Milkhouse on Facebook for their call for hop volunteers.
• Use the bathrooms early because the lines were horrendous at the end of the day.
• Make my own pretzel necklaces; it serves as an ornament and a snack.

Cheers!

Warren