MD Brewery Challenge #21

Street, MD

Waze sang, “In a quarter-mile, turn le-eft.” in a breathy, boy band voice. Laura had selected the comical, boy band voice option for our long drive to my 21st brewery of the year, Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD. 

It is my personal goal to visit all 57 Maryland breweries in Maryland. Today there are nearly 70 breweries in Maryland and more seem to open every day, but I selected only members of the Brewers Association of Maryland that were in operation on January 1st, 2017.

The boy band sang, “You have reached your first destinay-aytion.” We parked and texted John that we had arrived. John works for the Orioles and would get off work at 1:35 PM. The shuttle dropped him off at the corner of South Sharp and West, and he strolled to our vehicle with a box of doughnuts. Laura saw the box and John immediately became her best friend. John reported the Os were up 4-0 over Detroit (pronounced Dee-troit) and he had helped Trey Mancini enter the stadium. Trey’s home run was one of  3 in succession in the first inning, so John felt he had, in some small way, contributed to the Orioles early success.

As the boy band directed us out of Baltimore, we sped through the horse country of Delaney Valley Road, then passed countless corn and soybean fields of Harford County.  Waze was slowly creeping into our minds, as off-key boy band singing kept slipping into our conversation. John kept us up to date with the Os – it was now 8-0. Just past the Street post office, the boy band sang, “Make a rye-ight.” and we turned down the lane of Highland Heights Farm. “You have reached your final destinay-aytion.”, sang the breathy boy band.

From the grass parking lot, we walked past the Hawks Hill Creamery ice cream and a WOLO food truck to the Falling Branch outdoor taproom. All the picnic tables on the patio were occupied, so we camped at one under the barn with our Belgian-style flights. We tried:

• Daybreak – lightly tart farmhouse. Nice fruity sweetness with some grapefruit hops.
• Barnstorm –  A rich stout. I liked the cocoa and smoky flavors with roasted malts.
• Street Gathering  – Grapefruit pale ale, yum. My favorite of the day.
• Table Beer – Nice peppery farmhouse.
• Raspberry Cider – (from Red Shedman) delicious sweet, fruity cider. I may start liking ciders again!
• Amber Waves – I was initially confused by the name, thinking it was an amber. This is a Belgian Strong Ale made with golden raisins and hibiscus flowers, flavorful and complex with Belgian esters.

Friends Ira and Yvette, then Art and John joined us. We suddenly had a party! We caught up with Harford County stuff – both John and I were born and raised in the county. Ira was a coworker of Alex Galbreath, a founder of Falling Branch, so Ira showed me around the farm. Alex was, ironically, at the Os game, but I met his mom, Kim, manning their ice cream stand, Hawks Hill Creamery.  We admired the tall hops vines in a distant field. Allen Galbreath, Kim’s husband, mentioned that as a farm brewery, Falling Branch puts a little of their hops in every beer they make.  I learned the barn we were sitting under had been renovated for parties and events.

Back to our table, several of us ate savory WOLO Crabby Mac n Cheese. The party grew as Kim and Allen joined us, as well as Grant Pfeiffer, the brewer. We learned the Galbreaths had lived and farmed in the area for 7 generations. Highland Heights Farm has been in the family since the 1920s. Their Hawk Hill Creamery has become very successful. They sell their cheese to many local restaurants, including the Woodberry Kitchen family of restaurants. In fact, Woodberry Kitchen, etc. are the only places to find Falling Branch beer outside of the brewery.

We all marveled at the cool August weather and gorgeous view from the brewery. For a Sunday afternoon in a remote part of Harford County, the busy crowd was amazing.

We learned the origins of Falling Branch Brewing. Grant, a civil engineer, was working at Ronnie’s Beverage Warehouse during the Government shutdown, stocking shelves when he shared a keg of his homebrew with the farm’s fourth generation Galbreath brothers, Alex and Robby and other knuckleheads (Grant’s word, not mine). After enjoying Grant’s beer entirely too much,  the rest is history. Now Grant works as a full-time engineer at Aberdeen Proving Ground by day and brews on Falling Branch’s 0.5-barrel (yes, that is a 1/2-barrel) system at night.  Allen calls their brewery the smallest in the state. They do hope to expand to a bigger system. Until then, they will only be open on the weekends, pushing their tiny brewery to the max.

As we sipped on Grant’s latest experiment, a watermelon beer (which is surprisingly good), we learned Falling Branch is hosting a watermelon festival on August 19th. Everything at the festival will be about watermelons, complete with seed spitting and watermelon eating contests and watermelon beer (of course).

I bought a pack of Hawks Hill Creamery Hot Pepper Jack cheese to try at home. On the way out, several of us stopped at the Hawks Hill Creamery truck for some soft serve ice cream.

As Waze and the boy band guided us home (make a le-eft in zero point 4 mye-iles), we learned the Orioles had beaten Detroit 12-3. We slipped into boy band lingo on our hour-long drive, basking in another terrific beer adventure.

Cheers!

Warren