MD Brewery Challenge #32

Baltimore, MD

Nestled in the Baltimore neighborhood of Claremont-Freedom is Oliver Brewing Company. We stopped by the tasting room to continue my Maryland Brewery Challenge; this is brewery number 32!.

When we walked into the brewery, I thought we had found the back door. We walked up the concrete steps past someone mopping the steps who waved us through.

We entered an enormous (12,000 sq. ft.) warehouse space with a bar and a few tables on our left in the corner. This 4-vessel, 20-barrel brewhouse makes beer for the Pratt Street Ale House, the Park Tavern in Severna Park and the Ale House Columbia.

I have been enjoying Oliver’s English style beers for years at the Ale House Columbia, so I was looking forward to trying their beer from the source. Flights come in samples of 4, so we ordered two flights plus one to sample them all 9. We found a table and completed the beer adventure.

Beer notes:

• Coventry Cream Ale – Toast and cream! Nice on nitro!
• Bishop’s Breakfast – I usually love this oatmeal stout, but not feeling it today.
• Riding Easy  – Blonde on nitro. Kinda fun
• 3 Lions Ale – A surprisingly sweet English strong ale with some alcohol taste.
• Staring At the Sun – Easy drinking wit. Little hop or malt flavors.
• Trendsetter – a very good sour IPA. I enjoyed the tartness blended with the subtle hoppy flavors
• Guillotine DIPA – Syrupy sweet with a harsh bitter finish.
• Rust DIPA –  Honey sweet and bitter hops, Oliver pushed the boundaries too much for me on this one.
• Summerside – A toasty lager, easy drinking – Nice lager.

For my next visit, I’ll definitely schedule a brewery tour. Several Yelp! reviews recommended the tour.

Cheers!

Warren