Maryland Beer Month

August, for me, is going to be Maryland Beer Month. For some reason, I don’t drink a whole lot of Maryland beers. I’m not sure why this is, but I seem to drink mainly beers from CA, DE, and CO. But I’m switching things up - my goal for the month of August is to drink only beer from MD (aside from drinking Dogfish and Evo when I’m at the beach).

A few months ago, I wrote a post about Wine in the Woods and suggested that maybe we should have a complimentary event called Beer in the Bushes. The name not withstanding, I think it’s a great concept. Maryland’s wines are certainly miles ahead of where they were 10 years ago, but they still pale in comparison to West Coast wines and even a lot of East Coast and Midwestern wines.

But our beer, our beer is great. When I came of beer drinking age, we had Oxford, Clipper City, Wild Goose, Blue Ridge, Baltimore Beer Company and maybe one or two I am missing. I’m just old enough to have had quite a few delicious pints at Sisson’s in Federal Hill prior to it closing. In my “early professional years” while living in Baltimore, Brewer’s Art was my bar of choice. Heck, when I lived in Burtonsville and worked in Halethorpe, I would drive the wrong direction in order to go to Brewer’s Art for happy hour!

And today, our locally produced beer supply is even better. Hugh Sisson is still turning out great beers through Heavy Seas. Brewer’s Art is bottling and canning their beers, and while I still think the Resurrection in a can tastes different, it’s still a great beer. And I can’t leave out Flying Dog since their Bier de Garde has a visual that resembles a cross between Cujo and Daisy (my loving dog).

So, in August my plan is to stock the fridge with Maryland beer and visit the Heavy Seas and Flying Dog breweries. And it won’t hurt that the first few batches from my return to homebrew will be ready to drink!