Smooth soft- watered golden clear lager lets salty raw-grained minerality seep into peppery lemon spot and wispy spiced orange tingle for less discriminating light-to-moderate bodied imbibers.
HUDSON VALLEY FEEL NO WAY PILSNER
On tap at Ambulance, lemony white-wined Hallertau Blanc-hopped German pils tosses puckered lime peel bittering at cilantro-spiced peppercorn and chrysanthemum atop hay-dried pilsner malting.
BLACK FLAG BREWING COMPANY
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND
Established in 2015 with a second location now in nearby Marriotsville, BLACK FLAG BREWING COMPANY’s flagship at Columbia gave founder Brian Gaylor his footprint in the Maryland brew scene. Despite borrowing its moniker from anarchic punk band, Black Flag, the sterling wood-ensconced pub features a ‘warm color palette’ leading to the ‘boulevard of brewtanks’ in the rear.
Inside a tan stone professional building with gleaming cement lacquered floor, Black Flag’s 12-seat, 15-draught oak top bar services several pristine metal-seated community tables. Exposed pipes at the black ceiling offer dramatic contrast to the yellow wooded splendor.
My wife and I grabbed a few core brews and one-offs, some slightly beyond the ‘established norm,’ on our February ’24 Baltimore-Columbia excursion.
Toffee-sugared banana, cherry and fig guided creamily caramelized Dubbel Doug, a sweet spiced Belgian styler.
Waxy tropical fruiting gained vanilla-creamed oated wheat density for Stupid Sexy Wizard NEIPA, coalescing mild lemon-limed grapefruit bittering with yogurt-like pineapple tartness and tangy mandarin orange sweetness.
Terpene-infused hop oiling lent dank cannabis gunk to the salted mango, lemon meringue and buttery Chardonnay influences of Maui Waui, a hazy NEIPA with a boozy gin flourish.
Yet another tropical NEIPA, Sun Run, let softly billowing oated wheat creaming froth its lightly pined Citra-Mosaic hop fruitiness as yellow grapefruit, white peach, navel orange, mandarin orange and pineapple tanginess glimmers.
White peach and Bosc pear combined for Crumble: Peach & Pear, a cinnamon-spiced fruited sour.
Mild chocolate nuttiness reached oats-sugared malts for Suede Shoes Brown Ale, using English ale yeast to invite wispy fruity esters.
Black chocolate and mild coffee roast merged for Dark Arts Imperial Stout, picking up latent hop charred nuttiness.
Blending Dark Arts with Fuzzy Whitaker Raspberry Wheat Sour created Dark & Fuzzy, a delightful combo securing its tart raspberry souring with lemony white grape tannins to contrast ascendingly sweet Black Forest caking.
Then came two exquisite barleywines for dessert. First, ‘unaged’ Uncut Diamonds retained smooth caramelized toffee spicing, buttery whiskey serenity and dried fruited plum-fig conflux as well as heady 11.3% ABV.
An even more complex nightcap, luxurious barleywine, Sunken Diamonds, sank fruitful cuvee-like Madeira wining into lovely bourbon, rum and brandy aged whiskey caramelization, garnering tertiary medicinal cherry, bruised orange and sherry illusions.
CUSHWA BREWING COMPANY – COLUMBIA
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND
Gaining high acclaim amongst the entire Maryland brewing community, CUSHWA BREWING COMPANY’s second location inside a maroon-edged white brick building at Columbia opened in 2023 and serves “Rad Pies” as well as Mocktails to complement their sturdy array of home brews. Cushwa’s original Williamsport brewhouse along the Potomac River also continues to thrive since 2016.
A half-mile from Reckless Shepherd, Cushwa features 40-plus taps, multiple community tables, an art deco black ceiling and windowed frontage. An illuminating white Cushwa sign overlooking the white-tiled bar captures attention.
I visited Cushwa February ’24 to quaff nine beers on site and another two canned afterwards (reviewed in Beer Index).
Year-round light bodied fave, Pura Pils, let fizzy lemon spritz prickle grassy hop astringency over musty pilsner malts.
Designed to pair with pepperoni pizza, pithy red and orange fruiting and light caramel spicing reached sugary cereal grained pale malting for Rad Beer Lager.
Tidy straw gold kolsch, Kolschwa, brought semi-sharp IPA-like citrus perfuming and Hallertau Blanc white wine esters to the fore as buttery Easter bread flouring sweetened the dry pale malt base.
Dryer than most hefeweizens, Never Say Hefe maintained politer banana-clove sweetness and blanched honeyed wheat bottom, letting herbal whims skim the surface.
Valentine’s Day fruited wheat, Cupid’s Boldt, let its subtle strawberry adjunct pick up tart rhubarb tanginess and blood orange snips above raw-honeyed wheat.
Lighter than a Belgian pale ale, pilsner-malted patersbier, Father Time Enkel, let fungi Abbey yeast infiltrate delicate champagne bubbling, subtle banana sweetness and white peppered herbal spicing.
Easygoing New England IPA flagship, Cush NEIPA, plied lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess to dry hemp-oiled pine resin and mellow floral daubs.
Dry West Coast-styled Imperial IPA, Like A Million Elephants, merged piney citrus glitz with mild herbage, dainty florality and pale crystal malt sugaring in an unassuming 8% ABV whirl.
Resounding Mexican coffee stout, Seven Caves, coalesced dark-roast coffee, dry espresso and vanilla-creamed cinnamon spicing.
RECKLESS SHEPHERD BREWING COMPANY
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND
In tandem with Frisco Taphouse restaurant, RECKLESS SHEPHERD BREWING COMPANY became Howard County’s first full-time craft brewery during 2017. A large multi-purpose gray brick venue hosting live entertainment at its high ceilinged art space, Reckless Shepherd’s pristine modern industrial setting captures an upscale sportsbar atmosphere.
Founding owner Adam Carton began brewing in 2004 and by 2012 developed Push Brewing’s 7-barrel system inside Frisco Taphouse. Renamed Reckless Shepherd in 2017, the 20-barrel Columbia, Maryland taphouse continues to gain attention with their eccentric blend of elixirs (plus Frisco’s extensive pub menu).
The 20-seat bark top main bar at Reckless Shepherd fronts several wood tables and the glass enclosed brew tanks stand impressively tall in the rear. There are multiple TV’s and a large entertainment space leading to a theatre screen. The right side restaurant has an oak-topped bar with 30-plus tile-walled draughts, several wood seats and a community table.
On my February ’24 Columbia brew trek, discovered five diverse draughts.
‘Steadfast classic ale,’ Loyally Blonde, escorted sour citrus musk, white peach stipend and dry Noble hop herbage to its mild rye wheat base.
Hopheads rejoiced the dry floral perfumed citrus sharpness and pungent bark-dried pine lacquering given extremely bitter nickel-cleared IPA, Chico & The Man Celebration, raising juniper-licked navel orange, yellow grapefruit rind and salted pineapple illusions atop sugary pale malted cookie dough base.
Cinnamon-sticked vanilla sweetness elevated the powdered sugar cannoli pastry creaming and wintry nutmeg-ginger spicing contrasting the astringent hop phenols of Santa’s Little Helper Christmas Blonde, letting its lemony orange fizz prickle the nose in between.
A medium roast coffee overture invited debittered dark chocolate and tart cocoa powdering to Black patent malts for full-bodied porter, Working Class Hero, leaving walnut-charred burnt wood tones on the backend.
Creamy dark chocolate syruping coated milk-sugared coffee countering tarry hop char of full-bodied nightcap, Mr. Gorbachev ’24 Russian Imperial Stout.
JAILBREAK BREWING COMPANY
LAUREL, MARYLAND
Starting on a small pilot system in 2013, JAILBREAK BREWING COMPANY became fully operational as Howard County’s first production brewery a year hence. Crafting “dramatic” beers midway between Baltimore and D.C. along the Patuxent River in the small town of Laurel, Jailbreak occupies a large facility inside a tannish red brick professional mall.
The corrugated aluminum-sided, silestone-topped, 15-seat bar serves 16 draughts and top shelf liquor and an earthen flat-stoned wall backdrop complements the gray and black walls. A midsection couched lounge with four pinball games leads to the porcelain wood-floored pub area.
During November 2021, Jailbreak opened a mammoth left side kitchen serving fresh meats and fish to go alongside their wide variety of homemade elixirs. Several large lacquered wood tables and four sets of stooled seats fill out the high ceilinged dining room.
Windowed brewtanks behind the bar contained the nifty suds sucked down alongside a sausage and fennel pizza on my February ’24 trek. Canned beers to-go reviewed in Beer Index.
Brisk lemon zesting picked up sharp spicing for rye dried Southern Crossed Pilsner, a New Zealand-styled lightweight with Nelson Sauvin-hopped guava and gooseberry tartness softly embedding the muskily grained backend.
Spritzy lemon-dried Boats & Hose, a sessionable Caribbean lager, picked up mild floral spicing and slightest caramel apple, red grape and tangerine daubs for its papery pilsner malt gluiness.
Moldy orange-dried autumnal leaf crisping stamped moderate Vienna Lager, Crabtown Classic, dispersing dank oily hop moisture.
Mild orange zesting caressed the balmy banana-clove-bubblegum sweetness of citric hefeweizen, Feed The Monkey, to its sourdough base.
Lovely coffee-roasted espresso bittering draped by dark chocolate syrup for oatmeal raisin cookie confection of molasses-dried oatmeal stout, Kaleidoscopic Images Of Love, underscored by caramelized Maris Otter malting.
Kentucky bourbon-barreled maple syruping engaged luxurious English-styled Barleywine Is Beer, leaving rummy chocolate, sweet burgundy, sherry, whiskey and dark cherry illusions on its caramel-burnt bourbon luster.
HYSTERIA BREWING COMPANY
PASEDENA, MARYLAND
Though rumored to be shutting its doors as of my pleasant early Febraury ’24 visit, HYSTERIA BREWING COMPANY is located next to Lost Art Distillery in a red brick warehouse at the Baltimore suburb of Pasedena, Maryland. A green Hysteria insignia leads patrons to the spacious taphouse.
Resembling a cozy living room with its parlor booths, book shelving and table games, Hysteria re-creates English-style cafe culture. The cement-floored, black-and-gray-walled interior features an L-shaped 10-seat bar with four-seaters and community tables. Exposed pipes and the silver brew tanks add to the rustic atmosphere.
A white-tiled draught board offers only three house beers on my half-hour sojourn, but they’re all fine.
Floral perfume-spiced yellow and orange fruiting stayed semi-sharp for Falling In Love Again India Pale Lager, picking up light herbage over sugared pale malts.
Espresso nuttiness and dark-roast coffee anchored The Morning After Coffee Stout, a milk-creamed lactose-induced full body.
Dark chocolate-y light roast coffee and oats-sugared maple molasses enriched lovely Old Mill Oatmeal Stout, leaving fudged brownie remnants.
CHECKERSPOT BREWING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Beginning operations September 1, 2019 at the Pigtown site now occupied by M8, CHECKERSPOT BREWING COMPANY moved westward down the street to an eye-catching black cinder-blocked warehouse with yellow butterfly trim and white company lettering.
Entrepreneurial brewing spouses Rob and Judy Neff renovated their new Checkerspot digs in 2023 at a former industrial printing plant they now own. Its community-tabled first floor includes a wood lacquer-topped 20-seat bar with 20-plus driftwood draught handles and two TV’s. The lounge-chaired balcony area contains a few pinball games. A subaquatic theme runs thru the wall art and windowed tanks contain the copious liquid suds on hand.
Adding a kitchen for worthy pub fare to complement the mostly ‘lighter malt-forward beers’ as well as ‘hop-lover’ ales and non-alcoholic selections, Checkerspot’s grown to be one of Baltimore’s most successful brewpub ventures.
My wife and I settled in on a Friday at noon, February ’24, to try a traditional British ale and honeyed kolsch. We left with about a dozen canned brews reviewed in Beer Index.
Conventional English pub ale, Average Joe, suited the everyday light-bodied pilsner-lager fan with its mossy brown tea-like dewiness, dry pale ale malting and cocoa-dried wattleseed nuttiness given a dainty lemon spritz.
Raw-honeyed buckwheat saddled Bird Is The Word, snatching a honey-wined mead theme teased by oniony chive, butternut squash and pecan illusions over buttermilk breading.
MONUMENT CITY BREWING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Occupying a historically olden red brick warehouse with ancient wood columns, rustic farmhouse roof and cement floors, Baltimore’s MONUMENT CITY BREWING COMPANY is perched in the Brewers Hill neighborhood about one-half mile from Mobtown Brewing.
Beginning their journey in 2014 by contract brewing at Peabody Heights Brewing, co-owning brothers Ken and Matt Praay got their own spot during April 2017. A 15-seat oak wood bar with 16 Douglas Fir-branched tap handles gets surrounded by a few wood tables.
Monument City’s beers run the gamut from topnotch traditional fare to versatile pilsner-lagers, diverse IPA’s and newly crafted barrel-aged elixirs.
My wife and I took a seat at the bar on a seasonally warm Friday afternoon in February ’24 when the place was packed. We tried six beers onsite and took home a bunch to review thereafter.
Off-dry straw-cleared Czech-styled Penchant Pils let lightly spiced lemon licks reach musky maize starching, fresh-cut hay astringency and earthen Noble hop herbage.
Standard German-styled moderation, Haus Lager, relegated musty orange-red fruiting and delicate floral-spiced herbage for its dry pilsner malt base.
Conventional helles lager, Hand Hewn, plied dry lemony floral spicing and mild herbage to cracker-like pilsner malting.
Spruce-tipped West Coast IPA, Among The Pines, stayed dry (utilizing Simcoe-Amarillo hops) as zesty lemon, tangy pineapple and sweet navel orange spread across resinous pine above spiced pale malts.
Zesty double dry-hopped New England IPA, NOBO, regaled yellow grapefruit bittering, pineapple tanginess, orange peel sweetness and peachy mango sedation plus mild vodka boozing above oated wheat creaming.
On the dark side, dry Imperial Stout, Woodstove, combined dark chocolate, light-roast coffee and espresso with spicy toffee sugaring, picking up latent black cherry, sugarplum and dried apricot illusions.
MOBTOWN BREWING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Just south of Monument City in Charm City’s Brewers Hill district, MOBTOWN BREWING COMPANY resides at a massive red brick warehouse previously housing Westinghouse Electric Company. Oddly, the first brewery in Brewers Hill in 41 years since Gunther and National Brewing occupied this space beginning in the late 19th century, Mobtown opened during 2019.
Co-owning brewer Noah Chadwick, an environmental scientist, used upcycled materials, such as the tin roof corrugated siding at the concrete-topped 30-seat L-shaped bar, gym-floored wood plank tables and railroad track footrests. The aquamarine walls feature beautifully painted sea designs.
Twelve tap handles serve an IPA-heavy lineup with a few lagers and a few interestingly stylistic blends. A side TV entertains sports lovers. Brewtanks are stationed towards the right. There are five outdoor community tables as well.
My wife and I visited Mobtown mid-afternoon on a Friday in February ’24.
Mandarina Bavaria hops lent gentle citrus tartness to the sweet rice adjunct of Neon Dynasty Rice Lager, leaving a mild hay parch on the sake backend.
Sourdough breading sweetened Vienna lager, Natty Dough, letting biscuity Maris Otter malting and mild pale chocolate malting coalesce alongside delicate chestnut-pecan whims as floral Noble hop herbage ascended slowly.
Subdued dark lager, Dangerous Nights, dropped roasted chocolate onto slightly nutty Maris Otter caramelization and a black licorice snip.
Fruity tropical lager, It’s Always Sunny In Sarasota, put Nelson Sauvin-hopped passionfruit, guava and papaya tartness plus navel orange zesting above musky barnyard graining.
Juicy New England IPA-like tropicalia enlarged Foundry Hazy Pale Ale, contrasting brisk orange-peeled mango and peach tanginess with a bitter limey grapefruit stipend all the way to its pasty oated wheat bottom.
“Classic” West Coast IPA, Coast Starlight, let pale malt sugaring embrace lemon-candied grapefruit and orange tanginess as well as honeyed floral sweetness to counter its earthen piney hop prickle.
Mobtown’s “house NEIPA,” dry-hopped The Doctor Says I’m Hazy, plied dense tropical fruiting to caramelized pale malts, gathering taut orange peel sweetness, pineapple zesting, peach tanginess and mango-papaya-cantaloupe conflux.
Mouth-puckering ruby reddish Flanders Red Ale, The Background, aged in French oak pinot Noir barrels, soaked dry white wining into oaken cherry tannins and dry lemon acidity.
Blending a candi-sugared fig and plum-daubed Quadrupel with a honey fruited IPA, Time Rocket, placed peachy pineapple tanginess and buttery Chardonnay wining across dangling dried fruiting, cellared fungi herbage and dank pine resin.
Another worthy blend, barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Cuvee It, invited milk-sugared coffee, cappuccino and bourbon chocolate to dry ‘cuvee-like’ Brut champagning in a complex Good Morning Breakfast Stout mix with sherry-casked Shake Your Coconuts and Sagamore Spirit rye whiskey-aged Heavy Boots Pastry Stout.
PICKETT BREWING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
As of February ’24, the latest Pigtown brewery, PICKETT BREWING COMPANY, opened August ’22. Within a stone’s throw from the Ravens football stadium next to a corner jazz bar in one of Baltimore’s commercial residential neighborhoods just south of the Inner Harbor, this glorified pub shows off exquisite furnished antiquity and specializes in spectral India Pale Ales as well as pilsner-lagers.
Pickett’s overhead-doored gray brick frontage leads to the cozily decorated community-tabled interior. There’s a 20-seat bar (with silver metal menu) opposed by a cushion-chaired lounge where a large TV hangs and a few barreled tables fill out the cosmetically upscale warehouse. Inconspicuous mezzanine tanks near the back serve head brewer Jason Howard’s crisp suds for the noontime crowd. Cool artwork’s spread across the walls.
Simple golden cleared light lager, Just Beer, cushioned its peppery lemon spritz with musky mineral grained barleycorn.
Celebrating dulcet bluegrass music, Bluegrass Sunday Pils, a lightly yellow hazed moderation, weaved desiccated navel orange musk thru corny malt liquored whiskey tones and lightly perfumed hop spicing.
Tropical fruited hazy pale ale Squatchin’ trickled dainty orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess and peachy pineapple zesting into mild oated wheat creaming.
Juicily sugar fruited LFG, a hazy New England IPA, let pink and yellow grapefruit tanginess, sweet orange peel zesting and subtle melon licks embrace floral-perfumed spicing, picking up waxy crayon nuances above a creamily frothed oated wheat base.
Smoothly buoyant Imperial IPA, Giraffe Staff, let effervescent orange, pineapple , grapefruit and pineapple zesting join peachy lemon meringue tartness (as well as a glassy vodka whim) brush up against resinous pine needling.
Another hazy Imperial IPA, Take A Zero, spread dry tropical fruiting all around as tart passionfruit-guava conflux, lime-salted pineapple zing, lemon meringue piquancy and candied lollipop dollop reached its mildly pine lacquered grassy oats stead.
Plush oatmeal stout, Double Goats In Hats, soaked dark chocolate nuttiness in dry bourbon-burgundy wining and black cherry jam as its dark-roast hop sear lightly embittered the molasses-smoked mocha finish.
Curious canned collaboration with nearby Mobtown Brewing, Wistful Thinking Coffee Saison, had herbal saison yeast musk sopping up spritzy lemon souring and light green peppering, keeping strangely understated creamy coffee influence at bay.
DIAMONDBACK BREWING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Three miles from Orioles Park in Charm City’s Mc Henry Row at the Banner building, DIAMONDBACK BREWING COMPANY began operations in autumn 2016. Founded by three University of Maryland dorm brewers, Diamondback’s spacious 7,000 square-foot facility is part of a former Coca-Cola plant.
Located inside a red brick warehouse, the neo-Mod Industrial interior features a rustic cement floor with wood-fronted, cement-topped round bar wrapping around a huge red brick smokestack smack dab in the middle of the low-ceilinged pub. An overhead door leads to a makeshift patio for outdoor seating. Pizza and light pub fare fill out the menu.
My wife and I settled into a few bar seats to try all seven available brews on a Sunday eve, January ’24.
‘Lightly smoked doppelbock,’ Flocculator, brought dewy dried fruiting to musty caramelized malting and Noble hop earthiness.
Creamier than expected, Czech dark lager, Bohemian Forest, placed dry Bakers chocolate next to pumpernickel-toasted dark chocolate malting, caramel coffee caress and truffled Saaz hop dryness.
Soft gold-cleared citrus wheat ale, Voss Boss, utilized clean Nordic Kveik yeast to set up its brisk lemony grapefruit bittering and zesty orange peeled tangerine sweetness, leaving light floral spicing on its mild pine salting.
Diamondback’s approachable ‘house IPA,’ Green Machine, pushed lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess past the resinous pine contrasting its oated wheat base.
Smoothly clean Citra/Mosaic-hopped ‘cold IPA,’ Coldstream, plied sweet orange tanginess, yellow grapefruit bittering and passionfruit tartness to lightly vanilla-creamed oats and kiln-malted mineral graining.
Luxurious bourbon-aged Imperial Stout, Moon Boots, let bourbon vanilla sweetness seep into creamy brown chocolate spicing, Black Forest caking and molasses-candied nuttiness for a perfect nightcap.