Red Shedman Farm Brewery & Hop Yard

What the hell kind of name is that?

Years ago...but not that long ago... when the craft industry faced a large and steep increase in profits (er.. "prices," pardon me) due to a manufactured "hop shortage," I remarked to some friends that, yes, higher prices sucked, and yes, this was likely to bring more monied douchebags into the beer scene. "But," I said, "we're still better than wine. Beer will never cost as much as wine, and beer people will never be as repulsive as wine people."

Oh, how naive I was. The beer and wine scenes began bleeding into one another around the late aughts, and they haven't stopped. Along with general, across-the-board price increases came the rise of a handful of pornographically expensive and pretentious luxury brewers. Taprooms switched from having industrial and proletarian feels to embracing whatever trends were currently infecting the restaurant scene. By 2016, you could enter a brewery and spot nary a single bearded man with a stained shirt. Instead, you got a bunch of trim, successful-looking people talking about exercise while taking measured sips of middling homebrew that cost 2 dollars per ounce. And all the bartenders had those Nazi haircuts.

And so a place like Red Shedman shouldn't surprise me. Sadden me, maybe, but not surprise me. It's an extension of a literal winery, drawing the same crowds as a winery, on the same grounds as a winery. The beer scene doesn't exist anymore as its own discrete entity. It's now more properly understood as "the fancyboy expensive beverage scene," and Red Shedman is perhaps its most perfect encapsulation.

As to the atmosphere, every detail seems pored over, which instead of making it seem artisanal or crafty instead just makes it feel generic, like it came out of a prefab kit. If you've been to a trendy "rustic feeling" restaurant in the last 3 years, you already know exactly what this place is like.

The beers range from pretty bad to pretty good, with the worst resembling a homebrewer's earliest batches and the best tasting like they were made by someone who's been brewing for a couple of years. There was nothing unique about them aside from the price: 15 bucks for a 4 pack of tallboys.

So... this is where we're at. We've all seen it coming. It's here. And we have to learn to live with it.

 

 

 

 

Stopped by on a Saturday afternoon. Large tasting room with plenty of tables and bar seating and TV's. It was mostly empty when we went there other than the male portion of a wedding party. Nothing really stood out and I won't go out of my way to return since only one or two of the beers I sampled (out of 8) were all that good.

Visited here on a Saturday afternoon. Easy to find, located next to a winery, with a pretty large tasting room. Huge L-shaped bar and plenty of seating, there was even a band in there, although the area seemed kind of 'closed in' so it got quite loud inside.

At the time they had 11 beers on tap and 1 cider. 8 of the beers were regular offerings and 3 of them were special limited release barrel-aged beers. Was nice to see a new brewery already dive into the barrel-aging trend and offer it on tap.

Sampling flights were available in paddles of 6 at a time, I believe the regular lineup was $8/sampling flight and adding the barrel aged stuff made it $10/sampling flight, so for just $18 you are able to try everything, not too bad of a deal. They also offered pints and growler fills of anything on tap.

The beers are on the most part were pretty average; some pleasant surprises (Espresso stout, Suicide/Neurotic Blonde) and some misses (the barrel aged stouts) but pretty solid all around.

While the tasting room decor and overall vibe could use a little work, and the beers are pretty mediocre, was still a good overall place with a chance to try 12 different offerings made with local ingredients. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the Frederick area and would be a nice pit stop on a nice, summer day.

 

 

 

Attended their grand opening on 11/15/14. Very nice place inside. Wood floor is beautiful, nice long bar, plenty of tables and a big TV for sporting events. Had some acoustic acts playing for the grand opening celebration. Service was very good for a big crowd. It was very loud inside and they could use something to absorb the echo/sound some. Maybe I'm old, who knows. Oh and the beers were solid as well. Will definitely come back on a normal weekend since I live pretty close by.