I recently learned MD has over 45 active breweries and I have visited a good amount of breweries in Frederick, Baltimore, and Harford county. I see a lot of the major names like Flying dog and Union for MD breweries people should visit, but I am curious if anyone has visited smaller breweries like Waverly brewing co, or 7 Locks. How were the beers and overall experience of them.
The only ones that come to mind are Backshore Brewing out of Ocean City, and Antietam Brewery out of Hagerstown. Backshore had decent beer but it was actually the Hoop Tea that stood out to me. Antietam, as more of a brew pub, has a fairly generic average offering. If you haven't already been to Brewer's Art in Baltimore, I would encourage a visit for the atmosphere of the basement bar. I sampled a few brews from Cushwa Brewing at the Quad State Beer Fest. They look to open soon in the Williamsport area. A few miles from the Valley Mall. The beer was above average in my opinion.
Waverly is right around the corner from Union, so if you do one, you might as well do both. Union closes early on Saturday's and Waverly stays open until around midnight, so you can go to Waverly after Union. Waverly was smaller, with about 8 beers on tap the last time I was there, but would recommend it. Independent Brewing in Bel Air has been open for a year now and keeps about 20 beers on draft at all times. They have some solid choices. Carpe Diem, Incarnation, TrailRyeder, and Vinyasa stood out the most to me. Black Flag Brewing in Columbia opened up in July and has about 8-10 beers and although new, they were very good quality. Assawoman Bay Brewing on 45th street in OC was good too and if the weather is nice you can sit waterfront and relax. Going into OC you can do RAR, Evolution and Burley Oak on the way in too without getting too far away from Route 50.
Has anyone been to Mad Science in Frederick? Thinking of checking it out over the holidays -- looks to be ~10 minutes south Flying Dog
I haven't been yet but have heard mixed reviews. Looking recently it looks like they are still getting their footing brewing on a bigger scale opposed to home brewing. @MosaicDrops if you are looking to go to a quality nano brewery close to flying dog I recommend Olde Mother (https://www.facebook.com/OldeMother/) The owners/brewers are really chill and the beer is pretty decent. Also down the street from them is Monocacy brewing Company (http://monocacybrewing.com/). Small taproom but decent beers, nothing too off the wall as far as experimental beers go but quality in the style (if that makes sense)
Rubber Soul in Salisbury is my favorite Maryland brewery, hands down. I am still surprised to see that it hasn't gotten more exposure. Check it out.
Big fan of Burley Oak here. I also had a cool experience at Falling Branch Brewery in northern Harford County. A beautiful farm brewery.
I was a little let down by burley oak. I went over July 4th and with all the hype I was looking forward to some amazing beer. I don't care too much for sours and it seemed like that was their focus. Their hop forward beers were pretty good and their red ale was solid. I really like falling branch, the venue is great their small batch dry hop beers are done really well, and their Belgian dark is good by their fire pit.
