Thursday, Friday, Beerday

I love beer festivals.

Along with gardening and cooking, it is one of my favorite pasttimes.

This past Saturday was the Maryland Brewers SpringFest. It brought out the usual suspects-Brewers Alley, Clipper City, Flying Dog, my sister, brother-in-law (a reporter for a brewing pub) and myself. As always, I like to take these opportunities to try new things. Therefore, I avoided the usual suspects since they are either a) very accessible to me (Barley & Hops, Brewer's Alley, and Red Brick Brewing, located in Frederick and Baltimore) or one's that I had tried a lot of (Clipper City) or ones that I plan on trying in the near future (will be traveling to Denver in June-Flying Dog is located there).

So I tried Duclaw's Misfit Red first. My brother-in-law swears that Duclaw is the best brewer in Maryland and I generally trust him, although he tends to like hoppier beers than myself. Wasn't quite fond of it. Unfortunately, didn't get to sample any of there other beers.

I tried a few from The Brewer's Art located in Baltimore. Again, nothing too impressive, but their beer list is so extensive, I am willing to visit their restaurant for some more "research."

I also tried some peach beer. And we will never speak of it again.

After these various disappointments and with only three beer tokens left, I decided to switch to beers I knew I would truly enjoy. Red Brick Brewing had this great beer. I would love to tell you the name, but I am a true lightweight and this information is no longer in my skull. But if you are ever by the IKEA in Baltimore, check this place out-nice menu, atmosphere and, of course, beer.

I've tried several of Clipper City's beers, but the BaltoMarzHon is my absolute favorite.

So finally, I was about to leave when my brother-in-law graciously gave me another beer token at the time my sister was telling me about this wonderful blueberry beer. Understand that I have had only one "fruit" beer that I liked (thank you Sam Adams' Cherry Wheat) so I had my doubts. But this was, hands down, not only the best beer I tried at the festival, but possibly the best beer I've ever had. Granted, I am a beer newbie, but I will be going to Growlers of Gaithersburg to again sample their Blueberry Wheat Cream Ale.

Overall, it was a great day out, the weather was beautiful, and I am totally looking forward to Maryland's Oktoberfest.