A Sampling of Beer In and Around a Ravens Home Game

My family has Ravens season tickets, so the old man and myself inevitably find ourselves with some free time ahead of the game and in search of beer and sometimes a bite to eat. We don't really tailgate, but that affords us the opportunity to explore a bit.

For a while we would meet a friend before the game at the famous Pickles Pub. That's a fun hangout, as you can sit outside and get a beer from inside or at several of the various stations right there. Everything's in cans or bottles, obviously, and you can't expect any exciting craft options. Most of the offerings are the usual Bud/Miller/Coors, Corona stuff, although one of the stands had tall cans of that classic from another era, Pabst Blue Ribbon. It's not the tastiest brew but I'll occasionally have one of those.

This last week we shifted over to Ravens Walk, which is a fun walkway starting just past Camden Yards and heading directly to M&T Bank Stadium's entrance. There's several places to grab a bite to eat (even get fresh shucked oysters!) and grab a beer. We started out at the Greene Turtle stand, and the line took incredibly long. The beer wasn't much better, again Bud/Miller/Coors/Corona although they did have Heineken keg cans.

Just down the way we shifted to Oregon Grill's stand, which had cans of Molson's lager. I'd never had a Molson so that was a bit of a novelty. Not the worst beer either, I was surprised. Another stand adjacent to it had a sign with "craft beer" but I was disappointed to see their idea of craft beer -- on tap, mind you -- was Guinness, Smithwick's and Harp. I wasn't feeling the Irish beer so I passed, but did notice they also had cans of Amstel and bottles of the Sam Adams Oktoberfest seasonal.

I've read in many places of people walking to and from the Harbor and especially Oliver's main Wharf Rat location for some fine British-styled real ales. That's definitely on my list for next time and would be a pretty quick walk from the hotel parking garage we use.

We actually got stuck in traffic leaving the new lot we tried (we'll switch back to the old hotel one block further next time, I'm forgetting the names of both) and simply reparked and headed to the hotel bar. In the bar they had Heineken on tap, as well as Clipper City Pale which was delicious. I stole a look at their bar menu and found several unique beers. I went with a Lindeman's Framboise which was outrageously delicious (beer ... sweet tooth ... oy).

Inside the stadium, if you enter past the Ravens Walk, is an Irish pub. I haven't hit that up yet but it looks fairly promising. Our seats are actually in the club area so we're always flying right by that as we try to get to our seats just before kickoff.

As far as club area beers, the bar immediately behind our section has several generic canned offerings, but also pours a ridiculously fresh Heineken on tap. I usually hate Heineken but this was an amazingly different taste than I'd had from them in cans and bottles. I was shocked.

I've wandered around the entire arc of the club section and mostly it's the usual generic stuff on tap, but at a few stops you can find say, a Leinenkugel wheat, or a Sam Adams seasonal, basically the macro micros.

One additional note: the old man was entertaining at this last game and with the guests we went to the Rusty Scupper about a mile from the stadium. Their bar had several whatever beers on tap, but did include a Scupper amber ale contract brewed by Clipper City. I found it enjoyable and yet another example of a beer to be had as part of the whole fanfare surrounding a Ravens home game.

Feel free to comment about other beer offerings in and around the game below, or in different sections of the stadium.