Review: Flying Dog Brewing Tasting Room

The folks and myself made our way west to lovely Frederick, Md. Saturday to revisit the Flying Dog Brewery and tasting room. Flying Dog relocated to Maryland from its home base in Colorado several years ago, acquiring and sharing its current facility with Wild Goose Brewing.

Flying Dog is open on Saturdays from 130-4 PM, with tours at 2 and 3. We skipped the tour this time, but its usually lively and casual and recommended if you have the time and haven't done it before. Flying Dog also has a small gift shop to pick up glasses, shirts, clean growlers and so on.

The tasting room was the focus for us this time. Most of their regular lineup was pouring, except they had subbed the Kerberos Tripel for an offering from their Wild Dog series, Dog Schwarz. That Dog Schwarz, bytheway, was quite smokey. I was expecting something a bit more sweet and subdued, but this came out like a smoked/rauch beer, such as Alaskan Brewing's Smoked Porter or the famous German smoked beers from Schlenkerla in Bamberg.

Additionally, they had a full line of Wild Goose taps including their winter seasonal Snow Goose and their fall seasonal pumpkin beer. Flying Dog also had a cask although it wasn't pouring, and a "nitro blend" with their Horn Dog Barley Wine and something else mixed in there. For those unfamiliar, a nitro tap is what something like Guinness usually (always) is poured from, it seems to soften the beer and creates that cascading effect which is so visually enticing. The reason I was excited to go, however, was the day-of availability of their spring seasonal offering, the Garde Dog modeled after the French Biere De Garde style beers.

The tasting room inevitably ends up a very lively place packed with people, but Flying Dog has wisely done some things to tone it down a tad. The last time I was there, you could purchase a glass for $5 and there would be pretty much unlimited half-pours. Now, all the glasses are marked with a 6 oz line and you are handed (6) fanned bottlecaps upon entry to redeem for tasters. What you choose to do with them is your discretion.

I targeted the Garde Dog but was told they were out. Stunning. However, about an hour later I found them pouring from the Garde Dog tap, so I guess another keg had been put on, which didn't last long either. I had it from a bottle once last year and enjoyed it, but like many beers this came across much more lively and fresh on tap, even at just over six ounces. It was spicey and earthy, pale in color but not so floral or funky as some saisons but in a similar general range of flavor to it. I was hooked.

Equally impressive, and to my surprise, was their Doggie Style classic pale ale. I've generally passed over this beer, but several ounces in it woke me up a bit. The flavor was solid, but what really hit me was the aroma. It reminded me of some of the great IPA's and pale ales I had been enjoying recently in San Diego. Checking their literature, Flying Dog named the hops: Northern Brewer and Cascade. It was described as having a "powerful Cascade hop aroma with a sweet caramel body and a distinct hop bite. Dry hopped during fermentation with a shitload of Cascade hops".

Which prompted me to text my friend Steve, Anchorman style, "I love Cascade". I love Cascade!

Only now have I begun paying attention to hopping and the details behind beers, so apologies for sounding like a novice at times even a year into this Baltimore Beer Guy thing. I don't homebrew although I am looking into that. However I did work with Steve to make a Belgian Pale Ale on my recent trip to California, more details about that later in another entry. But back to Flying Dog.

Everything else there was fun, obviously we didn't try every beer, but got around to most of Flying Dog's offerings and a few from Wild Goose, which tends to be a bit conservative in flavor for me. They're modeled more after British ales and lagers, so are more subdued and classic in temperament.

It is also worth mentioning Flying Dog offers growler fills. They sell growlers in the store, but many people there had brought their own various growlers to take home the good stuff. Near the entrance to the tasting room there is a beer fridge where guests can get take-home 4, 6 and 12 packs of whatever Flying Dog's put in the fridge. As mentioned here a few days ago they also have 12-packs of the 7-oz "pony" bottles, that are available. I saw one customer also had a 750ml bottle of the Dog Schwarz ready to go.

This being winter, everyone was crammed inside, but in warmer times there's a patio that I've read employees will sometimes crank out the BBQ, and people can generally relax just outside the tasting room. The patio covering was draped with hop vines last time I was there, but was empty this time. Hopefully those make a return.

Coming up ... a review of Growlers (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Pictured above: two nice ladies we met at the tasting room, Deborah and Barb; Baltimore Beer Guy feeding the goose

Frederick, The Beer Town

Sort of old news, but I recently found this entry on a beer blog called Hop Talk. The June 2007 issue of Beer Advocate Magazine named "Nine Great Beer Towns You Didn't Know Were Great Beer Towns".

No. 4? Frederick, Maryland.

The combined Flying Dog and Wild Goose operations are headquartered there, as well as Brewer's Alley and Barley and Hops. I'm at a loss for what else is out there, but it's nice recognition for Frederick which is just a bit out of the way for most of us in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

I neglected to stop in at Brewers Alley or Barley and Hops in my last visit to Frederick, but I did dine downtown not far from the Alley and had one of their beers at the tapas restaurant. I also visited the Flying Dog Brewery (of which I need to write a review at some point on here). Hopefully those places hint at more "on the way" as far as breweries and brewpubs.

Does anyone know of any other beer stops in Frederick? I don't have a copy of the magazine so I'm not sure what else they mentioned other than those three places.

What's New In My Fridge

From The Perfect Pour

Six pack (cans!) of Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale (CO)
750 ml bottle Rodenbach Grand Cru (Belgium)
16 oz bottle St. Sebastiaan Golden (Belgium)
16 oz bottle St. Sebastiaan Grand Reserve Belgian Ale (Belgium)

From Corridor Wine & Spirits

Six pack Victory Whirlwind Witbier (PA)

12 oz individual bottles the rest of the way:

Clay Pipe Hop-Ocalypse IPA (MD)
Clay Pipe Backfin Pale Ale (MD)
Wild Goose Nut Brown Ale (MD)
Clipper City Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale (MD)
Clipper City Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale (MD)
Clipper City Red Sky At Night Saison Ale (MD)
Flying Dog Garde Dog Bier De Garde Seasonal (MD)
Hacker Pschorr Weisse (Germany)
Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager (CA)
Smuttynose Hanami Ale (NH)
Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre Deep Mahogany Ale (DE)
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (DE)

Couple thoughts here:

• I'll discuss it more later, but I wanted to try beer out of a can. It's been a long time since I've had beer out of a can (back then I didn't know any better and was drinking Coors Lights and Tecates), but thanks to a tip from Summer of Beer Steve, I'm giving it a chance. The folks at Oskar Blues actually make a great case for producing high quality beers in a can.
  
• I'm trying to get a taste for the smaller local breweries that I see from time to time at liquor stores. Thus: Clay Pipe, Wild Goose. I've actually had Wild Goose's award-winning IPA, but didn't enjoy it much. It is very much in the British style and not the American style. No worries though, that's why we try things and why beer is so great, there's tremendous variety and I bet somewhere Wild Goose has something I'll really enjoy.
• Clipper City is also local, but it seems to be a much bigger name. Several of their products are intriguing and I've previously enjoyed a bottle of the Holy Sheet.
• I haven't hyped it up yet, but Corridor Wine & Spirits is great. It's a bit out of my way down in Laurel, but their selection is above average. My old man goes there for the wine, but they have plentiful selection of six pack beers as well as an impressive wall of individual bottles from around the states and the world.
• Little tip from the friendly clerk at Corridor: bust your tail down to Corridor if you enjoy Clipper City's Red Sky at Night. That item tends to fly off the shelves, per his claim.
  

So that's that. Hopefully those will keep me entertained for a while.

We Win! We Win!

Or something.

Good news out of the World Beer Cup (San Diego, CA): several Maryland brewers have won awards in the prestigious competition.

Notable: Gold medals for Clipper City Winter Storm (International Pale), Wild Goose IPA (English-Style IPA), Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter (Imperial Stout).

Other local winners can be found in Kasper's link below, and a full listing is available at the World Beer Cup link above. Congratulations to all the local winners!

(Hat Tip: Kasper on Tap)

Update: Camden Yards Beer

The Baltimore Sun's Rob Kasper comes to the rescue.

Kasper went to the ballgame today, and provided several details as to the beer scene at Camden Yards. As reported earlier, the Orioles converted an Irish pub named Bambino's (Babe "The Bambino" Ruth was born not more than a few yards from the Orioles' present-day location) into a "Bud Light Warehouse".

Ack.

Double ack: $7.50 Stella Artrois. That's a fairly standard draft beer at a special beer price. Said Kasper:

It reminded me of Heineken, not especially exciting or flawed.

Exactly.

Other finds at the Warehouse included Busch's Shock Top Belgian White. Back on Eutaw Street, Kasper ordered Frederick's Wild Goose Pale Ale (Or did he mean IPA? $6.50 at the microbrew stand).

Things turned dark as the weather soured and the Orioles' 2-0 lead evaporated.

I craved a dark beer, a Guinness. So apparently did many other fans. By the sixth inning, the taps of the Guinness stand on the first level behind home plate had gone dry. No Guinness meant gloom and an Orioles defeat.

Opening Day left me with three questions.

Has anybody else tasted the Stella?

How about the Shock Top?

Finally, is it anti-American to drink beer in the comfort of a stadium pub, rather than sitting outside and sipping brews in the cold weather.

Dispiriting to say the least. Sorry, Rob.

To answer the questions:

1)Yes, several times. It's a respectable import distributed nationwide. A college friend of mine from Northern California took a liking to Stella but I always felt it was a fairly undistinguished beer. It's good in an emergency when there's nothing else on tap except bud/miller generics, less acceptable when more inventive options are available.

2)No on the Shock Top, but the liquor store nearby carries it. I didn't realize it was a Busch product. This must be their toes-in-the-water attempt to compete with Coors' Blue Moon. Best of luck to them, I suppose.

3)Absolutely not, at least when the weather turns. It's anti-American for baseball to be played in such gloomy weather if you ask me. My experiences at Petco Park and Wrigley Field attest to the value of some mid-game liquid refreshments.

Don't spent an entire game at the stadium pub, but an inning's pit-stop (or two) is a fun part of the experience. Wrigley doesn't have its own pub, but fill-ups before and after the game at the bars literally just steps away from the entrance are a rite for any of-age Wrigley visitor.

Unlike other games, baseball is just as much about the crowds and atmosphere as the timeless game on the field. Or maybe that's the Cub fan in me talking (hey, any team can have a bad century).

Flying Dog's Maryland Connection

It's deep.

Flying Dog is a Denver, Colorado brewer (one of our nation's beer capitals, more on that later) brewing in the spirit of Gonzo --- Hunter S. Thompson.

Seriously.

Long time friend, neighbor and co-conspirator of Flying Dog owner George Stranahan, Hunter was a large influence on George's life and subsequently on the creation of the Flying Dog brand; whether it was riding motorcycles, blowing shit up, or just getting a good, old-fashioned drunk on at the Woody Creek Tavern. These two were fast friends long before Flying Dog Brewery was even a thought. When George opened up shop in Aspen, Hunter would have been one of his best customers; if he had ever paid his tab.

Hunter's greatest contribution to Flying Dog is, of course, introducing George Stranahan to another long-time friend of his, Ralph Steadman. The Gonzo artist creates all of Flying Dog's signature labels.

Putting Thompson aside for a moment, Flying Dog is one of the bigger names in craft brewing with a national distribution. What I didn't realize until tonight was that they produce their full line of beers out of Wild Goose Brewing's Frederick facility. That's good news for Maryland beer consumers everywhere.

I must confess I haven't tried much of Flying Dog's lineup (yet). They were actually one of the rare national craft brewers of reliable distribution while I was living in the Florida panhandle. However, what I usually saw on the shelves was their Pale and Golden ales. Ho hum. I love Stone Brewing but it's hard to get excited about their Pale Ale, even though it's a good one. Same goes for those two, although Flying Dog clearly has enough self-respect to produce a dizzying line of other beers.

In other words, add them to the list of beers on my mental shopping list. Talking to Summer of Beer's Steve tonight he mentioned several quality brews they produce so now I'll be on the lookout for them in store shelves. Plus the Frederick facility isn't tooooooo far, maybe I can pair a stop over there with a stop at Brewer's Alley and Wild Goose (also in Frederick).

Many thanks to Flying Dog's own Creative Manager Josh for alerting me to this news. Josh also sends along this video of MojoHD's "Beer Nutz" visiting Flying Dog. Synergy, folks.