Maryland Craft Beer Festival 2025


On May 10, Melissa and I attended the Maryland Craft Beer Festival. We hadn't planned on going since it was in Frederick, which is an hour from where we live, but some friends who live near there were having folks over afterwards, so we decided to go. It was held at Carroll Creek Linear Park, which is a nice venue. The weather was perfect: sunny and in the 70s.

Melissa doesn't drink so she walked around Frederick while I sampled:

  1. Thick and Thin Year of the Snake (quite good wild ale)
  2. City Boy Party Boy (good NEIPA)
  3. Monument City Ghost Camp (good BA Baltic porter)
  4. Heavy Seas Lost Navigator Dank (good west coast DIPA)
  5. Heavy Seas Lost Navigator Hazy (good east coast DIPA)
  6. Upper Stem The Fez (marginal Belgian dark strong)
  7. Smoketown Chocolate Stache (fairly good stout)
  8. Stone Silo Better Mistake (pretty good IPA)
  9. Ruhlman Farmhouse Ruhls (pretty good barleywine)
  10. Liquid Intrusion Maryland Maverick (hazy DIPA)
  11. Manor Hill Hillside Haze (fairly good NEIPA)
  12. Attaboy Farmboy Peach (pretty good BA saison with peaches)
  13. Mayan Monkey Opaco (good HIPA)
  14. Nepenthe Alpaca Fracas! (quite good DIPA)
  15. Manor Hill Apricot Jubilee (good 10% ABV BA farmhouse ale with apricots)
  16. Crooked Crab Crab Theft Auto (good HIPA)
  17. Steinhardt El Dorado (crappy NEIPA)
  18. 1812 Cumberland Blues (pretty good pale ale)
  19. Hub City Hagerstauner Hefeweizen (pretty good)
  20. Funktional The Key (pretty good HIPA)
  21. Funktional Enigma (pretty good chocolate stout)
  22. Rockwell Drop it Like it's Hop! (HIPA)
  23. Reckless Shepherd Fantasy Island (fairly good HIPA)
  24. Streetcar 82 Fancy Nancy (HIPA)
  25. Wico Street For a Few Quarters More (good hazy DIPA)
  26. Guinness Galaxy IPA (pretty good)
  27. Pickett Newzilla (good HIPA)
  28. Checkerspot What is and What Can Be (HIPA)
  29. Sandbox Riversong (raspberry rye)
  30. RAK King Ghidorah (nice 10.2% ABV TIPA) (my favorite of the day)
  31. Ministry of Brewing 7:54 (good IPA)
  32. Liquidity Aleworks Mix Tape Vol 2 (pretty good session hazy)
  33. Franklin's Northeast Branch (DIPA)
  34. M8 Slim Dusty (fairly good HIPA) (can)
  35. Slate Farm Irish Red (pretty good)
  36. Brewer's Alley Hefeweizen (pretty good)
  37. Olde Mother Portal Vision (pretty good HIPA)
  38. Elder Pine Hefeweizen (meh)
  39. Brewery Fire Black London (pretty good black IPA)
  40. Burley Oak 100 (TDH DIPA)
  41. Vanish Ghost Fleet (fairly good NEIPA)
  42. Waredaca Chocolate StoutMe
  43. Oliver Astral Life (pretty good HIPA)
  44. 1623 Aotearoa (pretty good hoppy lager)
  45. Prospect Point My Little Clementine (pretty good NEIPA)
  46. Idiom Phrased #22 (pretty good NEDIPA)