BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Located at the industrial end of Baltimore’s northerly Clifton Park, OLIVER BREWING COMPANY is an extension of the former Pratt Street Alehouse (specializing in authentic British ales beforehand as Wharf Rat since 1993). Long-time entrepreneurial owner Justin Dvorkin also runs nearby Columbia’s Ale House and Severna’s Park Tavern.
An abstract orange design on the 12,000 square-foot white bricked warehouse pub guides imbibers to Oliver’s cement-floored tasting room. A small 10-stooled wood-based serving station serves nine draughts and surrounding refrigerators provide to-go cans. The high ceilinged production area stages mammoth brew tanks and vessels. A grassy fenced area with wooden benches adds outside seating.
Concentrating more on production brewing than mere brewpub ambience, the rustic hangout is currently (as of 2024) only open to the public on Saturdays.
My wife and I dropped by mid-January ’24 to quaff all eight Oliver-twisted draughts available. I was especially impressed with both nitrogenated dark ales and bourbon whiskey-aged stouts.
Mild Social Pale Lager contrasted honeyed pale malting with dried maize acridity and grassy hop astringency.
Musky dried fruiting spread across nut-caked sweet breading for soft-toned moderation, Chesapeake Bay Dopplebock, relegating fig, raisin and date subtleties.
Lemony grapefruit, pineapple and orange spritzing and peachy tangerine tanginess graced sunshiny Imperial IPA, BMore Hazy, leaving mild floral sweetness to fend wispily pined herbage pungency in its wake.
Tantalizing New England IPA, Astral Life, let zesty lemon-peeled orange peel bittering and polite grapefruit-soured guava-mango saltiness settle atop frothy oated wheat creaming.
Hot cocoa-inspired nitrogenated Cuffing Season, a dandy cream stout brewed with chocolate, marshmallow and vanilla, gained dry espresso, sweet cappuccino and glazed hazelnut illusions.
The smoothly creamed nitro version of BMore Breakfast Stout plied creamy vanilla-daubed brown chocolate to honeyed Graham Cracker, S’mores candy and sugared coffee pleasantries.
“Festive” Barrel-Aged Gingerbread Latte, a bourbon vanilla-sweetened Imperial Stout, let its gingerbread adjunct soak up wintry cinnamon, anise, allspice and nutmeg seasoning.
If possible, even better Liquid Luxury, an Imperial Stout aged 15 years in whiskey barrels, regaled its brown-sugared bourbon vanilla splendor with whiskeyed brown chocolate sweetness and oaken bark-dried leathering over molasses rye breading.
