GUILFORD HALL BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

guilford hall brewery | historic industrial baltimore wedding venue — urban row photography | baltimore maryland wedding photographer

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Occupying an old red brick warehouse formerly housing Crown Cork & Seal in the Greenmount West section of northern Baltimore, GUILFORD HALL BREWERY opened for biz May ’21. Providing “European tradition and Baltimore charm,”, this cavernous hardwood-floored public house specializes in German, British, Czech and Belgian styled brews given a modern flair and paired with Bavarian, English, Polish and American cuisine.

A rustic two-floor brewery with intimate biergarten and separate right side open kitchen, Guilford Hall’s olden windows, metal-crowned Edison lights, exposed pipes and ceiling beams match its Industrial arts and entertainment area.

A giant Guilford Hall insignia spreads across the left wall fronting the brew tanks. Block wood tables front the twenty-seat bar in the rear. A large second floor banquet space offers more wooden chairs and tables. There are multiple TV’s at every angle to satisfy sports fans of every stripe.

At brunch on a bustling Sunday morning, December ’22, crowded minions watch the World Cup finals between Argentina and France. There’s no available seating so I grab a hefe and stout to go (reviewed below). Within a month, I revisit Guilford Hall to enjoy lunch with the wife and sink a few newly discovered brews.

Guilford Hall Restaurant - Baltimore, MD | OpenTable

Bustling Hefeweizen let its salty lemon splurge, lacquered herbal musk and dried plantain tartness soak up the sweet banana-clove expectancy.

Dry nut-charred black malting and soothing coffee-oiled dark chocolate bittering saddled C & S Irish Stout, leaving Blackstrap molasses treacle on its dark roast hop seared backend.

MINISTRY OF BREWING

United States Brewpubs,

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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Ever since Pittsburgh’s cathedral brewery, The Church, came into existence during ’99, followed by Grand Rapid’s zymurgic chapel, Brewery Vivant, there’ve been a few places of worship springing up as brewpubs nationally.

North of Fells Point in the urbanized Washington Hill neighborhood, MINISTRY OF BREWING took over St. Michael’s Church January ’20. Its pristinely evocative Cathedral ceiling, restored religious paintings, stain glass windows and pearly Corinthian columns provide a majestic setting.

There are butcher block tables on both sides of the white-tiled central corridor and a choir balcony for further seating. The vast 30-seat right side bar with oyster-shelled poured concrete top features ‘rotating spectrum’ of at least a dozen beers.  Brewtanks and vats are located at the altar.

I soaked up eight delightful suds on my December ’22 pilgrimage.

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Dry lemon spritz and mild lemongrass herbage prickled Kolsch With No Name, a simple relaxing moderation.

Eccentric Spice Must Flow Cream Ale placed vanilla and cardamom adjuncts inside spruce-tipped minting and cologne perfuming.

Salty lemon-dried orange tartness swept thru the mild vanilla creaming of Kreamsickle Kolsch, leaving slight hay acridity on the tail end.

Lemon-limed cherry souring and modest rhubarb tartness enticed Rhuby Sunglasses, a coriander salted gose with delicate white bread spine.

Vibrantly tropical Galaxy/Eldorado hops allow peachy passionfruit and pineapple tang and lemony cherry snips to caress the dry-wooded grassy hop astringency of brusque Lady Day Pale Ale, a feisty little Billie Holiday celebrator from her Baltimore hometown.

Then there were three dark ales.

Cream sugared coffee splendor picked up caramel burnt chocolate fudging and a nutty remnant to engage Dark Wave English Porter.

In its barrel aged version, dark chocolate, dry cocoa and nutty espresso surged against the mildly creamed coffee tones, letting tarry black malt bittering gain traction.

Oats-sugared brown chocolate and spiced caramel gathered for Houndstooth Oatmeal Stout, a sweet, rich full body.

For its Barrel Aged Houndstooth, dark chocolate syruping soaked up the overwhelmed apple brandy aging, allowing dry medium roast coffee, raw molasses and charred nuttiness to gain a bitterer edge.

Coffee-stained dark chocolate gained bitterness from the dark-roast hop char and subtle nuttiness of 9.9 Problems Imperial Stout, a bold nightcap.

NEPENTHE BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Nepenthe Brewing Co.'s experimental beers and innovative pub food are just days away

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Banishing grief from a person’s mind via Homer’s Odyssey, NEPENTHE BREWING COMPANY will cure your ills with a well-respected, ever-evolving lineup of diversified beers. Next to Extra Space Storage, the commodious gray-bricked warehouse pub in the northern Baltimore mill town hamlet of Hampden (near Johns Hopkins University) took over a former sportsbar and opened for biz January 2019.

Alongside fashion boutiques and vintage shops, Nepenthe’s part of the entirely overhauled main drag. A 10-barrel brewhouse with two draught stations servicing sixteen taps, its twenty-seat marble top bar stretches across one side and ten community tables and several leveled tables fill out the plank wood-floored, pipe-exposed, red brick-walled interior.

An open kitchen serves fine pub cuisine. A large blackboard beer list centers the bar and two opposing TV’s provide further entertainment.

I tried one rich stout and a busy IPA variant on my December ’22 stopover, then downed seven more goodies thereafter (reviewed in Beer Index).

Nepenthe Brewing Co. is Finally Debuting in Hampden This Weekend - Baltimore Magazine

Part of an ongoing series, Spontaneous Deviations #2: Red West Coast IPA chameleonically combined an amber-grained red ale with a dry-wooded Cascadian Dark Ale. Its charcoaled Simcoe/Amarillo/Chinook-hopped pining surfaced alongside lightly embittered grapefruit, jammy red grape and sprucy juniper tones above bitter cocoa bean insistence.

Dutch cocoa powdered pistachio and almond roast gains Madagascar vanilla beaning for richly creamed Aphotic Run, an intriguingly mocha-nutted Imperial Stout with tarry hop char and flaked oats spine as well as setback almond biscotti, Amaretto, espresso and cafe latte illusions.

WAVERLY BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Waverly Brewing Company | Baltimore, MD | Beers | BeerAdvocate

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Just off the Jones Falls Expressway in western Baltimore’s industrial Mondawmin area, WAVERLY BREWING COMPANY occupies a blue aluminum storage facility. Set up as a whimsical ‘art gallery lounge’ or ‘merchant marine chill out space,’ Waverly’s ever-shifting small batch brews range all over the spectrum since 2015.

Recycled and reclaimed barnyard wood completes the rustic cement-floored pub. Its ten-seat, aluminum-sided, lacquered wood bar features six to eight proprietary beers plus a few worthy outside suds. There are olden tables and a wide patchworked beer rail for on-site consumption.

I visited Waverly on a cold December ’22 Friday afternoon to down three rangy brews.

Waverly Brewing Company in Baltimore - Restaurant reviews

Spritzy lemon-soured briskness picked up spicy herbal licks for Golden Sombrero Pale Ale, an easygoing faux-Mex moderation.

Rummy brown chocolate draped the bourbon-spiced bruised cherry, red grape and figgy raisin fruiting of Rum MoFo Barrel Aged Belgian Ale, a wonderful strong ale with latent caramelized bourbon snips.

Briny oyster-shelled espresso tones and oily nuttiness propelled nitrogenated Local Oyster Stout, relegating its semi-sweet chocolate creaming.

PEABODY HEIGHTS BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Residing at the painted lady rowhouse-lined Abell neighborhood, former home of historic Oriole Park, Baltimore’s PEABODY HEIGHTS BREWERY initially came to fruition during 2012 as a contract brewer only. Operating out of a large red brick warehouse, its memorabilia salutes the old timey Orioles (before they relocated six miles south to the Inner Harbor in the ’90s).

Since 2015, Peabody Heights has been crafting its own proprietary beers as well as outside brews for local independents. Its rustic cement floored brew room features 20-plus draughts at the Edison-lit left side bar (with centered TV). Wood tables and counters fill out the spacious interior and black pipes hang from the white-bulbed ceiling. There’s also a heated patio tent.

During my two-hour December ’22 lunchtime perusal, a seasoned DJ spins tunes for a growing crowd of local residents – some with children and dogs. I grabbed a dozen recurring and one-off suds.Peabody Heights Brewery / Brewee.app

Subtly dry honey grazed salted lemony orange oiling of Czech pilsner, Up Hill, leaving grassy astringency in its brisk wake.

Dryer Czech pils, Westport Park, let its perfumed lemon musk and grassy herbage settle atop spelt-like oats.

Salted caramel sugaring sweetened confectionery delight, The Charmer, a honey-spiced Scottish ale with butterscotch candied reminder.

Candy-glazed orange and juicy papaya, pineapple and mango anchored piney hopped 10 Acres Imperial IPA, a debonair 10th anniversary celebrator.

Mild rum-soaked coconut and polite cinnamon spicing paced New England IPA variant, Crash Boat Beach, re-creating Puerto Rican coconut eggnog while eschewing most of its stylish tropical fruited zesting.

Arguably my fave, Double Mango Double Astrodon Milkshake IPA plied marshmallow sugaring to salted mango juiciness, turning refreshingly bitter when its lemony orange rind and grapefruit pith sharpness increased.

Coconut creamed candied pineapple and lemony orange zest fortified tropical fruited sour ale, Juiced Painkiller, a vibrant cocktail alternative.

Toffee-spiced dried fruiting obtained dewy cellar musk for Evocator Doppelbock, leaving brown-sugared fig, sweet orange peel and tart raisin illusions on the caramelized back end.

An adjunct Belgian Dark Ale, Lord Pumpkin let its rummy brown-sugared pumpkin pie entry gain toasted cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice subtleties.

A coconut-bound oatmeal cookie, Philter Imperial Stout ushered in brown chocolate, brown raisin and cumin sweetness with finesse.

Milk creamed medium roast Colombian coffee and dark chocolate malting sufficed for Major Arcana Imperial Stout, a valiant nut-charred full body.

Creamy peanut buttered dark chocolate richness pounded decadent Imperial Stout variant, Major Arcana: The Magician, to its molasses-sugared ‘Graham Cracker pie crusting.’

FULL TILT BREWING

United States Brewpubs,

Full Tilt Brewing | Good Velo Club

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

In the heart of northeastern Baltimore’s revived Govans district, FULL TILT BREWING inhabits a pale blue-bricked, garage-doored shop. Local homebrewers Nick Fertig and Dan Baumiller joined forces in 2013 to open this friendly neighborhood pub, combining ‘traditional and modern ingredients’ for a solid lineup of mostly one-off brews in its backspaced brew room.

Full Tilt’s white slate-topped bar extends towards the rear with its 20 stools creating an elongated corridor with centralized draught taps, assorted bottled wines, cocktails and spirits. An unassumingly charming tavern (with multiple TV’s for sports addicts), a few frontal community tables plus several black and orange right side seats consume the interior. The pipe-exposed black ceiling houses stringed Edison lights and a front patio and upstairs mezzanine provide additional seating.

Despite having only a modest-sized barroom, its massive stainless steel brewtanks stretch towards the backroom ceiling, allowing for expanded brewing capacity in the future.

Alongside a few left side tables were two shuffleboard games and a brilliant wall-painted Full Tilt insignia.

Besides the typical stylistic fare done right, there were also a few highly approachable sour ales. My wife and I consumed nine sundry brews on a brisk December at noon while Argentina bested France for the World Cup.

Full Tilt Brewing Co., Baltimore, MD | The Beer Mapping Project

Snappy lemon prickle teased light lager, Royale With Cheese, retaining mild herbal hop licks and barnyard-dried graininess.

Spritzy lemon fizz crackled for tartly banana bruised hefeweizen, Go Bananas, leaving herbal-snipped clove and coriander spicing on its poppy seeded lemon banana breading.

Juniper-licked lemony orange bittering softy sashayed thru lacquered pine contrasting salted caramel for moderate-bodied Beer Maria: Blonde Ale.

Orange candied spicing perked up Hops The Cat, a Citra-Mosaic-Sauvin-hopped India Pale Ale with dank pine resin and grassy floral herbage.

Soft-toned milk chocolate creaminess and light vanilla sugaring captivated High’s: Cookies & Cream, a nifty chocolate chip cookie confection.

Fudgy cookie dough enriched High’s: Mad Cow Fudge, a chocolate brownie ice cream alternative with nutty sugared coffee reminder.

There were also three Dan’s Jams sours available on our wintry perusal.

Murky rogue-rubied ‘pistachio blackberry ice cream sour,’ Jamba Jams, juxtaposed peachy blackberry tartness and distant pomegranate-cranberry bittering with cake-battered vanilla sugaring sans pistachio influence.

Gummy Bear fruit punch, Cannonball City, combined candied orange, tangerine and clementine tartness with tertiary cherry-pineapple tanginess in a vanilla-pinched lactose setting.

Candied peach souring and tart lemonade sugaring guided Life’s A Peach Ring, a lactose fruited sour with slight apricot-nectarine sweetness plus Gummy Bear powdering.   

ALECRAFT BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

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BELAIR, MARYLAND

Many independent shops dot the streets of Bel Air, a festive small town 20 miles north of Baltimore now housing two successful breweries. Celebrating their fifth anniversary in 2022, ALECRAFT BREWERY crafts a well-rounded assortment of stylishly diversified small batch beers down the rear corridor of its snazzy art deco taproom.

An L-shaped 14-seat bar with planked pine surface and embossed bronze kick-plated frontage offers quaint antiquity for the pristine cement floored main space. Several wood tables and a cozy two couch side space bedeck the cozy interior.  A red brick-enclosed black metal-furnished outdoor deck adds further seating. There are twelve draughts listed on the electronic board.

Alecraft will expand capacity when they open a second larger location 45-minutes North in York, Pennsylvania during 2023.

My wife and I sank ten fine brews (reviewed below) during our December ’22 sojourn – missing out on the lemonade/black tea mixed fermentation Sliced! Sour Ale and Reviction Double IPA.

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Pallid barley roasted hop crisping gained light floral spicing for Alecraft Oktoberfest, leaving wispy orange-apple-pear illusions on the earthy bottom.

Mild pale malt spicing and light herbal hops coalesced for Bel Ale Pale Ale, a crisply dry moderation less involving thirsts will enjoy.

Placid Citra-hopped Imperial IPA, RecalCitrant, rushed sugared citrus tanginess by mild wood tones and pale malt breading.

Easygoing floral-perfumed orange and grapefruit tanginess retained a soft-toned twang absorbed by the dry wood lacquering of Le Renard, a standard all-grain West Coast IPA.

Meanwhile, offbeat New England-styled IPA, Seven Wonders #3 Olympia, utilized Kveik yeast for its fruit-forward lemony limed grapefruit zesting and mandarin orange tartness pushed aside for enigmatic cologne-daubed cilantro herbage and grassy hop astringency.

Spruce-tipped evergreen minting picked up tart lemonade sugaring for effervescent Spruce Tip Scottish Ale, riding atop lightly caramelized peat smoke.

Interestingly devised 5th anniversary ale, Cranberry Golden Spike Belgian Wit, let its orange-peeled coriander ‘holiday spicing’ seep into lemony cranberry tartness as well as sugary dried cherry, tangerine and clementine fruiting contrasting salty pink peppercorn souring.

There were also two delightful winter warmer nightcaps. Sweet vanilla-creamed brown chocolate richness and honeyed cherry guided nutmeg-spiced Sledding Around, pasting dried fruited date, green raisin and plum to its brown-sugared caramelization.

Nearly as engaging, Winter’s Run Winter Warmer let spiced-up orange peel sweetness recede as sugarplum, date and fig serenaded its hazelnut-glazed caramel center.

Another sugarplum-derived strong ale, Sugar Plum Fairy Dubbel, allowed its dark Belgian candi-sugaring to saturate the funky cellared herbal mustiness.

GREAT DIVIDE MACAROON YETI IMPERIAL STOUT

Beers A-Z,

Terrific Yeti variant plies caked biscuit macaroon influence to fudgy bourbon chocolate spicing as well as ancillary caramel-burnt coffee roast and tertiary espresso milking, retaining its contrastively stylized hop-charred wood sear just below the expansive mix. At the intense mocha finish, sugary vanilla creaming coats ‘macarooned’ coconut toasting, almond buttering and hazelnut pasting.

Macaroon Yeti 19.2oz mockup_No Background – GREAT DIVIDE BREWING COMPANY

MY FAVORITE THING RESTRAINT HORCHATA STOUT W/ VANILLA BEANS & CINNAMON

Beers A-Z,

Luxuriously rich pastry stout drapes dark chocolate syrup all over bittersweet vanilla beaning and brown-sugared molasses gingerbread expanse, enlivening the tongue further with wintry nutmeg, allspice and cumin seasoning. Hazelnut Oreo cookie confection, caramel coffee cascade and toasted cinnamon spicing seep thru the bustling finish of capacious Mexican horchata-spiced mocha enchantment.

Restraint - My Favorite Thing - Untappd