OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND

Originally operating inside Hooper’s Crab House, FIN CITY BREWING COMPANY moved within walking distance to West Ocean Beach’s Westside Square Plaza, May 2024. Crafting a decent variety of mostly straightforward small-batch fare, the small taproom celebrates Ocean City’s fishing heritage while faring well as a local sportsbar.

A blue-tiled oak top bar (with ten stools and twelve draughts) captures the eye with its simple elegance. Small wood tables, cornered TV’s, exposed pipes and aluminum-ceilinged hanging lights furnish the barroom. A rear nano setup contains the liquid suds. I grabbed a pint o’ pilsner and a mug of stout on my three-day Ocean City venture.

I took home several Fin City canned brews (reviewed in Beer Index) before heading out at nightfall on a Friday in late February ’26.

Honeyed cereal grain sweetness welcomed delicate German pilsner, Pure Lure, letting sugar cookie and lemon cookie confections reach lightly spiced hop pep.

Semi-rich dessert stout, German Chocolate Cake, placed confectionery coconut-pecan frosting inside brown-sugared dark chocolate fudging, picking up black cherry nuances.

OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND

Situated just over the bridge from Ocean City on Route 50, FIN CITY BREWERY has been housed in Hooper’s Crab House (a spacious barn-styled seafood haven) since 2012 (relocating to a nearby mall, May 2024). A freestanding edifice with gray weatherboards, fire engine red roof and giant red crab insignia, my wife and I sojourned this mammoth restaurant-brewery during the 3rd Annual Bikers On The Beach weekend, April ’13.

Entering from a wood-planked deck, we ate dinner at the raised section to the right of the bar. In the middle dining area, several cool antiques appear, including a single propeller aeroplane, chopper motorcycle, Dale Earnhardt’s one-time practice car and scattered nautical ephemera. Ancient copper tanks on the balcony level stored brewer Vince Wright’s sessionable suds.

As our drunken mussels, steamed clams, cream of crab soup and moon rings (fried mozzarella with onion rings) got served, I dug into Fin Light, an easygoing dry-bodied pale ale with grassy Saaz hops tingling buttered popcorn, baked bread and maize illusions.

Next up, polite Sneaky Wheat brought mild orange peel bittering to subtle banana-clove-coriander nuances and carameilzed white wheat breading.

As the sun sets on the bay, I quaffed stylistically robust Jackspot Amber, a sharp Fuggle-hopped orange-spiced medium body with caramel-roasted malts and biscuit-y baguette backdrop.

www.hooperscrabhouse.com