maryland

Every now and then the stars collide and we’re able to go on a trip that gets partly expensed; this was one such occasion and we made our way to Virginia for beer work. But in all seriousness, plenty of beer work was consumed performed that totally justified our my beercation business trip. And hey, my favorite North Brewery buddy just so happens to just a short distance away from where I would be drinking working. The trip down to VA can either be one of scenery, tolls and cops or crashes, tolls and cops. So we chose scenery, tolls and cops on the way down by taking 95 to 113 through Delaware and oh hey a brewery. So on our way down to Kale’s we got to stop at two new to us Maryland breweries. Burley Oak Brewing Company (Berlin, MD) Burley Oak Brewing Company of Berlin, MD was […]

Road trip to Virginia, First Stop Maryland Breweries

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We woke up in Arlington on Monday morning and were surprised to find that there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground and more coming. Now, being from CT and upstate NY, we are no strangers to snow and can handle ourselves. But we also know that DC loses its shit when there’s a flurry, so we were a little concerned. Thankfully, we had done all of our DCing the days before and now we were just heading home, with a few detours along the way.   Andrew decided that the route that google and I had created wasn’t exciting enough so he took it upon himself to find a way home. The bad thing about beerventuring on a Monday is many breweries are closed so it’s hard to plan a route and not pass a few potentially great stops. But sacrifices must be made.  And those sacrifices […]

DC Day 4 (Aka Maryland and Delaware and home again)

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One of the reasons we had wanted to go to D.C. was the baby panda, appropriately named Bei Bei. So what better way to start our Valentine’s Day than to go to the National Zoo and see all the animals? The only problem was that it was approximately 12 degrees out and that makes for a not happy Melissa. Thankfully the zoo has a bunch of indoor exhibits to take refuge, so we hung out with the pandas (SO CUTE), elephants, gorillas (this one smelled exceptionally bad) and reptiles. While I wish it was warmer, I’m glad we went when we did. We got there early and beat the crowd to see Bei Bei. Admission is also free which is great if you take advantage if the metro which we did not, but parking was $22 per car which wasn’t terrible for the four of us. Melissa’s rating: 10 out […]

D.C. Day 3 Valentines Day Beerventuring (and baby pandas)

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Many people might say that drinking beer at 11 am is a sign that you’ve officially hit rock bottom. Thankfully our hobby, beerventuring, means that drinking beer at 11 am makes us professionals.  It separates us from the amateurs, the boys from the men, the connoisseurs from the alcoholics.  So while you’re silently judging us and questioning if we’ve actually hit rock bottom let me dispel any doubt.  Damn straight we did.  At 11 am, we hit Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. This national chain restaurant is owned by the same holding company as Gordon Biersch, but the beer is substantially better because the onsite head brewer holds a fair amount of power.  Since we were there at 11 am and were the only people at the bar, we got to meet the head brewer himself!  Geoff is a one man brew team at the Bethesda location explained to us […]

D.C. Day 2 (We finally made it!)

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 The first brewery of our DC trip was none other than Americas oldest, and the world famous Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA.  Now we’ve done many a tour but this was the by far the most impressive brewery tour we’ve ever gone on; even beating FX Matt.  If you’re a fan of history and beer, and preferably Yuengling beer, this is a must stop on your list.  We’ve all had the beer, so lets skip to the brewery highlights. They have a massive beer cave.  Which is also, quite literally, a manmade, hand pickaxed cave.  This is because they were not allowed to dynamite as Yuengling had a history catching on fire and burning down. During prohibition, they continued to produce smaller amounts of their porter which could be acquired with a prescription for “medical purposes.” Despite having a production cycle of 30 +/- days, cases of Yuengling lager were […]

DC Part 1 (aka not DC)

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