Ortega on Beer: Brewery Tours - Going Behind The Curtain.

There’s nothing like a good road trip. For me, road trips usually revolve around 3 things: Baseball, Beer (not while driving mind you), & Concerts. Recently, my co-conspirators’ & I took part in just such a journey. Now while I would love nothing more than to talk about the ball games or concert we saw, I’m just going to focus on the beer aspect of our trip.

The long and winding road led us to the doorstep of the Clipper City Brewery in Baltimore, MD. For those that don’t know, Clipper City was founded by Hugh Sisson, arguably Baltimore’s leading craft beer advocate, in December of 1995. What started w/Clipper City expanded to the acquisition of Oxford Brewing Company (Maryland’s first craft brewery) as well as in 2003 the creation of the Heavy Seas line, which is according to them is “our highest expression of the brewer’s art.”

For those who have never gone to a brewery, first off, what have you been waiting for? Not only do you get a crash course on making beer, you also get to try them directly from the source. You also get to try things that either rarely leave the brewery or are not yet ready for mass consumption. In this case we got the latter, trying Heavy Seas' soon to be released (in 22oz Special Edition Bombers) Big DIPA, a 10.6% hop bomb. Tours at breweries usually last anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. They always end w/a sampling of beer, the good ones let you sample while you’re on tour. Get a designated driver and go.

We got to the brewery around 12:30 for the 1PM tour (they run a second tour at 2:30PM if you like to sleep, and I do, but we had a schedule to keep.) Tours are free but for only $5, you can get a pint glass w/tokens for sampling the fine beers they make (beers during the tour is encouraged). Be sure to reserve your spot beforehand.

I’m not going to tell you about what happens on their tour except to say that the Jesse Jackson inspired bottling speech our tour guide made was classic.

To Hugh & the gang at Clipper City, Thank You for taking the time to show us around & for making some phenomenal beer.

Photos Courtesy of The Bone.