- [Female Voice] This program is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities, and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

- This is tricky, trying to pour a perfect glass of beer.

Hi, I'm Al Spoler, and this is what they call a craft beer, brewed here in Maryland for the hometown crowd.

It's the product of skill, passion, and art, a unique beverage that makes its own statement.

Now, if this is your thing, you're in luck because Maryland is a hotbed of craft brewing.

So why don't you pull up the stool and join us while we tell you the story of our very own craft beers, the ones that are brewed on the bay.

(bright upbeat music) - [Male Voice] "Brewed on the Bay" is made possible by... - [Male Voice] The Trigger Agency, producers of Beer, Bourbon, and Barbecue.

Beer sipping, bourbon tasting, and barbecue eating.

Also producing Das Best Oktoberfest.

Over 120 beers, oompah bands, and more.

For more information, triggeragency.com.

- [Male Voice] The Brewers Association of Maryland, promoting the homegrown brewed in Maryland industry.

For more information, marylandbeer.org.

- [Female Voice] There are more than 27 styles of Heavy Seas ales and lagers brewed locally in Baltimore.

Public tours of the brewery are held on most Saturdays.

For more information, heavyseasbeer.com.

- [Male Voice] The Wine Source.

Baltimore's source for craft brews from around the block and around the world.

For more information.

- There are those who really love beer and those who merely drink it.

The true beer lover appreciates flavor, aroma, personality, diversity of style, craftsmanship.

In your opinion, ordinary beer is just, well, fast food, and you've got a hunger for really good cooking.

- Well, craft beer, to me, is like passion in a glass.

It's art and science.

It's the brewer's love of brewing beer that tastes better with quality ingredients, uses a lot of time and effort to make that beer.

It's not mass-produced.

- Craft beer is about choice and possibility, both for the drinker and the brewer.

- People love craft beer.

They're buying craft beer.

They're appreciating there's more to beer than maybe just those light lagers that are offered by most breweries.

- A lot of the bigger beers are made in a factory, whereas craft beers are perhaps more made in an artist's studio.

- The process of brewing beer is pretty much the same whether you're big or small.

Maggie, Brewer's Alley has got the most compact sweet little operation I've ever seen.

- Thank you!

- Yeah, so this is our little brew house.

We start with, here, a mash ton, where we add our grain and water and get a sweet liquid called "wort."

Put it over into the kettle.

It boils away.

We add our hops, our spices if necessary.

Cools down through the heat exchanger, and then put it into one of our stainless steel fermenters.

- And it just stays there a little while?

- Stays there a couple of days, couple of weeks, depending on ale or lager or aging time.

And then down into the cellar.

- [Al] And then right out there.

- And then up at taps.

- Beer is in our blood, and I mean that almost literally.

When the first settlers came over from England in 1634, they carried recipes for beer right in their heads, and they started brewing almost from the get go.

So Tom, the Marylanders who came over here knew how to make beer, but did they have everything they needed?

- They really didn't.

They did the best they could with what they had at hand.

And some of the grains that they had to use were barley, which we have some here, some malted barley, malted wheat, and malted rye.

- [Al] Rye?

- [Tom] Yes.

- Wow.

So what did they flavor it with?

- Well, they could use all sorts of herbs and spices.

We actually chose to use caraway.

- [Al] With the rye?

- [Tom] Yes, perfect combination.

- And what's this?

- This is molasses.

This was a raw material that was very easy for them to come by.

- This is the end result; let's give it a taste.

Well, that's really nice.

You can make a craft beer out of this, I think.

- And we have, actually, and also it's available in 12-ounce bottles, - Maryland history in a glass.

- Absolutely.

- In the 19th century, brewing became a big time affair.

So Rob, in the late 1800s, Baltimore was the destination for a lot of German immigrants.

- Yes, Al, that's absolutely correct.

And there were two reasons.

One, there was a war over there.

And two, there was a steamship line that came right to Baltimore.

- [Al] That's convenient.

- Yes, it was.

- [Al] What style of beer did they bring with them?

- The Pilsner, which is a lager.

Which we celebrate today.

Beer was made in small portions in brewpubs, what we would call brewpubs today.

We started seeing factories and an industrial approach to beer making right around 1900.

There were two factors that pushed it.

One was the bottling line, and two was refrigeration.

- Well, we still have something called Brewers' Hill.

- Yes, there were 37 breweries over O'Donnell and Conklin Street.

And that's also where National and Gunther were located, right across the street.

- [Al] But in 1920, we had this little thing called Prohibition.

- People were not supposed to brew beer or were not supposed to have any alcoholic drinks, but Maryland, being called the free state, didn't have anybody to enforce it.

And so there was plenty of beer to be available.

- And then during World War II, we had Rosie the Riveter.

So we had a much larger number of women in the workforce.

They were drinking beer.

They tended to prefer a lighter style beer, and so the manufacturers tweaked their formulas.

And of course, that lighter style stuck.

That pretty much changed things permanently from the end of the forties into the early fifties.

- After World War II, Baltimore brewing was dominated by large breweries, Gunther, Arrow, and of course, the biggest of all, National.

- Well, Joe, National Bohemian is such a part of our town.

We even have a little t-shirt shop set up for it.

And this one talks about the connection between the beer and baseball.

- Well, Jerry Hoffberger owned the Orioles, and he owned National Boh, so that he sold the beer at the stadium, and it became very, very popular.

- Now, they were really adept at advertising.

I recognize that logo.

- Well, that's the next thing was the racetrack, which would be for Pimlico.

Here's Mr. Boh.

Does he have one eye?

- [Al] Yeah.

- No, he's winking.

So that's why he has one eye.

- Now, they had one of the most famous ad campaigns in history, it was the Land of Pleasant Living campaign.

Here's a t-shirt that celebrates that.

- Yeah, these are the characters of the Mr. Boh.

And this was the most popular of all the advertising because of the Land of the Pleasant Living.

* Sing you the story of National Beer * * And while we're about it we're proud to say * * It's brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay * (both laughing) - Local pride!

- Here's to local prize.

- Well, Sam, I think it's amazing how popular craft beers have become.

- It is, especially with not only my generation, but older generations that grew up with Natty Boh, are discovering beer again for the first time, really.

- Craft beer is great.

It has flavor.

It has, you know, the aromas that I'm looking for.

- I just had to start trying different things and sort of step outside of my comfort zone.

And now I'm hooked.

- I gotta tell you, as a veteran of the old Baltimore beer scene, we did not have a lot by way of variety back then.

You know, we could get by with the old standbys, but a lot of us really thought that something was missing.

We were right.

During my first trip to England, I realized that the horror stories I had heard about warm beer were nonsense.

English beers were wonderful.

So imagine my surprise, when I came back from that eyeopening trip to England, tho discovered that someone was making real English-style ale right here in Baltimore.

- We've got our own excellent bears.

You don't have to import it from, you know... From Germany or Scotland or Ireland.

- [Al] So I didn't have to go to England to get that great pale ale.

I only had to ask for an Oxford Class.

- Well, the brewery actually first brewed their beer in 1987.

They were the first craft brewery in Maryland.

They started off making a traditional English bitter.

Now to our minds, that would be a beer that is too flat, too weak, too warm.

To their minds, it was just right.

- In my opinion, that first keg of Oxford Class changed everything.

It was Genesis 1:1 in the Bible of Maryland craft beer.

I have the feeling that Oxford Class must've come into your thinking at some point.

- The influence of Oxford Class, probably...

It was pretty, pretty enormous.

I mean, they were doing English-style beers, which very few Americans had really ever come across, especially in this particular area.

And so, I mean, they kinda got the ball rolling.

And then a number of us who were already in the planning stages kind of just dovetailed in on that.

- Hugh Sisson was one of the pioneers in Maryland craft beer.

It was his work and pushing for the legislation to allow brewpubs to exist that really makes all of us very grateful to him.

- By the middle of the 1990s, we had a number of microbreweries up and running in Maryland.

Hugh Sisson had started Clipper City.

We had Frederick Brewing Company.

On the eastern shore, we had Wild Goose.

And Theo DeGroen started the Baltimore Brewing Company right over there.

It's a shame it's not around anymore.

- The pitfalls of running a small craft brewery are under capitalization, the inability of the entrepreneur to necessarily be good at all aspects, you know, the finances, the marketing, the sales, the manufacturing components.

- You had some breweries who thrived.

You had others who survived in different forms, were purchased by other people.

And unfortunately, there were many who didn't survive, but at least gave us a legacy of good beer in Maryland.

- [Al] My beloved Oxford Class eventually folded, but enough craft beer has held on to see their brands gain acceptance then loyalty.

- One thing here in Maryland is local breweries around here have a great loyalty and brand following from their customers, and brand loyalty is definitely what keeps the breweries going.

- Yes, I love craft beer.

I actually have a craft beer tattoo.

- I think first and foremost, you're seeing 20 and 30 somethings really go towards craft beer because they're the people that aren't set in their ways yet.

They're the ones that wanna experiment a little bit and say, "Well, maybe I'll try Pilsner.

Maybe I'll try a porter."

- It's worth it to spend a few extra dollars to drink better, higher quality beer that has a little bit higher alcohol content than the mass produced corporate stuff that has lower alcohol, and you're gonna drink more of it and spend more money anyway.

- I used to have your average brew, as far as whatever was sold at the liquor stores.

And he told me, he goes, "No, you should taste this."

And I'm like, "Oh no, no, I'll never drink it."

And then once I started, that was it.

I can't go back.

- We've gone from having simple, just multi-million dollar mass produced beer to having so many different options.

It really is an endless amount of options these days.

- Over the last couple of years, I've really started to get into more stouts and more lagers and more porters and just really enjoy trying all kinds of different craft beers.

- So if there is one thing craft beer is known for, its variety.

The DuClaw Brewing Company of Bel Air covers the spectrum.

Well, Jim, DuClaw makes an awful lot of beers.

You must be a style expert.

- Well, we try to be.

We try to hit many different styles throughout the country and throughout the world.

- What do we have here, some of the most popular ones?

- We sure do, yep.

Our first one here is our Bare Ass Blonde Ale.

The blonde is a nice transition beer, a good beer to introduce somebody that's not used to craft brews in general.

- What's next?

- Next up is venom.

Venom is our hoppy pale ale.

We hop this beer aggressively toward the end of the brewing process.

So not a lot of bitterness, but a good amount of hop flavor and hop character.

- The next one?

- Next is Misfit Red.

This is one of our very popular beers.

We use a small amount of a dark roasted malt in this beer to give it its slight roasty character.

Goes great with a lot of foods.

- It really is roasty.

Taste that right away.

- Yeah.

- [Al] Now, this might be an India pale ale, I'm hoping.

- It's actually a double.

- Oh boy!

- Yeah, so this is a monster beer.

This beer is aggressively hopped through the entire process, bittering, flavor, and aroma.

What separates ours is we put a nice malt backbone to really balance out the beer.

- A lot of beer in that glass.

- Yeah, oh yeah.

- And that looks like it might be a stout?

- It is; it's not just a stout, it's our Imperial Stout.

Very big beer.

A lot of espresso, chocolate, black currant-type flavors.

Very smooth.

We use a small amount of oats in the brewing process to give it a nice smoothness.

- Well, there's a lot going on -- - A whole lot, absolutely.

- These are really great.

It doesn't take a lot of motivation to take the craft beer plunge.

- The bartender downstairs was making fun of me, calling me a lightweight, just silly, and said, "You don't know what a good beer is."

And I was like, "Okay, well give me a good beer."

- I like to have a Bach beer that... That's kind of sweet has lots of hoppiness to it.

- I always look for unique flavors, like pumpkin ale or blueberry ale.

I'm a fan of those types of things too.

- One of my favorite beers now is Belgian ale, which were literally inaccessible when I was a kid or, you know, just starting to drink.

- I have a new favorite.

Can I change it?

Sorry, Loose Cannon.

- That's Loose Cannon in his glass, made by Hugh Sisson.

His Clipper City Brewing Company, now called Heavy Seas, is flourishing.

- Well, Hugh, you've kept this noisy whole place open for over 15 years now.

- Yeah, it's been a challenge.

Sometimes it's held together with chewing gum and stuff.

- [Al] Well, what's the most rewarding part of it for you?

- Probably the consumer emails I get, with things like they've changed their lives.

It's bizarre, but I love it.

- Our portfolio falls into three tiers, or fleets, as we like to say.

We have our clipper fleet, which is our four to 6% alcohol by volume beers.

And they're sort of the classic styles, your pale ales, your lagers.

Then we move into a little funkier level called our pirate fleet, and these are our seven to 8% beers.

Our flagship beer, Loose Cannon, is in that fleet.

And then we take it to another whimsical level called our mutiny fleet, and these are typically over 8% and represent very creative, little, tiny, limited release runs, usually about one a month.

- The state's biggest craft brewery is Flying Dog, an indirect descendant of Frederick Brewing Company.

The brand originated in Colorado and brought its gonzo spirit back east.

This is a huge place.

How many barrels are you doing here?

- Well, our brew house is capable of producing 100,000 barrels a year.

That equates to about a million case equivalents of beer, most of that being sold in Maryland.

- [Al] Makes you pretty big.

- [Matt] Oh yeah.

- Matt, what is the philosophy of Flying Dog?

- Well, really, it's a couple of things.

One is to have fun, but we like artistic expression, and I think that one way we express ourselves is with the fantastic artwork of Ralph Steadman, but also the passion and the craft and the art of making a good craft beer.

- What are the really popular styles that you make?

- Really, our hop forward beers are more popular, like Snake Dog IPA, our classic pale ale, and our Raging Bitch IPA.

- - Nice, sedate names for your -- - Yes, yes.

- Little gonzo going on there.

Flying Dog and Heavy Seas manufacture beer and sell it for widespread retail distribution.

Breweries like DuClaw in Bel Air and Dog Brewing in Westminster sell their beer at affiliated pubs.

- I first got into craft brewing after trying some local beer in Baltimore, actually at Sisson's Brewpub in the early nineties.

I try to accomplish several things in brewing, balance freshness and having a very easy drinking product.

At Dog Brewing, we make American ales anywhere from light to very dark and everything in between.

You can find our products at Pub Dog in Baltimore City and Columbia.

- [Al] These brewers have carved out a significant niche in the market.

- Maryland is a great place to live if you like craft beer.

- I think Marylanders are very ready for the craft beer movement.

Whenever I go to a bar now, if they don't have craft beer on it, on tap, I'm surprised.

- My generation is primed for craft beer because we see the beer that our parents drank.

We wanna drink something different, and it's there.

- The classic brewpub, where the beer is made right on the premises, is alive and well in Maryland.

In fact, you don't have to go far to find a good brewpub.

They're all over the state.

Oh, thank you very much.

You know, in those early days, one of my favorite places to come drinking the English-style ale was right here at the Wharf Rat, where Bill Oliver was serving some mighty fine beer.

And that beer is still made in Baltimore, at the Pratt Street Ale House, by English brewer Steve Jones.

- There was such an explosion of craft brewing in the states.

So many different styles of beer.

It's fantastic.

It's an amazing beer scene.

A great beer culture.

- Perhaps the most intricate styles of craft beer are the Belgian ales.

These highly idiosyncratic beers are almost works of art.

This is the Brewer's Art, a little sip of Brussels in Baltimore.

This whole place here at the Brewer's Art, it's a sort of a home brewers thing that got out of control.

- Well, it started as a lemonade stand idea.

We thought we'd have a really small little place, and it kind of blossomed into this.

- And Belgian ales have become extraordinarily popular these days.

- We like the sort of anarchistic spirit of the Belgian brewers.

Belgian beers have a reputation for being a little more out there than the traditional German or English styles.

There are some nuances in flavor that you won't find in beers that are simply made with traditional malt and hops.

The Belgians rely very heavily on yeast, and it lends a lot of really unique character to some of the beers.

- I don't even like beer.

This is yummy goodness.

- The town of Frederick has a pair of choices.

Brewers' Alley is a Market Street destination.

Their tiny brewery is a gem, and the excellent restaurant serves food that matches up perfectly with the beer.

Be sure to try their best-selling Kolsch, a gently hot, light golden creation.

Just south of town is Barley and Hops.

This cozy little place brews a full range of English-inspired lagers and ales for your enjoyment.

And be sure to try the extra special bitter.

It really is special.

There you go.

- Thank you.

- In the eastern shore town of St Michael's, you can find Eastern Shore Brewing.

These fine beers seem to be perfectly crafted for bayside living.

Stop by their tasting room or local restaurants to sample them.

Swing by Solomon's Island in southern Maryland, and visit Ruddy Duck Brewery and Grill.

Owner Carlos Yanez has picked up some nice hardware at the recent Governor's Cup Competition.

- After a year and a half of being open, we got our first best-in-show, which is our Helis.

It's a golden lager, Munich-style, bright beer.

- [Al] The Washington suburbs are blessed with a number of brewpubs.

The Rock Bottom Brewery in Bethesda is home to a super brewing operation that cranks out a wide assortment of local favorites.

Their fine restaurant turns out food that is the perfect foil for their handcrafted beers.

National chain Gordon Biersch has locations in Rockville, DC, and Annapolis.

They're attracting an enthusiastic younger crowd.

- I think when you get out of college and you have that job and you're like, "Now I can afford to drink something a little... A little more crafty, a little spicier, a little heavier..." And you know, they take advantage of that.

- [Al] Here the accent is German, with authentic styles inspired by the old country.

And no matter which you pick, they all go well with their celebrated garlic fries.

Over in Hyattsville.

Franklins has made itself a center of the community.

- We were the first retail store to open in the last 40 years, where we've really revitalized the whole downtown area, just because we proved that it can be done here.

Our customers really feel passionate about our business.

They're invested in us, and we're invested in them.

We started with English-style ales with a heavy emphasis on hops, but we've evolved to be much more eclectic.

- [Al] Franklin serves up to 11 different beers at one time, from a repertoire of over 35 varieties.

Ellicott mills is one of the area's older brewpubs.

Once again, the emphasis is on classic German styles and creative seasonals.

- We're a brewpub on Main Street, Ellicott City.

We make some very traditional, Munich-style beers.

We make a marzen, which is also considered an Oktoberfest beer when it's a little higher in gravity.

We make a Dunkel beer, which literally means just a dark beer.

We always have a Kolsch on draft, and then we always have a Bach beer on.

- [Al] If you're shopping at White Marsh, drop by Redbrick Station.

This award-winning brewpub boasts fine dining, great beers, a mug club, and one of Maryland's prettiest little breweries.

Visitors to Westminster should make time to stop by Johansson's, a classic old time brewpub on Main Street.

Brewer Jay Lampart presides.

- At Johansson's, we have three beers that we run all year round: the Hoodle Head IPA, the Whistlestop amber ale, and the Honest golden ale.

We always have two seasonal beers and typically one to two Catskills running, And I've tried some crazy things, some things that work, some things that didn't work.

And the greatest part about this is I can do all my market research here.

This is kinda like my laboratory.

- [Al] Some small breweries, like the Raven and Hook and Ladder, produce their beer by contracting with a larger operation.

One of the hottest beers in this category is a brand called Stillwater, produced by Brian Strumke.

- Stillwater is a great new up-and-coming Maryland brewery.

He is definitely like a mad scientist.

- Brian, I've been hearing so much about your Stillwater ales.

Why do you love Belgian ale so much?

- They're different.

(laughter) - I know, a lot of creativity, I guess.

Oh, actually all my beers are conceptualized kind of like little art pieces.

I don't like to play by the rules.

I just like to do new things.

In my mind, brewing is a mix of chemistry and art.

It's a lot of science behind it, but at the same time, it takes a lot of creativity in order to build anything that's new.

- [Al] For beer lovers, the first warm days of autumn are prime time.

This is when you can practice the total immersion approach, which means Oktoberfest.

The idea started long ago in Bavaria and traveled very well to this country.

Two of the biggest are at National Harbor in Prince George's County and at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

They've got oompah bands, lederhosen.

beautiful young shotses, potato pancakes, pretzels, more shotses, and lots and lots of beer.

You can try beers from the old country, but the local brands are very well-represented.

In fact, the Timonium event is the official Maryland Beerfest, where the emphasis is really the hometown product.

Rigorous study of Maryland's liquid assets can be quite educational.

- I'm graduating to a new level, now, of understanding beer and the different tastes that make up different types.

- [Al] One exciting innovation was the creation of Baltimore Beer Week, held during the second week of October.

After just two years, it's already a firmly established tradition.

- We've really seen an increase in interest and increase in attendance from the first year to our second year.

- I think that people in Baltimore are finally getting the message that craft beer is really the way.

- [Al] Over 100 events mark Baltimore Beer Week, everything from learned seminars to outdoor festivals.

There's even a celebration of the firkin.

- It's a small keg.

It holds about 10.6 US gallons of beer.

- Well, I think the firkin is here to stay.

It's really a lot of fun -- - Well, if you look around you today, we clearly have a following.

(Victoria laughing) I think the trick is to actually have parties for firkins.

And I would say, with this size, one of these for a party oughta be just perfect.

- Not with my friends.

(both laughing) We need two.

- It's great for a beer drinker to be in a state like Maryland, in a city like Baltimore, where, in fact, beer is consumed and loved.

- Wonderful.

- [Al] Big beer events take place all year round, featuring local craft beers.

National Harbor near DC is the venue for many of them.

In February, they have the Chesapeake Oyster and Beer Festival.

In June, it's time for Beer, Bourbon, and Barbecue.

In August, you can check out the Chesapeake Crab and Beer Festival.

And in November you can chow down at the Capital Bacon and Beer Bash.

Call it a reaction to the big beer establishment, but the craft beer movement has changed the way we drink.

- Craft beer has a bigger appeal to people because I think it's a much more diverse world of beer, not just your large industrial lagers, which certainly have their place.

But I think people get into craft beer because they wanna try something new and something fresh.

The younger consumer is definitely being attracted to craft beer via viral messaging and the different social media components that exist today within the craft beer industry.

- We've only just begun to scratch the surface of consumers like this, that are loving good, locally-brewed beer.

- I think one of the real indicators of success for craft beer is that it's starting to get into the corner bar.

These are bars that have been set in their ways for decades, but now you're starting to see, maybe, Resurrection on tap, maybe Clipper City on tap.

And having that choice puts craft beer into the collective consciousness.

- Long live beer.

- Beer!

- Craft beer is definitely here to stay.

If there's any doubt, just look at the fact that it's the fastest growing segment in the alcoholic beverage industry today, and you will know that it is not going anywhere but up.

- Marylanders really love their beer, and it's not surprising that we are so enthusiastic about the craft beer movement.

I think it's really great that, once again, we can say, with all honesty, that our favorite beers are brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

I'm Al Spoler; thanks for watching.

(bright upbeat music) - [Male Voice] "Brewed on the Bay" is made possible by... - [Male Voice] The Trigger Agency, producers of Beer, Bourbon and Barbecue.

Beer sipping, bourbon tasting, and barbecue eating.

Also producing Das Best Oktoberfest.

Over 120 beers, oompah bands, and more.

For more information, triggeragency.com.

- [Male Voice] The Brewers Association of Maryland.

Promoting the homegrown brewed in Maryland industry.

For more information, marylandbeer.org.

- [Female Voice] There are more than 27 styles of Heavy Seas ales and lagers brewed locally in Baltimore.

Public tours of the brewery are held on most Saturdays.

For more information, heavyseasbeer.com.

- [Male Voice] The Wine Source.

Baltimore's source for craft brews from around the block and around the world.

For more information.

- [Female Voice] This program is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities, and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.