Makers & Growers
Here you will find information about the creative and hardworking owners of wineries, breweries and distilleries across Maryland. You’ll also find farmers and makers who offer value-added dairy and milk products, honey, CBD infusions, and so much more.
School of Suds
WHERE BREW MEETS U When you pop the top on a can of Flying Dog Brewery’s Field Notes, you’re doing more than opening a good local beer. You’re also supporting research that encourages the expansion of Maryland’s craft beer industry. For the past four years, Frederick-based Flying Dog, the state’s largest independent craft brewer, has […]
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Hands On
By: Diana Friedman (SPOILER ALERT: DON’T KILL THOSE DANDELIONS!) Beekeeping has always been popular in Maryland, but each year more homeowners, concerned about rapidly declining bee populations, have started to tend bees. According to the Maryland Department of Agriculture, more than 800 new beekeepers have registered in the state since 2009, bringing the total number […]
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Cumberland Digs
DIGGIN’ IT Robert Dettinburn opened his long-anticipated Dig Deep Brewing Co. last fall, and the joint is, well, jumping. On the ground floor of the historic Footer’s Dye Works Building along the Potomac River in Cumberland, Dig Deep’s soaring ceilings and open-air layout means views of the brewing process. Above the pinewood bar made by […]
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Flying Menace
PRETTY BUT DEADLY Running a family-owned vineyard and winery requires plenty of roll-up-the sleeves work, as Tony Fiore knows all too well. He’s a grandson of the founders of Harford County’s Fiore Winery, where they also operate a small distillery. But of late his duties have grown to include a new task: being on bug […]
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Catoctin Breeze’s Prize-Winning Wines
By: Christine Grillo FROM IRON CURTAIN TO Gold Medal THE FIZYTA FAMILY’S ROUNDABOUT ROUTE TO AWARD-WINNING CATOCTIN BREEZE VINEYARD It’s been said that cabernet sauvignon is the king of all grapes. And there are those who say that if sauvignon is the king, then cabernet franc is the queen. The grape, says Voytek Fizyta, “provides […]
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Farmed Fruit
VITICULTURE TO VINIFICATION When Robert Butz and his wife Cathy began to look into growing grapes about 10 years ago, the idea was simply to add another crop to the family farm. Butz and his three brothers raise corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay on some 1,200 acres in Montgomery and Frederick counties for the family’s […]
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Moonshine on the Horizon
TROPICAL MOONSHINE Puerto Rico is known for rum. The island is, after all, called “The Rum Capital of the World,” and some 70 percent of the rum consumed in the U.S. comes from our territory in the Caribbean. Much harder to find on the mainland is pitorro, or moonshine rum, a potent, flavor-infused spirit beloved […]
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Oysters and Booze
A TRUE CHESAPEAKE BELIEVER Chelsea Gregoire believes that her education at Liberty University, the Virginia school founded by evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell, was fine preparation for her career in the hospitality industry. “If you look into the etymology of the church, as a house of welcoming and fellowship, a restaurant or bar comes close,” Gregoire […]
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Eastern Shore Agave
SPIRIT OF THE WOLF The first rule of American craft agave spirits is don’t call it tequila. Only spirits made from the blue agave plant and made in certain regions of Mexico can be so labeled. But Meghan Brown and R. B. Wolfensberger, the Annapolis couple behind Maryland’s first agave spirit, are more than happy […]
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Omnibibulous
Barreling Along At the ripe old age of 4, Baltimore Spirits is the oldest rye distillery in Maryland By Brennen Jensen The Baltimore Spirits Company has taken to billing itself as “the oldest rye distillery in Baltimore,” which makes me chuckle a bit. Not because this isn’t a true statement, it’s just that I’ve visited […]
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