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.
Distillery Lane Ciderworks Brings George Washington’s Apple Tree Back to Life
by Brennen Jensen Distillery Lane co-owner Rob Miller and his dog, Kingston, stand among the property’s some 4,000 apple trees. DISTILLERY LANE CIDERWORKS IS ALL ABUZZ Distillery Lane Ciderworks sits in a bucolic corner of Frederick County—out where the blacktop dips and snakes, the fields and farmland roll, and South Mountain is a hazy blue […]
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Wild Gets Caffeinated
Mobtown Fermentation co-founders Sergio Malarin, Sid Sharma and Adam Bufano. Mobtown Fermentation’s illustrated rabbit logo has been popping up on tap handles and bottles all over Maryland this year. That’s because in February the producers of the Wild Kombucha line traded in their 3,400-square-foot Lutherville production space for a 13,600-squarefoot brewery in northwest Baltimore. With […]
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Black Ankle takes a New Step
Black Ankle’s eco-friendly tasting room, inside Black Ankle Vineyards has a problem that many wineries only dream of. The Mt. Airy winery has outgrown its own grape production. Since wife and husband team Sarah O’Herron and Ed Boyce first dug into the dark, shale-layered soil in 2003, they have put vines on every bit of […]
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Make it a Meal
by: Ryan Detter GETTING TO THE TAVERN Blackwater Distilling was the first distillery to open in Maryland since 1972, Chris Cook, co-owner, tells me. He’s talking about their beginnings in 2008, before the seismic shift that craft distilling has seen since then. When Blackwater started production, there were only around 50 craft distilleries nationwide and […]
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News from Grow & Fortify
Celebrate Bastille Day! Bastille Day, Help us clebrate French Independence day with food, wine and music, known in France as locally as La Fête Nationale, commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution on July 14. On July 14, 1789, when a group of enraged Parisians stormed and took the Bastille in order to secure the arms and […]
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WHITE TIGER TAKES DRINKERS ON A TRIP TO LAOS
Itsara Ounnarath’s journey into the world of craft distilling began five years ago when he opened White Tiger distilling in Stevensville on the Eastern Shore. In the summer of 2018, his operation itself took a journey when he moved it—still, stock and barrels—to a new home in Bel Air. Itsara Ounnarath’s journey brought him to […]
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News from Grow & Fortify
Comptroller’s Cup Results Catoctin Cabernet Franc Takes Best in Show By Grow & Fortify Following the success of its 2016 Cabernet Franc, Catoctin Breeze Vineyard in Thurmont has won the 2019 Comptroller’s Cup with its 2017 Estate Cabernet Franc. Standing out from 165 competing wines from 31 wineries, this Cabernet Franc took top honors in […]
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Omnibibulous
Meet the Brewer In another life Patrick Jones might have been a winemaker By Brennen Jensen A Q&A with Patrick Jones, Head Brewer, Pooles Island Brewing Co. How long have you been a professional brewer? Since 1998, so 20-plus years. Describe your brewing philosophy in three words. Beers With Balance First beer you ever […]
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A GOOD RUSSIAN GRAFT?
When Big Cork Vineyards in Rohrersville sent the label for its Russian Kiss wine to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for approval, the agency initially turned them down. “It wasn’t political,” says Dave Collins, co-owner and winemaker, “The federal government just didn’t want people to think this was a Russian wine.” […]
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HOPPED UP ON CANNABIS
Partnering with Flying Dog Brewery to create a cannabis-infused IPA was a “joint idea,” according to Green Leaf CEO Philip Goldberg. The two businesses are within walking distance of one another in Frederick, and while Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso was touring Green Leaf, the idea began to brew. Ralph Steadman, known for illustrating Hunter […]
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