New While I Was Out: Beer! Hysteria Joins Jailbeak, Black Flag, Manor HIll And Others

Raising a toddler impeded my ability to write, but it has done wonders for the amount of alcohol that I'm drinking.

The tequila post will come in time, but my recent adoption has been an old school option -- cans of beer.

Picnics, neighborhood cookouts, many, many evenings watching kids ride bikes, play light sabers and shoot arrows in our alley.  Beer cans make much more sense, especially after I felt really self-conscious bringing a bottle of beer onto a playground.

A question in one of my final posts had been "Where can I find local beer in cans?"  And the answer now is "Way more places."

Hysteria Brewing opened Saturday on Berger Road in Columbia and joined a brewery scene that has all opened in recent years.   Black Flag in Columbia.  Jailbreak in Laurel.  Manor Hill in Ellicott City.  Along with the brewing at Frisco Tap Room and Columbia Ale House.

Hysteria opened with a great-looking party.  By which I mean that there were no open parking spaces when I tried to sneak a visit before taking Lil' Chow to a movie on Saturday.  I just looked.  Beer, food trucks.  I had hoped we could each relax -- me with a beer, him with a Dragons: Race To The Edge show on my iPad.  But I didn't have the window to find parking across the road and walk him through the heat.

Luckily, we went to dinner at Frisco, which the waitress told us was the former home of one of the Hysteria brewers.  They served up a Trash Panda IPA.  It tasted like a good, hoppy IPA.   But I ended up picking a crisp alternative because my taste buds have turned against bitter after a multi-year fling with Flying Dog's Raging Bitch.  I'll be excited to try the stouts, sours and other barrel-aged beers that Jess Mayhugh wrote up in a Baltimore Mag profile of Hysteria.  I have my eye on the Farm Truck saison.

I'd love advice.  What do people recommend from the local breweries?  I have heard little bits of styles -- "culinary" ingredients at Jailbreak, this barrel-aging at Hysteria -- but I'd love to hear what people think when they think of the local lines.  And what liquor stores carry the local beer?  I saw that the new Maple Lawn liquor store bulked up in comparison to its i.m. Wine predecessor.  Prior comments talked up Perfect Pour, Allview, Richburn and others.

You know what I'd really love?  A sampler six-pack.  I'll buy new beers, but I'm always torn about buying six of something that I've never tried where there are always old standards in the cooler.  Oftne, I get introduced to new local beers at a friend's house.  I'd love a sampler -- for example, six (or three in pairs) of Jailbreak's varieties aimed at a local who wants find his favorite.

My curiosity is really up about Lost Ark Distilling.  They're making corn whiskey and other spirits right down from Hysteria on Berger Road.  Bed time makes it difficult, but I want to get there to taste their stuff.  On that note, does anyone know if Bulk Head Brewing Company will be around?  There is Twitter from April, but I don't see anything current.

Now The Hard Stuff Is Coming To Howard County! Plus Manor Hill Brewing Releasing Beer Monday

Small production liquor is just great fun, and Howard County gets to join the party some time this summer where Lost Ark Distilling will start making rum and whiskeys in Laurel.

You young people may find it hard to believe that there was an epoch when we thought "interesting, unique" alcohol included Killian's Irish Red.  It took me years to learn it was brewed by Coors

Now, you could drink well all summer on beer brewed just in Maryland.  You could go for several weekends just trying different beers made in Howard County -- now at Jailbreak Bewery in Laurel and coming tomorrow from Manor Hill Brewing.

At least that's the news about Manor Hill on Randy Marriner's Twitter feed.  Please add a comment if you know the plans for the release party or if you try any of their beer.  I assume the Manor Hill beers will first appear at the Marriner family's Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia.

(Update:  MoCoBeer tweeted me a link to the release party poster.  Looks like 10 Manor Hill beers!  I just realized that *I* linked yesterday to a poster that mentioned the release party.  I'm working fast here.  I can basically read and write for a third to half of a nap.)

The Lost Ark folks want to add some harder stuff to the mix.  They signed a lease on U.S. 1 in Laurel, and they're aiming to start distilling in Summer 2015.  I, for one, welcome our new hard liquor overlords, expecially for a local whiskey.  I've only discovered bourbon and rye in the past two years, but they're now my main drinks.  I'll celebrate with as local a Manhattan as I can make.  I also know that setting up a business comes with challenges that can slow a schedule.

Speaking of those challenges, does anyone know the prospects for Black Eyed Susan Brewing?  After some early articles, I don't think I have heard anything in almost a year.

Brewery Updates: Jailbreak Is Great Fun; Anyone Know More About Manor Hill Or Black-Eyed Susan

Jailbreak's tasting glasses -- four on a key-shaped plate

I need some beer-loving folks to report on the new breweries opening in Howard County.

Jailbreak Brewery in Laurel has kicked into business with both retail and bar sales.  Those bar sales are going to 40+ places like White Oak Tavern, where you can often find Jailbreak on tap.  Although it is the retail tap room just off U.S. 1 that seems like a new opportunity.

The front part of the brewery is set up like a modern bar.  A bar, long tables, huge televisions.  You can try all kinds of Jailbreak brews, including sometimes experimental ones that haven't made it yet into kegs.  You can eat from food trucks that they've recruited to work the parking lot.  You can even hear music many weeks.

Jailbreak is pushing a niche of culinary beers.  Chocolate and coffee in a stout.  Basil in a wheat beer.  Jalapeños and cilantro in an IPA.  Generally, I skip flavored beers because I came of age in the wretched Cranberry Lambic Era of microbrews.  But Jailbreak's beers are smart and delicious.  Hints of unique flavors if you're looking, but just good flavor if you just want to drink a beer.

George Berkheimer from the Business Monthly touted that Basil Wit -- saying that there was huge basil nose and flavor at the start, but it mellowed a bit in the growler.  He recommends it with pizza.

I went to a Jailbreak's opening with a beer-loving friend Satellite Dann, but I haven't had a chance to go back for regular business.  What have you thought if you tried Jailbreak beers on site or on tap?  How is the scene in the tap room?  What food trucks are they getting?

At least two more people have talked about opening breweries.  Manor Hill Brewing will open in on a farm in Ellicott City.  These are the same folks who created Victoria Gastro Pub, a terrific place for both beer and food.  Black-Eyed Susan Brewing had talked about opening in Columbia.  After initial articles over the winter, I hadn't heard anything since spring.

Anyone know the story about either?  Manor Hill has an active Twitter feed, and I eagerly await details.  Black-Eyed Susan hasn't updated its Facebook page since April, and some folks had left comments saying that their Berger Road space is empty.  I need to drive past when I'm in the area.