Brewery Tour - Doggie Style

What do a Raging B**ch, Doggie Style, a Pearl Necklace, Gonzo and Kujo have in common?

They are all delicious, delicious beers

(Get your mind out of the gutter...sheesh)

This past weekend, we took a long anticipated trip to the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, MD.  If you're fortunate enough to have access to their beers on a regular basis, you should know that all of their beers are produced out of this single location!  They used to be based out of Aspen, CO, but when they realized that the majority of their fans were east of the Mississippi River, they moved to the East Coast.

Lucky for us, they are only located about an hour drive away!

The tour was fantastic!  Everyone was super knowledgeable and all have a clear passion for beer.  We got to see their entire operation and tasted lots of samples (more on that in a bit).

This is a pictures of one of their brew kettles.  For us, this part is played by a turkey fryer pot with a spout.  THIS bad boy however is huge!  They have two lauter tuns and a mash tun on the premises.  The inside is intricate and between every batch someone has to go down inside of the kettle to clean/sanitize it!  AH!  I would NOT want that gig...

The control panel they use it huge!  And its all kept inside of a warehouse where there are tons of supplies.  Kegs, grains, more grains and hops are all kept on the premesis. 

The warehouse!

Next we were off to see the fermentation tanks.  These guys are HUGE!  So big in fact that their "airlock" is a giant plastic barrel!  Seen below...

Me taking in the glory of the fermenters

mmm...shinyyyy

If you look at this picture closely, you can see of the plastic barrel "airlocks" overflowing

Now that's a nozzle...

I would be really upset if this much yeasty, brown frothy-ness was all over our bathroom!

This tank is hosting the Gonzo Imperial Porter

This Gigantor machine is their one and only bottling machine.  Apparently it was on-site when Flying Dog bought the space.  *Drool*

This picture was taken in their warehouse where they package the beer and get it ready to ship.  Most of their beers are stored and shipped cold (and the only reason they wouldn't be is because they have been scientifically proven to not change in taste/flavor at room temperature.)   Another fun fact I learned is that the machine can only package one type of beer at a time.  That means if you buy a variety pack, that box was HAND PACKED by some guy (or gal) taking individual bottles and placing them in the box.

Now that's love

If you have the chance and live close enough to their Frederick, MD brewery, I would HIGHLY recommend it (you can find info on how to sign up for their tours here.)  You will need a DD though (thanks babe =P), since they give you SIX - 3oz samples! 

[For those of you keeping score, or are reading this WHILE consuming the subject matter of this blog, that's 24oz (aka a lot of beer for a lightweight like me)].

We got to sample a lot of really great stuff, including their current batch of their Wildeman Farmhouse IPA and their Horn Dog Barley Wine.  A real treat was their Barrel Aged Gonzo Imperial Porter, which was sweet and delicious.  We were sure to take home some souvenirs (in fact, 2 growlers worth!) 

Overall, it was a fantastic afternoon!