Hanging with the Brewer: Redbrick Station's Mike McDonald

Late last week when my fiance Deana realized we had Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day she mentioned that it might be a good time to finally get all of our Xmas decorations put away. I agreed and then promptly went about figuring a way to get out of participating. A few minutes later, I had an e-mail out to the fine folks of Redbrick Station inquiring about meeting with their brewer, Mike McDonald. They were kind enough to agree to a meetup. Needless to say, hanging out with Mike beat Deana's day of stuffing reindeer into plastic bins by a considerable amount.

Being that we recently turned the page on a new year I decided that one of things I want to bring to the blog is a lot more interaction with local breweries. I chose to start off with Redbrick Station for a variety of reasons. Out of all the brewpubs in the area, I've spent more time in their establishment than any other. I can walk there from work and I only live 10 minutes away making every day the perfect day to sit down with pint there. I also decided to start with Redbrick Station because I really love what they are doing there and yet I feel like they don't always get the attention from local beer connoisseurs that they should.

So I asked Mike, who has been brewing for 22 years (16 with Redbrick) just that. Did he ever consider what Redbrick's nitch was within the Maryland Beer scene? His answer was very refreshing. Most all of the beer he brews is sold within the walls of the brewpub and so he's making beer for the people that walk through their doors every day. He's not brewing for himself or spending time looking at the landscape of Maryland beer and trying to keep with the trends. At the end of the day, Mike's using his 14 barrel system to produce sessionable (more often that not) English style beers that guys like me can enjoy two or three of with dinner before we head home for the evening.

On that front, Mike's doing a damn fine job. A big thing in craft beer these days is pairing food with beer. In my experience, I find this to be a challenge because of craft beers tendency to go big on everything. Yeah, there are beers that pair easily but there are far too many I don't want anywhere near my pint glass when I'm eating. At Redbrick, their beers are well balanced and work well as a standalone beer or something to help wash down whatever food you have in front of you. In other words, the beers are flavorful but they aren't so over the top that you find your tastebuds hosting a battle royale between beer flavors and food flavors.

On a different note but along the same theme, the well balanced nature of Mike's beers make them perfect for carrying on conversations. As much as I love admiring a beer for it's color, aroma, taste, head retention, lacing, mouth feel....(you get the point)....there are times where I just want a beer that tastes good and isn't going to get in the way of a conversation. Better yet, I don't always want a beer that's going to be the conversation. After work, all I want to do is unwind with a good beer and relax for a little bit. There is a time for getting overly precious with my beer and then there are times when all I want is a good old fashioned beer delivered to me in a simple but delicious way. Creating unassuming but fantastic beers is a skill unto itself and something I wish more people took notice of. Mike nails these types of beers at Redbrick and given that they style themselves as an English Style Pub, the nature of Redbrick's beers are right in line with where they ought to be.

In addition to their staple beers that consist of Avenue Ale, Honeygo Lite, Spooners Stout, Something Red, and Daily Crisis IPA (their top seller) Mike usually has one or two seasonal's on tap. Yesterday, I enjoyed Winter Solstice on cask and it was delicious. It was nutty with a nice mix of caramel and toffee and would go perfectly as I work on this post while it's 20 degrees outside and we're 6 inches deep in snow. A few other favorite seasonals are a Blueberry Ale known as They Made Me Do It and a Watermelon Beer called Cerveza Sandia. Trust me when I say Cerveza Sandia is one of the most refreshing local beers going at the end of a hot summer. Neither of these beers (or any Redbrick beer for that matter) use extracts and remain true to their base beer while offering subtle hints of fruit. If you don't like fruit beers these are definitely a few to try.

Another thing they do really well is cask ale and I give Redbrick a lot of credit for turning me onto cask. When I first started getting into beer I didn't really know what cask beer was but it was at Redbrick where I learned just how different a beer can become simply by serving a beer through a cask instead of the traditional CO2 fed system I was used to. Mike prefers to throw Ave Ale in the cask and dry hop it, but all the beers minus Honegyo Lite are fair game for cask treatment. Personally, my two favorite cask offerings are Daily Crisis and Something Red. Something about the rounded soft flavors make these beers extra quaffable.

Something that make Redbrick's beers unique are the fact that they use open fermentation. I wasn't previously aware of this fact, and I won't pretend to tell you what flavors I can pick up on their beers that arise via open fermentation, but it's something not everyone does and I'm always a fan of the road less traveled. Mike also informed me that he doesn't mess with water chemistry. Once upon a time he might have tried to recreate Burton upon Trent water but found that White Marsh water worked just fine. Being that water is the main ingredient in beer, if you're a fan of drinking local you can drink easy knowing that the water, and hence the beer, is as local as local gets.

If you haven't had a chance to try Redbrick out recently be sure to stop back in and give them a taste. Yes, I know some of you won't want to make the trip out to of the city and into the suburbs, but don't let that stop you from getting some. The Wharf Rat almost always has something of Mike's on offer. And just as an FYI to any curious readers, I got to taste a Barleywine that was fermented in an Oak Barrel and it was out of this world good. It's more along the lines of an English Style Barleywine with hints of citrus, sweet malt, and a bit of spice throw in from the Oak. I loved it now and hope to get a taste in the future because it's only going to get better as it ages another couple months. Be on the lookout for that one down the line as it's going to be very limited.

Lastly, but most important I'd like to thank Mike and the people at Redbrick Station for allowing me to come in and take up some of their valuable time. It was a day well spent, full of great information, good beer, and a heck of conversation with Mike McDonald. See you next Tuesday for $1 beers!

The Six-Pack Project: Maryland Beer

We're bringing together writers from all over the country to highlight a six-pack of our home’s native brews that best represent what our beer culture has to offer. If someone is coming to visit, what bottles or cans would we want to share? Here are the rules:

• Pick a six-pack of beers that best represents your state and/or state’s beer culture.
• Beer must be made in your state, but “gypsy” brewers are acceptable, so long as that beer is brewed with an in-state brewery and sold in your state.
• Any size bottle or can is acceptable to include.
• Current seasonal offerings are fine, but try to keep selections to year-round brews as much as possible. No out-of-season brews preferred. 

When Bryan from This Is Why I'm Drunk contacted me to ask if I was interested in participating in The Six-Pack Project as a Maryland representative I was happy to jump at the opportunity. I love Maryland Beer and the idea of giving out-of-towner's some beer advice is my kind of fun. Of course, I'm not the only person in Maryland with a blog and an interest in local beer. So, Bryan got creative and came up with the idea of a Maryland Craft Beer Fantasy Draft between myself and Oliver from Literature and Libation. A coin flip determined who made the first pick and then we snaked (the last pick of the previous round makes the first pick in the next round) our way through until we both had a full Six-Pack of Maryland Beer. Here is how the draft played out (my picks are underlined):

Round 1: 

Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber

Heavy Seas Loose Canon

Round 2:

Union Craft Brewing

DuClaw Bareass Blonde

Round 3: 

Evolution Lot #3

DuClaw Mysterium

Round 4:

Brewers Art Resurrection

Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils

Round 5:

Pub Dog Hoppy Dog Ale

Red Brick Station Something Red

Round 6:

Heavy Seas Great'er Pumpkin Ale

Baying Hound Lord Wimsey Mild

Let's go to the Coaches Corner where I discuss what was going through my mind when I was making these picks and give you a little background on each of the players.

Heavy Seas Loose Canon - As I said when made this pick I don't necessarily think that this is the best beer in Maryland, nor is it my favorite,but when I'm making a first round pick I'm looking for someone who is consistently going to show up each and every week. And if Loose Canon does anything it shows up. I don't have any empirical data to back this up, but in my opinion Loose Canon is easily the most readily available Maryland beer in my neck of the woods. It's on almost everyone's tap list throughout Baltimore and if you walk into a distributor that isn't carrying Loose Canon you probably shouldn't be in that store to begin with.

Loose Canon is an IPA that is Orange/Amber in color. The head is average and diminishes quickly. On the nose you're hit with floral aroma, a little pine, citrus and lemon. Sweet and malty in the initial taste, the hops gain strength through the finish and you experience all the same floral, pine, citrus notes that were present in the aroma. Best of all, the bitterness doesn't linger which makes Loose Canon highly drinkable.

Union Craft Brewing Duckpin Pale Ale - I followed up my first round pick with another IPA. Normally, I  don't like to hit the same position in back to back picks, but I had to make an exception here. In addition to putting out an all around delicious beer, Union goes out of there way to insert themselves into the local community. They host food trucks at their brewery and are currently doing an outdoor movie event each weekend. If you're visiting Baltimore for a weekend, there's a good chance Union is up to something fun. They just started canning their beer a few months ago, but if you get the chance to visit them at the brewery don't pass it up.

Duckpin pours a medium amber color. If I had to describe the beer in one sentence I'd say it's a straight forward, well balanced pale ale. It's nothing fancy, but it's always one of the freshest tasting beers around. The nose is a little piney with hints of grape fruit and orange and it tastes of the same. Duckpin isn't astringent. It's not too dry. It's just very drinkable. This beer displays the perfect amount of hops. Plenty to let you know they are there, but they never wear you out and make it easy to go back for more than one.

DuClaw Mysterium - Before I even made one pick I knew I had to have DuClaw represented somewhere in my 6. The only problem with making a DuClaw pick is deciding which one to take. Somewhere in the past year DuClaw has grown on me and you could easily make the argument that they are the best Maryland has to offer in the way of beer. Everything they make is solid and balanced perfectly. In the end, I decided to go with their Belgian Spiced Ale, Mysterium. Not only is it a beer I enjoy, but it's my girlfriend's favorite.

Normally, when I read "spiced" in a beer description I pass, but as I mentioned earlier DuClaw does a fantastic job of balancing things out.  The restraint they show with the spice, both aromatically and in the flavor is a thing of beauty. None of the spices jump out and say "Hey, you taste that? It's me, Scary Spice...your favorite Spice Girl". But just like the Spice Girls came together as five (?) different girls to perform as one solid unit of pop music perfection, so to do individual flavors in Mysterium. Most surprising, you can still taste an earthy malt backbone which is almost unheard with other spiced beers.

The Brewers Art Resurrection - This is one of those beers that you love but always find yourself over looking. Maybe it's the places I visit, but Resurrection isn't as available as some of the other beers in this list and that's a shame. It's a damn good beer and definitely deserves it's place in your Maryland Six-Pack.

Resurrection pours a sexy dark Amber color with ruby hues floating throughout.  Aromatically, there are hints of dark fruit, plums, bubblegum, and clove leaving no doubt that you're about to partake in a Belgian Abbey Brown Ale. It tastes of cherries, dark fruits, with a touch of clove and caramel on the finish.

Redbrick Station Something Red - After Oliver went with a local (to him) pick in Pub Dog, I decided to follow suit. Red Brick Station is within 10 minutes of my house and within walking distance of my place of employment. They specialize in English Style session beers and Something Red is definitely that.

Something Red pours a beautiful copper like an Irish Red should. The malt backbone here is perfectly earthy. The hops are there as necessary and it finishes a touch sweet.  Something Red is the ultimate session beer. Being that Redbrick is so close to where I work, it's a great place to meetup with my lady after work and blow of some steam. Something Red is the perfect beer to numb the day but never interrupt my train of thought when it's time to whine and moan.

Heavy Seas The Great'er Pumpkin - Now, I kind of broke the rules with this pick because it's seasonal, but I did so for good reason. This is the beer that got me all twitterpatted about craft beer a few years ago. Most likely, they'll be releasing this around the end of August so be on the lookout if you're here around that time of year.

The Great'er Pumpkin is an Imperial Pumpkin Ale aged on Bourbon Barrels. It's also the best and most complex pumpkin beer in the history of pumpkin beer. Even in a world full of pumpkin beer on top of pumpkin beer this one never disappoints. And it ages well to boot. You've got pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, oak, bourbon, great pumpkin flavor, and this awesome alcohol burn that warms you to your bones. The first time I ever tried this beer it floored me and sent me right back to the store to pick up even more. Needless to say, this is a beer you need to get your hands on if you can.

Overall, I really like the Six-Pack I put together. I've got a few IPA's, a few Belgian's, a Session Beer, and my favorite beer of all time. If I were leaving Maryland, not to return for a considerable amount of time, and this was the Six-Pack I left with to remember this great state by I'd be pretty happy. Does my fantasy Six-Pack have enough star power to take out Oliver and his squad? Maybe. Maybe not. What I do know is that any traveler looking for good beer in Maryland is in for one hell of a tasty trip.

Other State/Area Six-Packs:

Maryland - by Literature and Libation
Chicago - by Hop Brained
New York - by Once Upon a Stein
Ohio - by Queen City Drinks
Kentucky - by Hoperatives
California - by The Beginners Brew

Red Brick Station

Told ya it wouldn't be as long before my next restaurant review! I'm back and ready to tell you all about Red Brick Station. Of all the restaurants I've ever reviewed, this is by far the one I've visited the most thanks to it's close proximity to my place of employment.

Red Brick is awesome for a few simple reasons.

1. I can walk there for lunch
2. They are a brewpub
3. They have good sandwiches
4. And they have some of the best happy hour specials around

On Monday you have 1/2 price burgers. Tuesday (my favorite) you get dollar beers. And on Friday you can dine on dollar Roast Beef sandwiches. Beer and Beef on the cheap? Now you understand why I visit so often.

On the beer front, they usually offer 5 staple beers and a seasonal. Their Red, IPA, and Stout are all excellent. If forced to pick a favorite I think I'd have to go with Something Red. This is the beer I compared my first ever homebrew with to make sure it didn't suck.  It's a nice red color full of earthy malt flavor that goes down really smooth without getting in the way of the food.

And speaking of the food, Red Brick Station really excel at sandwiches. I've had the French Dip (pictured below), Cheese steak, Pulled Pork, Monte Cristo, and Rachael and I've never been disappointed once.

Red Brick Station is a great place to visit if you're looking to try a brewpub out for the first time or the fiftieth. The beer is good without being intimidating to a newbie. And the food is good. It's simple, but it's good and it's one of my go to restaurants. Give it a visit!

Price: Average (great happy hour)

Recommendation: Visit ASAP

What to Order: Something Red and a Cheesesteak