Beer Guy: The Gourd, The Bad, and the Ugly

 Before I get into seasonal goodness, I want to set the record straight – in one of my past columns I intimated that the plans for Amber Fields Brewing had been abandoned. I jumped the gun. In a column entitled Meet the New Boss, I wrote,  “Amber Fields, a company dedicating to growing local barley and malting it, has…or at least had long term plans to become another of the county’s farm breweries.“
his is my mea culpa, as in the words of Tom Flores, one of the principals in Amber Fields, “We still have long term plans to create a farm brewery at Greg Clabaugh’s place…Our plans are still the same as they have always been. Just because we move slowly and methodically should not be confused with a lack of ambition or motivation. Rather it is evidence of persistence and a desire to do things right by not getting too far ahead of ourselves in terms of our technical abilities to create quality malt, as well as avoiding burdensome debt to finance this project. We have steadily been creating cash flow through the production of malt for Brewer’s Alley and Monocacy Brewing, most notably rye malt for the Riot Rye Pale Ale.

“From my perspective, we are the originators of the local farm brewery scene, though our final vision has yet to materialize. We first started our experimentation with locally grown and malted grains back in the year 2000. Later, after years of demonstrating the feasibility of this concept to ourselves and others, Greg and I worked with Colby Ferguson from the Frederick County Office of Economic Development in 2009 (when Jan Gardner was still President of the County Commissioners) to create changes to the Zoning Ordinance which would allow for a farm brewery to exist in compliance with zoning requirements. At the time they reckoned a brewery as an industrial activity, not an agricultural activity. We made the case that this was value-added agriculture and met with Larry Smith, Zoning Administrator, of the Frederick County Department of Permits and Development to discuss the need for a change to the Zoning Ordinance. We had a vigorous discussion that day, but it was fruitful. Larry’s staff worked up proposed changes based upon an existing ordinance in Calvert County that capped the annual production of a farm brewery at 15,000BBL, as well as their own review of the operations of breweries already in Frederick County. The Commissioners approved the proposed changes and that was one hurdle we needed to get over. The next one was the issue of getting approval from the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF), of which Greg is part. This required us to testify in Annapolis in a day-long hearing before the MALPF Board of Trustees in 2010. This was an eye-opening experience and we did prevail with the case which we made, though it wasn’t a sure thing going into the hearing.

“And recently, we participated in getting the new Class 8 Manufacturer’s License passed into law. We’ve always had our eye on a Class 5, but offered testimony in support of the Class 8 simply because it seemed to us that this proposal would elevate the profile of Maryland breweries and highlight the issue of value-added agriculture. Even though we never were planning to pursue this type of license for ourselves, we felt it was important to lend our assistance in the effort to pass this legislation. Plus the sponsor, Delegate Schulz, is our Delegate, both for Greg and myself.”

Flying Dog, Maryland’s largest brewery, is teaming up with Baltimore-based Otterbein’s Bakery on four new, cookie-inspired craft beers that will be released in a holiday 12-pack. “Craft beer is a revolution that is fueled by equal parts tradition and innovation,” Flying Dog CMO Ben Savage said. “Partnering with a local, family owned bakery and unleashing the creativity of our brewers on this unique partnership is incredibly exciting.”