3915877466_13e84d4f7cHe’s got brew-brew eyeballs…

So, we’re less than two weeks away from the big day – the Beerfest at the Farm – and the start of Frederick Beer Week. There are a number of us who bust our asses to get this put together for everyone each year. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Not just Frederick Beer Week, but how businesses in direct competition with each other come together to make Frederick Beer Week a reality. We have representatives from every brewery in the county on the board. We have buy in from some of the biggest, best, and newest breweries from around the state – DuClaw, Heavy Seas, Evolution, Pub Dog, Ruhlman – and our participating locations; Dan’s Taphouse, JoJo’s, Madrones, and the Roasthouse have embraced those beers, and those of our regional neighbors.

How many industries see their competing businesses come together for the greater good of the industry? We come together here in Frederick for a week each year to promote the industry; and many of us for a week in Baltimore each year; a week in DC…and many, many other cities.

Some might call this synergy. I just call it a beautiful thing.

East West

The roots of beer can be traced back to the Middle East. The Middle and Far East have taken some very different developmental turns in regards to the lovely beverage. The country in which the earliest written reference was found? Beer is now illegal. Things like this have begged some comparisons between the East and West.

The East has rice wine, the West has barley wine. Rice wine pairs quite nicely with sushi, but I think I prefer the barley wine.

The West? We have the Trappist monks who gave us saisons and trippels and all sorts of lovely beers. The East? They have Shaolin monks. Gotta give the East a tie if for no other reason than coolness factor.

The East? Drunken Kung-fu. The West? Drunken brawls. I think I’m going to give the nod to the East on this one.

I could go on…and probably get nowhere on this time waster. But I would likely have fun doing it…maybe some other time.

In the Meantime, and not the Spacehog song.

When all is said and done, and our calendar is complete for Frederick Beer Week, it’s looking like we will have in excess of 35 events for our third year. To put that in perspective, in year one we had 17 or 18 events. Last year we had 28. Through our first two years, Frederick Beer Week events have operated as a showcase for Maryland beers.

Throughout, we have sought ways to include some of the great beers from our regional neighbors – and this year, our local bars and restaurants have been a great help with that. This year you will find beers from Troegs, Old Dominion, Weyerbacher, and Devil’s Backbone.

Yup. In addition to the great Maryland beers that you will be able to sample all throughout Frederick Beer Week, you will be able to partake in some of the other great regional beers from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Delaware.

I, for one, am looking forward to so many of the events, but have no idea how I will make it to all the ones I would like to go to.

Suffice it to say, I am disappointed in our cloning technology.

Until next week, be well and drink good beer.

Slainte!