Flying Dog Brewery

A great place to sample a lot of Flying Dog beers for a great price.
The tours are definitely interesting and somewhat interactive (i.e. you get to try beer in its different stages) and not always easy to get into, so make a reservation before you go!
On the plus side, they often have space for a tour; you can just wait in the taproom and have a few flights, pints, or fill up a growler while you wait. A good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The location is interesting… it’s in a business park. Love that they have outdoor seating! They do have a limit to how many people can be in the tasting room so be prepared to wait until people leave.
If you’re allowed to bring your own food I suggest bringing it!!! The snacks they have here are overpriced and underwhelming. The beer cheese was served cold… not sure what that’s about. I really like warm beer cheese. And to spend $ 14 for a small sandwich with a bag of chips and cookie… seems a bit steep! I had to go get something to eat afterwards!
The flights are worth it though! Yay flights!!!
And they really do brew onsite! Of course the tours are a giveaway but you can also smell the hops as their brewing! Yum
If you have he opportunity to take the tour, do it!!! The first hallway is full of an awesome mural storyboard of the history of Flying Dog. Not just that but the tour guides are passionate and knowledgeable about all things «Dog» — they’re amazing! And Allison is especially amazing!!!

We decided to take a brewery adventure to Frederick Maryland and visit Flying Dog Brewery. I feel like their beer is everywhere and we figured it is probably worth the visit. It’s only about an hour away from D.C. which makes for a doable day visit. We were too late for the tours (the last brewery tour on a Saturday is 4:30 and reservations are recommended in order to guarantee a spot). However we were not discouraged and proceeded to the tasting room. Apparently beer tasting was what the cool kids were doing because the brewery was packed. Luckily we grabbed a spot at the bar.
Flying Dog has a decent amount of places to sit. You can order at the bar and take your drinks to your seat– first come first serve. Since it was our first visit, my husband and I decided on ordering tasting flights. The flights include four tasters for $ 7.00 and you can either pick from a pre-​set menu or build your own. While Flying Dog is known for their IPAs they have plenty of other beers to choose from. With me not being an IPA fan– I was grateful.
We both decided on a pre-​set flight that included the bloodline, In Heat, Citrus, and Naughty– which is one of their seasonal beers flavored with habenero peppers. I liked all the beers I tried; the citrus which was a wheat beer, was my favorite. I savored that beer. I also tried a sample of the counter culture, fig and fennel, and and kujo without nitro which are three of their stouts. I am starting to come to the dark side so to speak and am starting to appreciate stouts. I loved the fig and fennel; it had a nice full flavor without tasting too heavy in my opinion.
The bartenders at Flying Dog were fantastic. They were knowledgeable about the beers and took care of everyone quickly and smoothly. Great service and great beer? Perfect excuse for a day trip if you’re a beer fan.

Wow! Fantastic place. Well decorated tasting room, outdoor smoke-​free patio, and some tasty beers on tap.
We came down here the day after Christmas hoping to get a brewery tour, but unfortunately it seems they fill up days, weeks, or months in advance. The host was nice enough to put us of their waiting list in car there were no-​shows… However since even the waiting lists are for specific times slots, the closest they had was 2 hours later which was unfortunately longer than we had planned to spend here. Hope to come back sometime in the future and get a tour.
As far as the tasting room, they have so many beers on draft. And unlike many breweries that simply put them all together on a big chalkboard, they actually separate them on the wall by style so that you can jump right to the holiday seasonals if that is your thing (it is mine!)
We hadn’t planned in rating here, but it does turn out they do light snacks and sandwiches. We got the cheese and crackers box as well as one of their pretzels with dip. Definitely not what I was expecting as it is served in one of this cardboard salad bar boxes, but once I got past the initial reaction to the box, I noticed that it’s prepared by s local culinary academy. Everything in the box was pretty good– but don’t necessarily expect to get s full meal off their menu.
Hope to come back very soon to be able to do the tour. One of the best tasting room experiences I’ve ever seen!

With an assortment of Flying Dog favorites on tap year round, plus rotating seasonals and rare offerings that you won’t see elsewhere — this is a terrific brewery to visit. The atmosphere is laid back and comfortable, making it very easy to while away an afternoon sampling beers. Flights are $ 7 for four generous pours and growler fills are unexpectedly reasonable ($ 10-​$ 15 for 64 oz!)
The staff here were so nice and knowledgeable, even in the face of my many dorky questions. Food selections are limited to cheese/​fruit/​meat plates, so if you’re a lightweight like me — grab a big lunch before trying to taste everything on tap. There were some excellent selections available during our visit, like the spiced pear ale and nitro imperial pumpkin, but Flying Dog has so many fun seasonal brews that there is plenty of incentive to return.

I was in town for work and accidentally stumbled on this brewery while looking for some dinner. I popped in and tried a flight, then a regular pour of the limited batch spiced pear ale. It was a fun experience! The patio area is cute, the bartenders are sweet, and the beer was delicious. Recommend the Chesapeake stout!

I’ve been drinking Flying Dog beers and Ales for years now — but had never visited the actual brewery. I was in Frederick, MD one day and found out I was about 2 miles from the brewery — so I had to stop in for a visit and tasting!
The place was hopping when I arrived on a Friday afternoon! Lots of folks visiting, some taking the tour, and of course tasting!
I intentionally selected Ales I’ve never had before — so I opted to taste the following Ales:
— Bloodline Blood Orange Ale (7.0% ABV)
— Gourd Standard Pumpkin IPA (6.7% ABV)
— Fear Imperial Pumpkin Ale (9.0% ABV)
— Single Hop Apollo Imperial IPA (10.0% ABV)
— Double Dead Rise Crab Ale (8.0% ABV)
The first four were either IPAs or related to an IPA hop-​wise. All the Ales were delicious! Full of flavor and well-​balanced. Not your father’s Ale!
After the flight of four, I noticed the Double Dead Rise Crab Ale — I’ve had the regular Dead Rise Crab Ale (actually paired with crabs at a crab feast) and enjoyed it. So I was curious to know what makes this Ale «Double.» The staff talked about the additional Old Bay Hot added to the Ale — so I had to try it. The Ale did not come off to me as to hot — but it was damn tasty!
The staff was in a jovial mood and spent some time bantering with me during my tasting.
My only complaint was that I could not get on their public WiFi network — even though the staff provided the password
Great brewery! I will be back! Highly recommended!

Great tap room for a great brewery with a fun atmosphere.
Flying Dog is one of the best breweries in Maryland and in the running for the best. Their tap room does that justice. They have 20 taps with a bunch of interesting stuff including at least a few things on tap that you can’t get anywhere else. Their beers are pretty solid overall, so you’ll definitely enjoy the drinks. They’re also dirt cheap with full pours being $ 4 and growler fills ranging from $ 10 – 15.
The space is cool with a big outdoor patio and hop vines growing up the side of the building. The inside is also very nicely done in industrial-​chic style.
I only have two complaints: they don’t allow kids and they could use better food options. I don’t get why places like this don’t allow kids. I guess they want to keep an «adult» feel, but I’d be more likely to come up if my kid could at least come. As it is, I need a babysitter to come up.
The food options are cheese and meat trays, which I get because they probably don’t have a kitchen. It would be cool if they had food trucks come by.

Great brewery! Great tour!
Flying dog has made some changes to their tours. Now you can tour the brewery for FREE, just reserve online about two weeks in advance. No longer first come first serve. No longer giving beer glasses with tour though.
The brewery is also serving beer in the tasting room and patio area to anyone despite going on the tour or not. Flights or full beers as well as growler fills are available.
Even though this is a large scale brewery, they still make «rarity» batches that are unique to the brewery, which were great.

Wort tasting! Green beer (partial fermentation) tasting! Unfiltered tasting! And of course hopped carbonated beer tasting at the end. So cool to try the beer along the way, the first brewery that let me try their stuff at each stage. As good as it gets!
They changed their tour and reservation system AGAIN in April 2015, and the tasting room is now licensed to serve pints. Tours are FREE, reserve a spot at
(search for Flying Dog). About 20 people per tour, takes 45 minutes, more if you have lots of questions. Afterwards — or instead of a tour — buy yourself a sample ($ 2), a pint or a flight ($ 7) in the tasting room.
Don’t expect a quaint old redbrick structure, Flying Dog brews their magic in 50-​barrel batches within a 2006-​vintage low rise building in an industrial park, right next to the Thomas English muffin factory :-) The largest brewery in Maryland and 33^rd of 3000 microbreweries, there’s plenty of parking and a nice outdoor patio too.
Beer sold by the bottle $ 1.50−2.50, that’s $ 15 for a sixpack, ouch! Big bottles of barrel-​aged gonzo porter are $ 18. The variety 12-​pack is a relative bargain at $ 18. T-​shirts are about $ 25, not cheap but not rock concert prices either. Other swag includes glasses, hats, and plenty of decals.
While you’re enjoying your beer, look for the Hunter S. Thompson books on the shelves in the tasting room.

There are some definite pros and cons of doing a brewery tour here:
PROS
–Tour is only $ 5
–Tour is really good, guides are knowledgeable and funny
–Beer is delicious
–Get a free (large) glass, and 5 free pours in the tap room
–Pours are hefty… get a good bang for your buck!
CONS
–They don’t do reservations
–In fact, I rushed there at 4pm on a Friday guarantee a tour spot. First one is at 4:30, but as soon as that fills, you are bumped to 5pm, etc. Kinda sucks you have to go there to pick up tickets for a tour that could be hours later
–You can’t pay to drink in the tap room, you must go on the tour to get beer there (some sort of law, not their fault but still sucks)
–No food
Overall, it was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again. Now that I know some of the nuances of the process, I’ll be more prepared.

Helpful and entertaining bartenders. $ 7 was worth the flight of 4 beers. Definitely ask which beer is on nitro, was glorious. Since it’s Fall we got to try their pumpkin beers, which were good and not overpowering. The outdoor space is low-​key and a great place to hang out. Was a nice stop on our way back from Maryland and heading back to DC.