What’s the best brewery in Maryland?
Impossible to say, right? Everyone has an opinion. But in the age of social media, it is possible to identify which brewery—or ten—people seem to enjoy the most. To produce this Top Ten list, we averaged the brewery scores from the three most popular beer-rating sites (Untappd, BeerAdvocate, and BeerRater), then weighted them to reflect the taphouse experience as much as the quality of the beer.
Here, then, are brief summaries of Maryland’s Ten Favorite Taphouses. (Full-length reviews can be accessed from the list at the top of page.)
#10 – Milkhouse Brewery – Mount Airy
In 2013, Tom Barse received Maryland’s first Class 8 Farm Brewing license and opened a tasting room on his 47-acre Stillpoint Farm in Frederick County. Twenty-one Maryland farm breweries would eventually follow, but Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm remains the benchmark for brewing beer on a Maryland farm. Perhaps no other brewery offers a more immersive farm-to-glass experience that makes the concepts of local sourcing, integrated production, sustainability, and terroir as tangible as the glass of beer in your hand.
#9 – Midnight Run Brewing – Frederick
Frederick’s 6th craft brewery opened in 2017 with a clear mission: to focus on full-flavored, strong beers. “To bridge the gap between spirits and craft beer,” according to co-founder Richard Cauble. Located in a strip mall on the east side of town, two-thirds of Midnight Run Brewing houses the brewing equipment, one-third comprises the tasting room: a half dozen tables and a small bar that seats just five. Strong, distinctive, creative beers and an unavoidable intimacy in the taproom make Midnight Run a taphouse well worth visiting again and again.
#8 Nepenthe Brewing Co. – Baltimore
While many taphouses these days are making the pivot from food truck to in-house selections to stay competitive, outstanding food (winner of Best Brewery Food award from Baltimore magazine every year since 2022) was already baked into Nepenthe’s business plan from day one. That alone sets this taphouse apart. But so too does its location in Hampden, one of Baltimore’s most vibrant and diverse neighborhoods, as well as an ambitious cocktail program that complements a solid foundation of core beers with the requisite emphasis on IPAs—but without a slavish devotion to hazies.
#7 Elder Pine Brewing & Blending Co. – Gaithersburg
Unlike the bulk of Montgomery County’s farm breweries that grow corn and beans and graze cows, Elder Pine sits on a 17-acre Christmas tree farm. As natural light fades at the end of day, string lights woven through the trees illuminate a sylvan wonderland of mature white pines interspersed with clusters of rustic tables and chairs on a soft pine needle floor. In such an enchanted setting, even mediocre beer would taste world class. Great beer, like that crafted by head brewer Paul Davidson, can taste transcendent beneath the evergreen canopy.
#6 Crooked Crab Brewing Co. – Odenton
Three of the top five highest-rated beverage producers on Untappd are meaderies. So it should not be surprising that the Crooked Crab Brewing Co., which makes mead in addition to beer, scores high on social media and claims a place in Taphouse Guide’s Top Ten breweries in Maryland. What did surprise me was what a fun and engaging taphouse experience it provides—replete with top-shelf IPAs and an expansive floor-to-ceiling mural of the colorful cartoon characters that inhabit the brewery’s beer universe.
#5 Cushwa Brewing Co. – Williamsport
Hyping hops’ kinship with weed is a long-standing practice among craft brewers, but few have done it as memorably as Cushwa, which in addition to its flagship, Cush IPA, also brews Joint (7%), Blunt (8.2%), and Dank Pursuit (8%)—all hazy IPAs. For many a Maryland beer lover, Cush (6.5%) was their first taste of New England-style IPA in 2017. A year later, Cushwa’s Electrofruit milkshake sours were even more remarkable. But Cushwa’s secret sauce is its award-winning collab with White Rabbit spinoff Rad Pies, whose imaginative array of thin-crust and Detroit-style pizzas towers above those offered at any other Maryland brewery.
#4 Silver Branch Brewing Co. – Silver Spring
Adjacent to the Red Line Metro stop in Silver Spring, Silver Branch Lagerhaus & Biergarten throws one of the best Oktoberfest celebrations in the state, featuring stein line and stein-hoisting competitions, a lederhosen fashion show, and, of course, grilled brats and oompah band music. But what truly sets Silver Branch apart is its signature GABF gold medal–winning Glass Castle Bohemian-style pilsener, served through a LUKR side-pour faucet, which may be customized to vary the ratio of beer and foam, from a smooth, crisp hladinka (75% beer, 25% foam) to an all-foam mlíko, or “milk tube.”
#3 Burley Oak Brewing Co. – Berlin
For many mid-Atlantic beer lovers, queuing up for the latest J.R.E.A.M. fruited sour at Burley Oak was their introduction to craft beer line culture and some of the Maryland’s most innovative brews, like the dry-hopped Berliner weisse Sorry Chicky (4.4%). Today locals and tourists alike bask in the chill vibe that rules at the original taphouse (one of the prettiest anywhere), which also includes a cantina-style kitchen, a first-class performance stage and open-air concert venue, an enclosed outdoor space for yard games and frisky canines, and a ground-level, nautical-themed cocktail bar oddly named The Cellar.
#2 RaR Brewing – Cambridge
Craft breweries have led a revitalization of downtowns across the nation, but few have had such an outsized impact as RaR Brewing, which has transformed the 500-block of Poplar Street in downtown Cambridge into an RaR theme park. The original taproom is now flanked by the LabRaRtory, a cocktail bar and lounge, and Chessie Burger (formerly RAR Eats), a casual dining spot, and, across the street, is the more intimate Dive Club, serving small-plate tapas and tropical cocktails. RaR’s reputation for hop-saturated ales like its flagship IPA, Nanticoke Nectar, is complemented by its hugely popular Out of Order series of smoothie sours.
#1 Sapwood Cellars Brewing – Columbia
Sapwood Cellars has been described as an “R&D brewery with a taproom.” Indeed, few craft breweries demonstrate such a daily commitment to systematic experimentation and continual exploration. Founders Michael Tonsmeire and Scott Janish—authors of American Sour Beers: Innovative Techniques for Mixed Fermentations and The New IPA: A Scientific Guide to Hop Aroma and Flavor, respectively—put theory into practice, brewing the most complex and refined barrel-aged sours and the brightest, most flavorful hoppy beers you’ll find anywhere in the state. Sapwood’s ability to stay small and still flourish, allows them to focus on a taproom experience that is second to none.