3.0 🍺 above average
These Go to Eleven
“Big Beer” boasts a chalkboard outside the entrance to Midnight Run Brewing. Underneath that heading, 10 beers currently on tap are listed. Their average ABV was 7.9% the afternoon I stopped by; a majority were 8.5% or higher. Those numbers might come as a shock to longtime patrons. When the Frederick brewery first opened, the majority of beers on tap were 10% or higher.
Richard Cauble and Brent Turner launched Frederick’s 6th craft brewery in 2017, with a clear mission: to focus on full-flavored, strong beers. “To bridge the gap between spirits and craft beer,” Cauble told Chris Sands on an episode of his “Uncapped” podcast in 2017.
Cauble, who comes from a culinary background, had never really enjoyed beer (“bland, boring”) until drinking a bottle of Delirium Tremens (8.5% ABV), the iconic Belgian strong golden ale. After that epiphany, he tried every 8%-plus beer he could find—not so much for the potency, but for the “more dynamic flavor.” More than a decade later, the brewery still dedicates at least three taps to “big, strong, blonde beers.”
Turner, a mechanical engineer, is the perfect ying to Cauble’s yang. While Cauble loves “yeast-derived flavors,” Turner leans into hoppy ales. And yet, when I visited the taphouse there was not a single IPA on tap. Just a production/scheduling anomaly, the bartender assured me. “We usually have at least two or three on tap.” For most breweries, such a lapse would be disastrous. But not here.
Of the ten beers on tap, only Genius (4.8%), a dry stout left over from St. Patrick’s Day, could be considered ho hum or even remotely poundable. The tap list included two imperial blonde ales (including their signature White Sexual Chocolate), one imperial brown ale and a couple of Belgians. Looking for something relatively low-gravity to start with, I settled for Blonde Bombadil—at 8.6%, a downsized, warm-weather version of their usual 12% barleywine. The beer was quite smooth for the style and had a light cherry note. The brewers pride themselves on not brewing to style, and this tasty, unusual beer was ample proof.
For a brewery committed to ambitious, one-of-a-kind brews, I was a bit surprised to see two seltzers and one sour among the ten taps—until I tasted them. Far from the default alternative beverage for non-beer lovers that one usually encounters at taphouses these days, all three were brewed in the flavor-forward Midnight Run house style: serious, strong beverages to sip and savor. Lemon-Lime Seltzer (8.5%) packed intense citrus flavor into a beer-like package; Tropic Thunder, a 7.5% pina colada seltzer, was rich, potent, and complex; and Sweet Tart (8.5%), the token sour, was as flavorful as many pricey dessert sours, but without the thick, smoothie-like texture that makes them difficult to finish.
Midnight Run occupies a relatively small space within a non-descript strip mall on the east side of town. Two-thirds of the space houses the brewing equipment, one-third comprises the tasting room: a half dozen tables and a small bar that seats just five. The confined space fosters an intimacy that makes it impossible to imbibe alone. Most of my drinking companions on a Wednesday afternoon were local. Two walked to the taphouse, another rode a bike, and a fourth brought a designated driver. I was the only fool drinking strong beer who had to drive himself home. As I contemplated ordering a third pint, I recalled what Chris Sands said on his podcast while sipping one of the brewery’s Belgian quads: “Your beers are ridiculously dangerous.”
One can drink irresponsibly at any taphouse, and Midnight Run’s embrace of strong, high-gravity brews would seem to increase the odds of such an outcome. And yet the opposite seems to be true. Just like dangerous airports that enjoy higher safety ratings because pilots and air traffic controllers are extra cautious and more focused, most patrons at Midnight Run are there specifically for big flavorful beers and have planned accordingly with alternatives to driving or procedures to closely monitor alcohol intake.
And yet the allure of strong beer always contains a whiff of danger. The name of the brewery conjures late-night journeys for alcohol and echoes of bootlegging. The high-gravity tap list rekindles the excitement I felt as a 17-year-old drinking my first malt liquor. Except these beers taste really good.
Strong, distinctive, creative beers and an unavoidable intimacy in the taproom make Midnight Run a taphouse well worth visiting again and again. It certainly lives up to its social media ranking of 9th Best Taphouse in Maryland, and of all the breweries in craft-beer loving Frederick, this is the one I enjoy visiting the most.
The outlook for Midnight Run is good. The brewery does not can or bottle and is not constrained by often compromising relationships with wholesalers. Founders Cauble and Turner have intentionally kept the enterprise modest in scale and are not beholden to other investors or conflicting interests. As long as these guys continue making compelling, idiosyncratic beers, I’ll be there drinking them.
MIDNIGHT RUN BREWING
912 N. East St.
Frederick, MD 21701
OPEN
Wednesday – Thursday: 5 pm—10 pm
Friday: 4 pm—10 pm
Saturday: noon—10 pm
Sunday: noon—8 pm
NUMBER OF TAPS
10
AVERAGE ABV
8.1%
FOOD
Full kitchen available three doors down at Oscar’s Alehouse (West)
PARKING
Plentiful in Monocacy Village Shopping Center parking lot
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