Bottom's up

I love a brewery tour. I am a sucker for the self-promoting, bragging tour guide explaining how a bottle of beer brewed at a particular brewery is better than the rest of the beers in my refrigerator.

In my lifetime, I've taken three tours: Budweiser with my mom, Colleen, Adam and Rachel in Colorado in 2006, New Belgium with Uncle Glenn and Aunt Heather in Colorado in 2008 during the V-Team Farewell Tour, and Orion with Benny in Okinawa in 2009.

Orion was the most interesting considering it was self-guided and nearly all the information was written in Japanese. The samples at the end were good, according to Benny. I was pregnant at the time and unable to enjoy the best part of the tour-- the free samples.

Last Friday, I was again the pregnant woman getting strange looks on a brewery tour. This time it was Flying Dog brewery in Frederick.

Our tour guide was wearing this T-shirt.

A tour of Flying Dog (which moved from Aspen, Colo., to Frederick in 2006) topped our Maryland to-do list when we first moved here last spring. But the brewery didn't give tours because of a Maryland beer-serving law snafu. In August the rules changed and we immediately began planning our tour date. Benny made our reservation on November 28 for our January 27 tour.

Drew, Mel, Steve, Kristi, Michelle and Benny

While they sampled the coffee beer ...

I was left with a glass of water. Yes, we got to keep the glass.

Just the two of us

So what did I learn on this tour? That I love Flying Dog. There is a connection between the beer and the Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Super cool. My journalism student heart went pitter patter when that fact was stated during the tour. A freedom of speech lawsuit supported by the ACLU with the company temporary changing its slogan to "Good Beer, No Censorship." Again the writer inside of me went gag-gag. And the reason I love Blue Moon and Kansas City's own Boulevard is because it's unfiltered beer. Got to love when a brewery tour unexpectedly turns into an educational event.