In a modest yet magnetic taproom tucked just off Bel Air’s Main Street, the heartbeat of Independent Brewing Company pulses with purpose. It’s more than just a brewery. It’s a carefully constructed third space—part laboratory, part living room, and part local institution. Here, founder Phil Rhudy and head brewer Keith Hipsley are quietly defying trends, not by chasing them, but by perfecting the art of staying true.

Idiom Brewery in Frederick announced on social media that they will move all its beer production back to their Patrick Street location.

On November 21, Guinness Open Gate in Baltimore hosted Garrett Oliver, the famed head brewer at Brooklyn Brewery, for the release of their collaboration brew, Fonio Stout. This beer was the last in a series of collaboration beers highlighting the use of fonio grain as a brewing ingredient.

Chesepiooc Real Ale Brewery (CRAB) is a small brewery tucked neatly between Washington, DC, and Annapolis in Crofton, MD. Chesepiooc (pronounced “chess-uh-pee-auck”) is not used in many conversations these days. It comes from the Algonquian language, meaning “village at a big river.” Joe Esposito founded the brewery about six years ago (Feb 2018) with the idea of being intentionally small in size but large in beer and community.