Liquidity Aleworks
In February 2023, I had a chance to visit Liquidity Aleworks (LAW) in Mt. Airy MD. There, I met with co-owner Billy Deavers and head brewer Eric Cross. At the time Liquidity was of Maryland’s newest breweries, opening their taproom doors to the public on November 10, 2022. Billy Deavers and Ray Tignall are the owners, who starting their craft by home brewing together before turning pro.
In June 2022, they hired Eric Cross as head brewer to help scale their recipes for a new production brewery. Eric had been brewing for about 10 years with two years experience at Silver Branch Brewing and three years at Manor Hill Brewing.
Why beer?
Billy was an electrical engineer and simply needed to do something different. Ray has always wanted to own his own business and still works as an engineer while working part time at the brewery.
The county stalled the opening due to permits and other issues, with the last six months being most difficult. Plus, an old building had its own challenges. The building Liquidity sits in was built in 1904, and formerly housed the First National Bank and Farmers and Merchants Banks. It has burned down twice. You might have guessed, the brewery name reflects the buildings previous lives.
“liquidity | liˈkwidədē |
noun
- a liquid state or quality.
- the ability or ease with which assets can be converted into cash.”
It is their intention to brew many styles of beer here. They want to offer a beer for everyone that comes to visit the taproom — lagers, witbier, fruited sours, stouts.
Dubbel Your Money has been a patron favorite. Many of the beers have a playful banking and finance reference such as First National Lager (lite lager), Foreign InFESTment Märzen, Liquid Exchange (hazy IPA), Bonus Day IPA, Death and Taxes (imperial milk stout). The list goes on. Even the brew vessels are dawned with names related to money, but from a different perspective — Bonnie, Clyde, Capone.
Small Town Maryland
The taproom atmosphere is bright and open and decidedly family oriented. These are family guys that like going into places like theirs. Mt. Airy is a great small town that is very walkable with a lot to do for families. The brewery is in small town America and one goal of Liquidity is to support Mount Airy Main Street Association. In that effort they are open 7 days a week to help develop the town’s Main St. district.
“Mount Airy is a town in Carroll and Frederick counties in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is part of both the Washington Metropolitan Area and Baltimore Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census the population was 9,288.
Outside the town limits, the surrounding countryside is colloquially referred to as Mount Airy or the “Four-County Area” by locals. The “Four-County Area” derives its name from the fact that the “Mount Airy” mailing area encompasses portions of Frederick, Carroll, Montgomery, and Howard counties.”
While no food is served here currently, patrons can go to the local pizza shop, Laurienzo Brick Oven Cafe (recommended by Billy and Eric) and bring food to the brewery to enjoy with LAW beers.
Colorful murals currently adorn the back parking area. Liquidity is looking forward to expanding the beer patio in warmer weather. The former bank drive up window will be converted to a walk-up orders window from the beer garden. The bank vault now serves to display LAW merch and a bit of the buildings history.
As many new breweries have witnessed, established breweries are helpful in getting a new one established—a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats mentality. One of their first collab beers was with Brewery Fire (Taneytown, MD). They wanted to help LAW beer get to the market to gain name recognition even before they opened. Idiom Brewing (Frederick MD) helped them with equipment decisions.
These are good guys making good beer in a good town. Come visit Liquidity Aleworks. Enjoy locally made beer, make some new friends, support an iconic Maryland small town.
Liquidity Aleworks
8 N Main St, Mt Airy, MD 21771
liquidityaleworks.com / Untappd
