10 Best Breweries in Maryland—and 30 Beers Worth Trying

Maryland’s brewery routes span Baltimore and Halethorpe, the farms and towns west of the city, Frederick, Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore. These ten editorial picks offer thirty beers across pale ale, IPA, dark lager, pilsner, blonde and brown ale, wheat beer, dry-hopped sour, coffee stout, tripel and oatmeal stout. Three beers per brewery make the contrasts practical without treating one style as the entire state.

This is an editorial guide, not a statewide tasting score. Current producer pages, brewery-authored beer profiles and venue menus support the selections. Confirm the exact beer, batch label, location and format before traveling: recurring profiles can retain older strengths, annual releases need a stock check and a brewery’s second venue is not the same destination as its original taproom.

Maryland brewery picks at a glance

1. UNION Craft Brewing

UNION’s Baltimore lineup makes a useful opening flight because the selected beers change both color and strength: an American pale ale, a German-style dark lager and a double IPA. Duckpin ties the brewery’s identity to the city’s small-ball bowling tradition, while Blackwing adds a lager reference before the stronger hop finish.

Start with Blackwing if you want the more restrained hop impression, then compare Duckpin with Double Duckpin. The current producer page gives Blackwing as 4.8%, rather than the 4.9% retained on its recurring profile. Confirm the actual package and taproom stock instead of treating a historical listing as the current label.