Monocacy Brewing Company

Pretty nifty brewery in Frederick — a no-​nonsense brewery that gives you a list of year-​round brews, and seasonal brews. There are a few places to sit inside but it’s really the outdoor picnic seating the real draw. While it’s nothing to write home about, their brew is definitely above-​average.
If you haven’t been here, do the flight for $ 5 and find out what you like — personally the coffee stout was delicious and the price is reasonable. Good service as long as you don’t go when they are super busy. They also have growlers to take home if you like their stuff.
I’ll be back!

We ventured to the Monocacy Battlefield and thought why not cap off the day with Monocacy Brewing? Makes sense, right? Hubby had been here before on a brewery bus tour and thought we should stop by since we were in the area. Don’t let the small size of this brewery discourage you from staying and sampling the beers. They have an awesome sampler, 5 beers for $ 5… You really can’t beat that!
I really enjoyed the Tabula Rasa and Gose of Althea. Tabula Rasa was on the lighter side, cold, and refreshing. Gose of Althea shocked with me the tart and sour notes at first… but the hibiscus flavor really came out as I continued to drink.
Only downside to our visit was it was literally hot as balls inside of the place. I heard the bartender mention that because the front door was constantly opening and closing, the AC unit was unable to kick on. Other than that, I enjoyed my visit and look forward to another!

Visited here twice while we were at Flying Barrel to brew some beer. Staff is fantastic, friendly and knowledgeable. Beer is amazing! Options of various sizes, flights, growlers and an every changing beer list brewed right on site! So many awesome flavors and we even got a cool hydro flask growler and took some pedunkelweizen home… did not last long before it was gone. Will definitely be back anytime we are in Frederick!

Monocacy Brewing is hands down my favorite brewery in Frederick and one of, if not my favorite brewery in Maryland. That’s a big statement but after repeated visits, it still rings true.
Beer — As a beer nerd, their beer is off the charts. Brewtus is the best coffee stout I’ve ever had. Riot Rye is as unique and delicious of a flagship beer as you can get. They don’t have a ton of year-​round beers but the ones they have, they do exceptionally well. They do a great job experimenting with different tap-​room only beers and always have anywhere from 6 – 8 beers on tap. Best beer around… sorry Flying Dog.
Staff– The staff are awesome. There is maybe 3 – 4 bar staff that I’ve met. All of them are great and they know their stuff. They are friendly and after only 2 or 3 visits they recognize you and you feel at home.
Ambiance — Small, rustic, and warm. Not a lot of seating but their tasting room is big enough that if you have to stand you don’t feel cramped. A few chairs made out of old barrels and about 8 or so barstools is all they have. The outside of the building kinda looks like a rundown warehouse from a Batman movie but don’t let that bother you. Also, as an added perk, it’s located right next to the local homebrew shop for my fellow homebrewers.
Price — It’s about as cheap as breweries come. $ 5 for five tastings and a tour? SIGN ME UP. Off the top of my head, I want to say pints are $ 4 but don’t quote me on that. Their growler fills run anywhere from $ 10-​$ 12 but that’s still a great price. They sell growlers, tee-​shirts, pint glasses and more, all for a good price.
You can’t beat Monocacy. I just wish more people knew about them… Actually, maybe I should be keeping this to myself so I don’t have to worry about getting a spot at the bar.

I have never had such rude staff, I walked out they ignored me 3 times yet they would loom at me. The last straw was after both of the bar tenders looked at me when I asked for a tasting (5 beer samples for $ 5) they both ignored me and helped the new guy who just walked in.
I have no idea what their beer tastes like, and at this point I do not want to.

I am, based on my experience earlier today, genuinely perplexed by the reviews that talk about rude and jerky staff at this place. The three guys working when we stumbled in (we were there to visit the home brew store next door… didn’t know that Monocacy Brewing was there!!!) were super nice, welcoming, and we had a great afternoon spent trying their beers and chatting.
Unilocal isn’t really a beer review board, I suppose, so I will leave that to proper beer boards. I will say that I was fond of Moncacy’s beers before I came here. I’d had the Riot Rye and Brewtus. My brother, a major league beer nerd, declared Brewtus his favorite coffee beer ever (yes, he’s probably had that one that you just wanted to say «aha, idiot, but has he had…»). I have to agree. It is truly a spectacular coffee beer. I also find their other offerings to be really damn good.
We also had the experience of them only having four beers available for the 5 beer tasting sampler. I saw some other reviewer bag on them for this. OH, Puddin’. You baby. So, the one that wasn’t available to us was unavailable due to the brewmaster needing to approve it. Maybe it’s the budding brewer and BBQ chef in me that has me saying «Ah, I totally understand.» That said, for our 5^th, we got one more of our choice :) Not a bad compromise.
I am soon to leave the DC area, so you local yokels need to pump these guys up so that their distribution reaches down to Tennessee. K, thanks!

Beers were fabulous! The staff was very friendly and knowledgable. Such a great brewery. I can’t wait to come back and do the tour and try more of their seasonal selection!

Mediocre beer with horrendous and rude customer service. Considering the number of local breweries don’t waste your time.

I have been to their tasting room on a couple of occasions now. I have also tried their beers often at several of the local restaurants in Frederick.
They produce some decent beers. This is just my personal opinion: I don’t taste a lot of variety in their beers with the exception of their coffee stout. The rest of the ones of tried all seem to be fairly similar and lack creativity.
I would love for them to produce a few more hoppy beers: stronger IPAs and Pale Ales.
The tasting room is standing room only I think because of regulations. But for a 20 – 30 min Friday afternoon tasting, I would definitely pop in and have a go.

Drink local!
Monocacy’s Riot Rye is fantastic. Being a home brewer and MBC being right beside the Flying Barrel, how could I not love this place? Their stout is also really great.
$ 5 bucks for tasting and a tour.
The beer and t-​shirts are a bit more though.

awesome beers and a great tour. worth the $ 5. comes with 5 sample sizes of beer and a free glass.
Tour guide andrew was super knowledgeable!

Went here a few weeks ago with a pal, and generally enjoyed the visit. The beer samples (they had four of five taps operating) were all good to very good, and the tour itself was the right length and quite interesting. The only down side was the relatively annoying «hard sell» of merchandise after the tour, which I found to be uncharacteristic for a craft brewery operation, which is typically a laid back sort of setting. Sort of felt like the care salesman pushing hard for the optional undercoating on the new car!

Came in here with a 10 other crazy friends for the noon tour on a Saturday. We were the first tour of the day and we had a blast! 5 different samples with great explanations, and a short and sweet tour of the brewery. We were all running on 4 hours of sleep and getting a bit zany, but all three employees made us feel welcome. The majority of us bought growlers after the tour, and even cleaned them out the Raspberry Brown! I was lucky enough to get my growler before the tap ran dry, but I’ll be sad when it runs out!
Looking forward to seeing Monocacy pop up in my local bars!

Brewery with tours and samples. Great staff, good beer, and informative brewer.