Clipper City Brewing Company - Gold Ale

This 2000 Bronze medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival was the Official Beer of the Baltimore Bicentennial in 1997. On the nose, expect sweet malt scents with bold aromatic hops revealing notes of pine and citrus. Compared to the nose, the hop presence is subdued in the flavor, with light caramel malts making up the bulk of the profile with restrained hops contributing a floral note against the graininess that steps in just before the gently bitter finish. Overall, well balanced and highly drinkable. This beer goes down so smooth and easy, yet is full of character. Highly approachable, so if you're trying to sway your friends away from the big macros that dominate restaurants and bars across the country, this would be a good one to share as a way of weaning them away from the swill—and it's one you, as a beer connoisseur, can enjoy right alongside them! Great with grilled chicken dishes, pizza, or even a hearty California Cobb salad.

The history of the largest craft brewery in the Baltimore area goes back to the mid-1980s when Hugh Sisson, owner and founder of Sisson's, a local restaurant and bar, first recognized the potential for a small brewery in Baltimore. He began his quest to get a brewery started by attempting to procure a license to brew beer at his restaurant, but quickly hit a wall due to prohibitive legislation preventing brewpubs in Maryland. So he began working with Senator George Della, Jr. to successfully lobby the Maryland General Assembly to pass legislation permitting brewpubs in MD. In 1989, the beer Gods smiled upon them, and Hugh began brewing at Sisson's, Maryland's first brewpub. The move helped usher in the wave of craft brewing in Baltimore, and Hugh engrossed himself in the development and market recognition of both Sisson's brewpub and its beers, while simultaneously serving as this pioneering facility's first Brewmaster. Not only an anti-beer legislation warrior, he is also a member of the Master Brewers Association of America, the Institute for Fermentation and Brewing Studies and sits on the Executive Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Craft Brewers. After five years of brewing at Sisson's, Hugh decided to take his craft brewing to a larger platform by starting a full-scale microbrewery. Three guesses as to who stepped in to say he couldn't do it… that's right, the state. It seems that "they" (a.k.a. "the man") took issue with him owning both a brewpub and brewery. The logic behind this legal blockade? Your guess is as good as ours—this is the business model used throughout Europe for hundreds of years. Fortunately, Hugh was undaunted by the legal challenge, and did battle with the powers that be yet again, pulling out the win less than two years later. In early 1996, Clipper City Brewing, borrowing a Baltimore sobriquet as its name, officially began brewing on the scale Hugh had envisioned. For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (410) 247-7822 or check out their web site at www.clippercitybeer.com.