Sour Experience at Flying Dog in Maryland

Just a general discussion on my experience at a fairly local brewery.

As the headline suggests, some guys and I didn't have a very good experience at Flying Dog. I was beyond excited to hit this place up and while one factor of this experience wasn't Flying Dog's fault, their bartender didn't help at all.

So for those unaware as I am now, if you're a production brewery in the state of Maryland and you have a tap room..your customers HAVE to essentially take a tour of the facility before you can participate in tastings. Quite possibly the most dip sh*t bum f*** liquor law I've ever been exposed to. A camouflaged golf ball makes more sense than this law. What the actual **** does walking around a brewing facility have to do with the privilege of tasting the different brews??

Anyway, we didn't know this prior to driving almost two hours up and all tours were booked. Here's where my bad experience turns salty. The bartender explaining this law/policy basically didn't give two sh*ts we drove all the way up here for this and proceeded to suggest (in a really pompous tone) "there's a pub close by that serves some of our beers, I suggest you go there". In my mind, I was thinking "middle finger". I get you can't always make an exception for some folks but don't be a dick about it.

Positive note, we did find another great brew pub about half an hour away in Fredrick called Brewers Alley. If anyone's up that way and you haven't tried it, it's well worth it.

It's not a state law, it is a local ban. Flying dog also has had this ban basically over turned not sure when it will be official but it's happening. If the bartender was in fact rude that is definitely not a good a way to conduct business but I get the feeling you tried to use the "we drove far now give me some beer for my troubles" spiel. Can't blame them for not wanting to get in trouble just because you didn't know the rules.

did anyone else think this thread was about a wild beer tasting?

I had to book a tour a few months in advance because they were straight booked for months. I went there back when they first opened and had a great time. No money just bottle caps. Maybe reserve a spot and try it again because it is a good time. At least it was back then.

Any brewery that I'm familiar with needs a reservation. It just makes sense to check before going.

chickypad said:

did anyone else think this thread was about a wild beer tasting?

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That is precisely what I thought it was about.. I read it and said, "Flying Dog makes sours now?"

To repeat Doctor_M, I'm sorry you had a bad experience and perhaps the bartender was rude, however it's also possible you were so frustrated about the situation any answer but "Sure, come on in" was going to piss you off more.

Law is law, and whether you drove 5 miles or 500 miles, I wouldn't bend it for anyone. I'd always try to make the customer happy, but not at the expense of risking my business.

sboyajian said:

That is precisely what I thought it was about.. I read it and said, "Flying Dog makes sours now?"

To repeat Doctor_M, I'm sorry you had a bad experience and perhaps the bartender was rude, however it's also possible you were so frustrated about the situation any answer but "Sure, come on in" was going to piss you off more.

Law is law, and whether you drove 5 miles or 500 miles, I wouldn't bend it for anyone. I'd always try to make the customer happy, but not at the expense of risking my business.

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I think some of you are missing a point, I didn't say I expected anyone to bend over backwards and say "aww it's okay, come on the tour anyway little guy". I actually had no intention of taking a tour. I came for tastings and that was it. Been to dozens of breweries and I've never experienced that before. The point is, no it's not Flying Dog's fault the law is stupid, the bartender was rude and added insult to injury.

If he was rude, he's a dick. If he could have been fired, or FD been fined for you not doing the tour prior to the tasting, then was right.

soccerdad said:

If he was rude, he's a dick. If he could have been fired, or FD been fined for you not doing the tour prior to the tasting, then was right.

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I never said I asked him to make an exception for the distance traveled. It would have been a nice offer for him to try and get us on a tour considering the distance traveled but it wasn't expected and understood. His comment and tone was just unnecessary.

Tried some Flying Dog beers a while back.. IMO, you did not miss anything......
At least the one(s) I tried.

I have toured at least one major big, big , brewery. I can tell you this. The best part of the whole deal was the tour. When you got back to the tasting the bartender would take an 8 ounce plastic cup and draw 6 ounces off the tap. You were allowed 4 pulls and I think they had 4 different beers on tap. So a total of 24 ounces of beer.
CarHasAbs you weren't missing anything. Maybe that's why that barkeep was steering you towards a place that had something to offer.
If you had gone to the place the rude bartender told you to go and told them their your story they probably would have treated you to some free drafts to make things right. :cross:
And if they didn't say anything at all, I personally would have suggested it.
Peed off customers are bad for business, no other way to slice it, and they know it.
You were right for being upset, you just didn't tell the go to bar about your experience.

While it's not terribly common around here, I do know of one brewery--Schell's--that only serves samples to people who have just completed a tour. Not state law, just their policy. And from what I was told, it was for good reason, as they had had some problems with unruly drinkers in the past.

As for the pompous attitude of the FD taproom bartender, that seems to be more common, as I have seen more than a few act as if they are doing me a favor by letting me drink their beer. Must be a hipster thing, perhaps, but I do see a certain amount of 'tude at some taprooms--usually the ones with mediocre beer. OTOH, I've been to many breweries staffed by nice people with awesome beer.

Even if the tours were booked solid, there are always going to be a couple no-shows. Those spots could have been filled by late comers such as you, at least they could have tried.

I probably would have been ticked off too, and perhaps visited another bar instead or the "go to bar" the bartender suggested, depending on the mood.
As for tastings, yeah, small limited samples is all you'll get. I agree that the tour would have been the more memorable part, with a nice, but short tasting for closure.

As for their beers, Raging ***** does it for me. I'm almost sure some FD beers are distributed through your area.

chickypad said:

did anyone else think this thread was about a wild beer tasting?

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lol your post made my night.

Flying Dog's regular beers like Doggy Style, Old Scratch, In Heat Wheat, etc.. all don't really do anything for me. I dig their Canis Major beers though. I think you probably ended up on the winning end of all this. Sure I had a good time at FD back about 6 or 7 years ago but I almost would always rather go to a smaller brewery and give them my support and business.
I'm not sure where the OP is located but come to Northern VA. There's a ton of big and smaller breweries around here that you could hit up in a day. You could even make a weekend out of it and hit up all of them in 2 days or so.

bobeer said:

Flying Dog's regular beers like Doggy Style, Old Scratch, In Heat Wheat, etc.. all don't really do anything for me. I dig their Canis Major beers though. I think you probably ended up on the winning end of all this. Sure I had a good time at FD back about 6 or 7 years ago but I almost would always rather go to a smaller brewery and give them my support and business.
I'm not sure where the OP is located but come to Northern VA. There's a ton of big and smaller breweries around here that you could hit up in a day. You could even make a weekend out of it and hit up all of them in 2 days or so.

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I'd rather spend my day at the Old Bust Head taproom than Flying Dog.

I've only done the FD tour once myself, and it was alright. I have noticed sometime over the past couple months, they've changed format for their tours. It used to be that you had to book the tour in advance, buying a ticket online for a specific day and time. Each tour typically filled up from what I saw, and I think the groups were limited to around 10-12 people.

One of the last times I checked, I see they've changed the format to a first come first serve. I think this is a great idea for the business, but it leaves the tourists a bit on the short end, as it did here with the OP. I think the main goal here was, instead of only having the dozen people show up that are reserved for the tour, now they might have 20 or more, lining up early hoping to get in.

I think the bottom line was a business decision to increase the head count coming through the doors, in hopes they can sell some more merchandise. I can understand the decision, but is it worth turning off "X" number of people from your product, due to the bad experience? I hope they rethink this for those that are travelling for the tour.

On a side note, they do fill growlers at the brewery on certain days, regardless if you've went through the tour or not.

I don't think that is MD law. I go to the Union Brewery in Baltimore a lot and never had to do the tour to taste or buy a beer.

chickypad said:

did anyone else think this thread was about a wild beer tasting?

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Lol that's why I just clicked on this thread.

I have a pretty low opinion of Flying Dog's beers in general, I was just expecting the thread to be about how the beer sucked.

It didn't help my opinion when I met a guy who claimed to be a former brewer but couldn't talk the talk. I assume he cleaned equipment or was a bar back or something.