The latest trend to hit the farm winery scene is the co-habitation of wineries and breweries offering a wider range of products to attract an audience. Corcoran Vineyards & Cider was perhaps the first to establish this amalgamation in the DC area, and others quickly followed in the Commonwealth. In Maryland, a couple of brothers have gone rogue and combined wine, beer, and cider at the Linganore Winecellars and Red Shedman Farm Brewery facilities. And with more lenient tasting regulations, the overall visit is much more enjoyable. In Virginia, the two operations must be completely segregated where beer must stay in one boundary, wine in another. Absolutely no mixing of the two onsite. However, in the Free State, visitors are free to walk around the winery grounds with a pint and Linganore wine can be brought into the brewery. Imagine that Virginia.
Linganore is one of the oldest operating wineries in Maryland, established by Jack and Lucille Aellen in 1971, and succeeded by their son Anthony in the early 1980s, with another son Eric later managing the vineyards. The winery is known for their broad portfolio of sweet to dry wines as well as their numerous music festivals. Another brother Victor stayed out of the family business for most of his adult life until he escaped corporate America to work in the brewery industry in Grand Rapids Michigan. Eventually the Aellen's decided that adding a brewery to the successful winery would be the next logical progression so Victor returned to start Red Shedman. And Victor established their farm brewery credentials by cultivating several varieties of hops such as Cascade, Columbus, Chinook, Nugget and Crystal.
The brewery offers several styles of beer brewed from their fifteen-barrel brewhouse at the bottom floor of the facility. They also produce a cider, Silo Hard Cider, that is quite nice - very sweet and fruity up front, but finishes completely dry and tart. When visiting the brewery flights range from $8 to $10 for six beers. Besides standard IPAs and Blondes the brewery creates unique beers such as the Suicide Blonde White IPA (part classic Belgian Wit and part dry hopped IPA), Honey Rye, and Vanilla Porter. These were my favorites and I believe all available in cans. Cheers to Maryland wine and beer and as usual theCompass Winery, Brewery, Distillery Locator Mobile App can guide you to their location.
