When it was unveiled earlier this summer it might have been easier to actually see dogs fly or the dead rise than find Flying Dog Brewery's Dead Rise Summer Ale flavored with local fave Old Bay on your beer store shelf.
My first experience with the brew was courtesy of a lonely single bottle in the sampler fridge at Fairgrounds Liquors across from the State Fairgrounds. The guys at the counter assured me that I'd dig it – and they were right – but told me it was almost impossible to keep in stock – right again.
Subsequent trips saw THG come away empty handed, until one morning visit when it must have just been delivered and I snagged a six-pack from the cooler. When I brought it to the counter even the owner, who was working the register, expressed shock that I found it.
These days, though, Dead Rise is a pretty common sight at the store with a display as you walk in and plenty available for crab feasts, shrimp boils, cookouts and simply lounging around Charm City.
Turns out that Flying Dog was as surprised by the beer's popularity as anyone and – at one point this summer – ended up devoting 65% of their production to churning out the subtle but tasty seasonal brew.
Between the popularity and what Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso suggested might be "hoarding", the beer flew off the shelves at such a rapid clip that the company had to suspend sales to states outside the Maryland / DC / Northern VA corridor.
Read the full article at Baltimore Business Journal.
