I went to the DuClaw brewpub at Arundel Mills during my January trip to Baltimore and had to stop by again. I really do love the majority of their beers– they are tasty and creative, just what you want in a brewery. I was also glad to see that, at least Sweet Baby Jesus, was readily available in many locations. My hotel, The Marriott at Inner Harbor, had it on draft in the hotel bar. The guys at the bar got a kick when I said “Sweet baby Jesus, they have Sweet Baby Jesus on draft!”

This second trip to DuClaw at Arundel Mills didn’t disappoint and being so close to the airport it was a great spot to stop for lunch before catching a flight.

Funk was a blueberry citrus wheat that was probably the closest thing I have found to my memories of Bar Harbor’s Blueberry Wheat. I hate wheat beers that are fruit and not beer. This was still a good wheat beer with hints of blueberry. The nose had just a light blueberry aroma. I really wish someone at Sea Dog would try this one so they would see how it should be done (sorry people who like this beer but it is disgusting and I am the biggest blueberry fan alive– I eat them almost daily).  The only problem with this beer was that I really didn’t get any citrus from it.

From the X-10 series, I tried the Cantalope Saison.  This beer really reminded me of the Cigar City Cucumber Saison– not sure why as a cuke should not taste like a cantalope.  It had an good underlying saison flavor but the fruit was a bit odd.

Sawtooth is a white ale.  This has a good Belgian style nose and interesting citrus flavors.

HellRazer IPA was not my favorite. It didn’t have a very strong hop nose and ended it with a very bitter flavor. To me, this was not a well balanced beer.

From the Hop Continum Series, we tried the Mosaic which was a hoppy red ale.  This had a good hop nose and a nice caramel flavor imparted from the malt– a very good beer.

Misfit Red is a solid amber ale with low hops and very malty, toasty and light caramel flavors.

Euphoria is a Toffee Nut Brown Ale. You get toffee immediately from the nose of this beer and the toffee flavors are also predominant. This is a very easy to drink and dessert like beer.

The Devil’s Milk with Bourbon is a barley wine aged in bourbon barrels. This is a strong beer with the high alcohol (10.5%) from the barley wine and strong bourbon flavors. This is a very solid beer but not for the faint of heart.

Dirty Little Freak is a really good coconut caramel chocolate brown ale. A little sweet, but still very drinkable, this beer has a hint of coconut on the nose and good coconut flavors.

From the Exile series, we tried the Coffee Stout which had a typical of burnt coffee. The taste was a bit off putting though as it tasted a bit like a cigarette put out in your coffee.

Black Lightning is an American Black Ale.  It has a solid hop nose with an underlying burnt malt. The burnt malt flavors come out up front but it finished with good hop flavor.

The Bad Moon Porter had a good solid porter nose and overall was a very balanced porter.

For those who don’t know, there is also a DuClaw in BWI airport near the Southwest check in (it is outside of security).  I went by just to see what they had and they still had Flying Fish. I had Flying Fish when I had come back in January and it was about the day it was released. It was fantastic– a raspberry chocolate truffle in a glass. Well, if you want to try this beer, make sure to get it near the release date– it doesn’t seem to age well. The raspberry flavors now tasted very artificial. It loses that fresh truffle taste and begins to taste that weird Nestle raspberry iced tea or like when you add the raspberry flavoring to coke at some of those fancy new soda machines. Don’t do Flying Fish old or it will ruin it for you.

Overall, Flying Fish aside, I have to say that DuClaw is one of my favorite breweries, just because they are unique and different.