Lone Oak Brewery, Olney MD

Doug and I both have a long holiday weekend, so we opted to head up to the Lone Oak Brewery in Olney. Not too far from our house, but due  to the pandemic (mostly) we hadn't made it over there. They opened up in June of 2020, and we only recently started heading out to in person enjoyment of the breweries. Happy they are there.

There is a storied history to the namesake of the farm, a Lone Oak that stands at the edge of the property, pictured here with the Haystack hazy IPA. Their website talks about it briefly, but I'd honestly like a more resourced reading list of this pre-Civil War tree. 

They have a large property, with a beautiful main building, a separate building for events, and a pavilion with taps. 

There are yurts for rent, plenty of picnic tables, a playground, and tons of space for kids and adults to run around in and play. 

They offer a limited food menu but have food trucks regularly, and outside food is welcome, but not outside booze, naturally. 

And they also support live, local music. Which, they happened to be hosting that day. How lucky are we?

I started with the General Sherman DIPA. It packs a flavorful punch, and I'd even describe it as spicy. At 8.2% ABV it is a good starter beer. We settled into the pavilion to enjoy the band on hand, Silver Books. Timing wise we got there just as they finished setting up. And if there's a jam band around, you can bet we'll be enjoying. 

General Sherman here, pictured with the taproom house in the distance. Hardly anyone was here yet, but the field between filled up nicely as the time went by with picnic blankets, folding camp chairs, dogs, kids, and games. 

Doug started with the Groove It Sour, a pink guava concoction that was deliciously sour and very flavorful itself. 

We're off to a good start here!

I ordered up hot dogs for us from the food truck of the day, Catalyst Hot Dogs. Served up with chili sauce, cheese, onions, these were quality dogs on my favorite buns (Martin's potato rolls!)

I noted that the hot dog truck was displaying a sign saying they were featured on the NPR Podcast "The Indicator." And you can listen to the episode at the link there. 

I mentioned I worked there, and the guys in the truck were thrilled that I noticed. They told me the story of how the truck came to be, and how they are supporters of the local NPR station in DC. 

We had a moment of mutual admiration, they're obviously proud of their pandemic success story, as well as they should be, and the line behind me was 7 people deep consistently. It didn't seem to wane the entire time I could see them from our spot. 

They humored me with a picture that I could share with the podcast team. 

Back to beer. 

I then got the Deep Root, a chocolate porter. 

A lot of times, chocolate beers are really sweet but this wasn't. It had a lovely chocolate flavor, but no syrupy sweetness to bring it down. 

Doug got the OAKtoberfest because, after all, everyone here is celebrating Oktoberfest. Everyone has a Märzen this time of year, obviously, lest it wouldn't be Oktoberfest. It was a tasty brew, very gentle flavor, and I enjoyed my sample from his cup. 

I got the Olney Amber, a nice finishing beer with low ABV. 

We had to move out of the pavilion because they were hosting a private event, so we sat at a picnic table to still enjoy the band until they took a break. It was all perfect timing. We finished our beers as they finished their set, to "take a 5 minute break and be back in 20 minutes." They had a lot of friends and family there to see them, Doug tipped the band and we thanked them, and left to walk around the space for a bit before getting back in the car. 

The playground was hopping, the yurts were full, and more people were still arriving. There is plenty of parking so we headed back to the car with people walking towards us, with their dogs and kids in wagons, ready to go enjoy an afternoon by the Lone Oak. We could hear the band start up again (Before they had started, I jokingly asked if they were going to play a 20 minute rendition of "I Know You Rider" and the lead singer said "oh yeah. You'll probably hear that.") 

Overall this was a really nice trip. All the beers were good, and Doug commented that he thought they were better than another local farm that we've been to many times (that I haven't yet written about). I'm not sure they are better but they sure are on par with! We'll be back for sure. 

And, because. Here's me for a change, not just beer and buildings. Apologies to all the humans behind me for being included. I should have held the beer over to my left to cover them but didn't realize.