Tap Handle #695: Eastern Shore Brewing

June 20, 2018

Tap Handle #695: Eastern Shore Brewing

Tap size: 11"
Rarity: less than 10 seen
Mounting: internal 3/8" nut

This nautical themed tap was acquired thanks to a club member's efforts. There is a crab at the top of the tap sitting on top of hops and wheat stalks, while another crab at the bottom reaches up to grab a hanging hop. More hops and wheat stalks appear in other places on the tap. In the center is a place for a round label; I received multiple labels and have chosen to profile Eastern Shore's Situation Critical IPA. The front and back of the tap are reverse images of each other, lending a slightly different look to when viewed from each side, so I have taken a full amount of photos. A few of these taps have appeared on the secondary market, but the supply has been dwindling, and the price has been close to or over $100 in each case.

Click through to read more about Eastern Shore Brewing and to see more photos of this whimsical tap...

Eastern Shore Brewing was founded in St. Michaels, Maryland in 2008 by Adrian "Ace" Moritz and Lori Moritz. Both had an entrepreneurial passion, but had never thought of a microbrewery as their business. After a downturn in the economy caused layoffs in the family, Ace and Lori moved to St. Michaels to be closer to Ace's parents. Ace was a long-time homebrewer, so they decided to open Eastern Shore Brewing after talking with friends from St. Michael's Winery, and were told that the town was in need of a microbrewery. They ended up leasing part of the St. Michaels Mill for their brewery site. Their lease included 3 small rooms: one for brewing, one for fermenting and bottling, and a tasting room, which was the size of a walk-in closet. The couple had to battle through doing their own construction improvements, licensing delays, and convincing the locals that the brewery would not be noisy, smelly, or attract the wrong element. After getting a loan from a local bank, Ace purchased an 8 barrel brewhouse for $6,000.

The first couple batches of beer were lost to infection, and for the first year, they had success but struggled with maintaining consistency and keeping up with demand. Ace ordered a fermenter but couldn't afford to have it installed and didn't have space for it. He had gone to the bank for more money but was turned away due to the tightness of the recession. Fortunately the boat architect in the next space retired, and Ace claimed the space. It was as big as the rest of the brewery combined and had street frontage. When the fermenter arrived, Ace asked for volunteers to help install it, with payment in the form of pizza and beer, and 40 people showed up to assist. A revamped tasting room was opened in the new space and immediately paid dividends. Ace and some other brewers, with the help of legislators, were able to have laws changed that allowed them to serve pints and fill growlers, which contributed greatly to Eastern Shore's success.

However, the brewery was still struggling with inconsistency in the quality of their product, and Ace was forced to shut the brewery down for 4 months to address it. Recognizing that he couldn't solve the problem himself, he hired Randall Marquis as brewmaster. Marquis was an undergraduate of Franklin Marshall College, and a brewing certificate holder from UC Davis and had previously worked for Swashbuckler Brewing. He installed a water treatment system and tweaked each recipe by giving it a unique water profile. The consistency issues were solved and the brewery was back on track. With an increase in demand, Ace found that the bottling line could not keep up, while they were only able to run at 75% capacity due to not having enough kegs. They sold the outdated bottling system to focus more on kegs and growlers.

In 2013 Marquis left to open his brewery with his father in New York, and his assistant Zach Milash took over. Milash tweaked some recipes and earned awards at the 2013-2016 Comptroller's Cups competition, two medals in the 2016 annual competition of the Brewers Association of Maryland, and medals in the Maryland Govenor's cup competition. Eastern Shore Brewing has won a total of ten medals in the state competition since its inception in 2008. The brewery offers 3 year round beers, as well as seasonals and microseasonals. Distribution is from Delaware down the eastern shore of Maryland to Anapolis, and includes Baltimore.

Situation Critical IPA is hoppy, hoppy, hoppy! Made with copious amounts of Cascade, Chinook and Columbus hops, a floral aroma is followed by a piney/spicy/citrus flavor and finishes with a great lingering bitterness. It is dry hopped with over 2 pounds of hops per barrel!