The Flying Barrel

Always a great experience. Very knowledgeable and helpful. We can always get everything on our list for wine, cider and mead making. Comparable prices to any homebrew store.

They've got a great selection for beer brewing and the staff were quite helpful and is pet friendly too.

They had the exact parts and knowledge to help us fix our kegerator. I haven't taken any courses, but if you're interested in learning how to brew beer and such, this is your place. Great vibe all around.

Everything you need and great, knowledgeable staff. You can buy your ingredients and take home or brew on site

I can't say enough nice things about this place. The guys behind the counter are great, from giving really good advice to calling ahead to have my grains milled before I even leave my house, they've never let me walk out the door feeling like less than a valued customer. Plus, every time I've walked in, it smells like beer brewing, so that's a huge bonus. So go in, say hi, give Cooper some pets, and get your brewing supplies from some of the nicest people you're likely to meet.

Fantastic resource for anyone into homebrewing, all sorts of supplies and friendly staff to help out with any questions you have. They even have classes you can sign up for. Ill be back for more brew kits and more dog pets!

Great group of people, super helpful, works with your experience level, nice selection of supplies, will be going back to brew again!

The staff is amazing and helpful. Being able to explore and learn about brewing has been fun. Love learning about the process of making wine\beer and tasting first hand how aging effects the flavor has been insightful. We've brewed here twice and looking forward to our next time.

I stopped in to get a few glass car boys and I was excited to find quality used car boys at a decent price! The guy who helped me was super nice, the store dog was very friendly and it seemed like they had everything I would need to do some quality brewing. I had to stop myself from buying more than what I came in the shop for but I would definitely stop in again if I'm in the area.

My friend and I decided to try beer-making and this place was MUCH cheaper than Kettles&Grains in Leesburg VA. So we took the drive out to this place. We were (mostly me) completely indecisive on what to brew. I thought ipa but picked a Kölsch at the last minute. Scott was very patient and walked us through , letting us taste/smell/select everything step by step. He was a great teacher! We go back in 2 weeks to bottle. They also do wine and cider brewing. Just a heads up- they do not sell food or beer on premises.

Scheduled a beer making session with Brewmaster Scott ... Excellent experience! You get top quality one on one time with a seasoned Brewmaster! It is a history lesson on all things beer mixed in with a chemistry lesson ... a few good jokes ... and hands on beer making: equating to a great experience with other beer crafters! Both Brewmasters Scott and Shawn are walking beer encyclopedias with several dashes of quick wit and friendly humor! Meet other beer crafters! AND also, find brewing kits for your home beer brewin adventures!

I'm really not a beer connoisseur, and I'm not going to pontificate about craft beers like a basic b____. Give me a Corona and we'll call it a day. But I literally found this place on accident, and I love trying new activities, so I signed up to be part of the "brew your own beer" workshop. It was awesome. To make two cases of beer is about 120 bucks, but that's .a flat fee. So whether you go by yourself or bring one or two buddies along to take the class with you, the fee is still 120 bucks if you want to split those two cases amongst yourselves. That's definitely cool rather than charging per person. I seriously thought it would cost more than that. The also have a wine making and bottling class, but I'm not sure about the price. So first you go in and pick out what kind of beer you want out of various catalogues, or you can bring in a recipe you have found and if they have the stuff, they'll help you make that. The head "instructor" Sean we had was an awesome guy. If you're talkative and can joke around, he can too and he's a funny dude and definitely knows his stuff about beer. He let us sample some of the grains before we tried them, and helped us throughout the process of measuring out ingredients and grinding stuff and explaining all of the nuances of how different flavors work with beer depending on all kinds of factors. The actual brewing part of beer leaves you with a lot of down time (you're probably only working like one hour out of a two and a half hour class), so there's plenty of time to chit chat with the workers and other people in your class, and there's a beer fridge rigged with a few taps of whatever beer they've got hooked up to the kegs so you can sip on samples of beer for free while hanging out. After our beer was done brewing we sealed it up to let it ferment and I'll be heading back over in couple of weeks to bottle it. It's during the afternoon on a Saturday but the experience was such a pleasant surprise, that I don't mind spending my time there on the weekend. So I'd definitely give this place a 5/5 and highly recommend if you're at all curious about beer brewing. As an aside, their primary business seems to be selling home brew kits, so if that's something you'd like to try, then this seems to be the place to go.

The Flying Barrel is such a great place for any beer enthusiast that has wanted to try their hand at brewing microbeer, without testing out one of those scary at home kits that leave a fermenting gallon of goo in your closet. You can brew 5, 10, and 15 gallons or however much you want. For $75 you get to brew two cases of beer, it includes all ingredients for brewing (you get to pick what type of beer you brew), the bottles, the storage while its waiting to be bottled and the staff being there to help you learn how to brew and bottle your own beer. Its a fun, social thing to do with friends. Be forewarned you MIGHT get addicted to making your own beer. Oh wait....did i forget that you drink their house brews for free.....all you want....

Good selection of gear. Dude who runs it is really nice and helpful, plus he has a cute dog. My only qualm would be the prices, but I do realize that there's an intangible value to supporting a local business even if it is a little more expensive. I try and buy from The Flying Barrel as much as my budget allows! Cheers.

I have newly been making home made wine and have found such a wealth of knowledge in James. He even tasted my wine and spent a lot of time educating me on what I can do to enhance the flavor of the current batch I have now. He sold me a few things that came out to less than $20. When I went home and used them, it transformed by 5 gallon batch. I also called on a Sunday morning, not realizing that they weren't open for another hour and the gentleman I spoke to on the phone was very sweet and knowledgeable answering all of my questions. I didn't realize they weren't actually open until the end of the phone call and when I apologized he was really nice about it. If you are thinking about making wine or beer... I would start here. They are incredible.

It is mystifying to me that with the popularity of home beer brewing and wine making today, we have less brewery/wine making supply shops in the MD/VA/WV tristate area today than we did 20 years ago. Thankfully I don't have to care about that anymore since finding the Flying Barrel yesterday. So far all I have done is go there to buy supplies, so I'll have to update the review later with info about the services that the store offers and the worker's expertise. As far as supplies go, they carry pretty much everything you can think of for the home alcohol brewer. They have a wide variety of yeasts, hops, and flavoring agents for beer and wine. They have a large selection of fermenters, carboys, and all the supplies you could want for bottling - wine bottles, beer bottles, growlers, caps, shrink wrap for wine bottle necks. They even have some equipment that you can rent rather than purchase. Their prices are also very good - on a lot of items that I checked, they were around the same price or even cheaper than Amazon, which is outstanding. It's great to have a store that has all these products for great prices and without the inconvenience of having to wait for them to be shipped to me... not to mention the fact that if you are new to brewing/wine making, having an actual person to ask about the dizzying array of options as far as ingredients, techniques, and equipment are concerned is quite valuable. The internet may be a great place to buy some things cheaply, but there is no substitute for an actual person with some expertise (especially when a lot of the info on the internet about how to brew alcohol is just flat out wrong). If you brew beer or make wine, you owe it to yourself to check out the Flying Barrel. It's really close to Wegmans in Frederick - so the location is easy to find.

Great for a brew-your-own beer experience. Knowledgable staff. Friendly and helpful. Can't wait to go back in a few weeks to bottle and taste my own beer!

The owner isn't especially nice or helpful...I've been in several times and have been treated as though I was an inconvenience. I'm new to home brewing and wanted to have a local go-to place to learn from and purchase all my equipment, brewing supplies and ingredients. However, James (the owner) has always managed to make the experience unpleasant. His heart clearly isn't into brewing or customer service. I decided to purchase all my stuff from md homebrew where they're much more helpful, friendly and enthusiastic. I'd pass on this place unless you know what you're doing and only need one or two ingredients.

Bob and the staff are always friendly and willing to share advice and even a beer or two. Years ago when I was first re-entering the world of homebrewing, they got me set up with a simple kit and a few basic recipes. As I've grown as a brewer, they have the equipment and ingredients to grow with me. They re-located a while back and the new store is bigger and better. Even though this is one of the few choices in the area for homebrewing supplies, they provide the guidance and character that make them an asset to the local brewing community.

My husband and I learned how to make our own wine this weekend! How cool, right!? Especially from a company that brews and sells their own beer, Flying Dog. You can also learn how to brew your own beer too. We finished step 1 of the wine making process and we go back in 2 weeks to do the second step. They encouraged us to take pictures during the whole tutorial so we will be able to replicate it at home. Once they educate us on the whole process I feel confident we will be able to do it at home. They have a great selection of grape juice and supplies to get you started. It's a bit pricey get all the supplies for home BUT once you get everything you just have to buy the grape juice and then you are looking at about $4 a bottle and 1 batch of juice creates about 30 bottles of wine!

The Flying Barrel is hands down the BEST homebrew shop I've ever been to. The staff are experienced brewers and are happy to give you advice on your next brew. My home brewing quality has soared above and beyond by using their freshest self serve grains and LME. They also have a gigantic selection of hops and yeast for almost any creation you want to brew. Its really refreshing to see a core homebrew shop for brewers ran by brewers

My sister and her husband bought me and my bf and gift card to brew our own beer! So flipping awesome! The whole staff was friendly and so helpful! We were able to brew absolutely any beer we wanted! Day 1 was picking out our recipe, mixing in the hops and malts and yeast and cooking it up. Came back 2 weeks later to bottle our beer and take it home. My bf and I had so much fun, we bought our own beer brewing kit and 2 beer mixes in their shop! Now we can brew beer at the house...yum! A gift card to brew beer will be my new go to for friends and family!

We stopped here to pick up some supplies for our home brewing set up. The store manager/ sales guy was super helpful and nice. The selection is not great but for odds and ends this place is perfect.

the flying barrel has been under new management for over 2 years. James has made new changes that have improved the operations and made it a real business. thanks