Dragon Distillery — Local services in Frederick

My girlfriend and I took a weekend to visit Frederick and visit some of the breweries. Dragon was a little bit of an after thought, as we had never heard of them, but after my girlfriend did some research, we decided to drop in. I was pleasantly surprised. Mark and his staff were very helpful and very accommodating. We did the tour and the tasting, and the tour was great. Mark was full of great information, and you could tell he had a passion for making great liquor. He told us lots of great information about the process, and answered all the questions we had.

During the tasting, Mark's wife was very enthusiastic and make certain that we did the tasting correctly in order to get the full effect of all their different lines of alcohol. She gave us some great ideas about how best to mix drinks that would complement the liquor well.

What really made me write this review, though was the quality of the alcohol. Their sipping vodka was some of the best vodka I ever had. It's incredibly smooth, and I don't drink a ton of vodka, but I would drink that stuff straight. It was that good. The moonshine was great too. The surprise of the day for me though was the mind flavored vodka. When I first saw the label, I was dreading that particular tasting. I'm not a fan of flavored liquor, and thought it would be sickly sweet or overpowering. It was some of the best liquor I have ever had. Very well balanced, and nothing off putting about it at all.

After our tasting, we were going to grab an Uber to our next destination, and Mark's wife insisted that she take us instead. Mark and his staff are amazing. They are true professionals, and I anticipate them having a bright future in the liquor business. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to taste his bourbon, but if it's on par with anything I tasted yesterday, I might be making a brand change when it's available in November. Overall one of the best experiences I have ever had in a brewery, winery or distillery.

FYI: If you're military, Mark is a proud Navy vet, and offers discounts for military folks....

We visited for the first time last week for trivia night. Thankfully my husband and I were there early enough to secure a table for our group. It is recommended on their website to make a reservation -- DO IT!! Then you won't have to worry about if there will be space. We are lucky we made it there when we did!

Trivia was very fun, but also really loud. They may want to consider turning it down just a bit because the sound reverberated in the space and made it difficult to understand what was being said by the trivia host at times.

That being said, it's a really fun space. It's decorated like the dining hall of a castle and feels very whimsical. There's games for playing and they even have axe throwing (we did not participate in those). While not a restaurant, they do have some appetizers and small meals you can order. There are a lot of drinks with cool names and you can even roll to get a random drink if you want! As a Princess Bride fan, I had to get the Inigo Montoya drink and it was awesome.

Our server was Aubrey/Aubree, and she was very sweet! She checked on our large group a couple times, got us refills, and answered any questions we had (like, where is the bathroom--it's down a long hall that feels a bit like the backrooms lol. It was clean though!) I really appreciated her patience with our group, especially since we did not all arrive at once and she took orders from everyone as they got there.

As a note for any sober DND lovers who are considering visiting, they do have Pepsi products you can drink. 😊 I didn't see soda on the menu, but it was available when we asked about it.

We hope to be...

I've been to probably more than a dozen distilleries, mostly in the U.S., but this is the first one I've been to that had a genuine local charm and a high number of delicious products.

We showed up as an unannounced party of 15 (celebrating a birthday) and we we're the only folks in the joint. Despite the large group of folks, Mark and Tanya (sorry, not sure of the spelling) took great care of us. Mark gave a very informative tour, with his passion on display and a keen interest in taking and answering questions. As I said, there were lots of us and we came unannounced, but Tanya's dedication to service was impeccable. She offered great suggestions on what to taste, gave great descriptions of the products, and was just a lot of fun.

They have many fine products, including the rye whiskey and the AMAZING ginger vodka. If you are a fan of ginger, you simply must try it -- it has an unadulterated taste that leave cocktails with a resounding ginger note. They also have delicious canned cocktails that are simply the best pre-made cocktails I have ever had, especially the dragon pie -- a delicious lemon meringue pie inspired drink suited to be a great treat on a summer day.

We will definitely be going back again and again. They're doing a 3rd anniversary celebration on February 23 (2019), so stop by if you're in the area. They also have classes/workshops that you can sign...