On May 19 my friend John and I visited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints's Washington D.C. Temple, which is actually located in Kensington MD. It normally doesn't allow visitors, but had open houses from April 28 to June 11. The place is stunningly beautiful and immaculate, and they made everyone wear shoe coverings so as not to soil the carpeting. Photos are not allowed inside but the Church has a photo gallery here. Below are photos I took of the exterior.

Since I don't get to Montgomery County very often I thought we should visit some breweries in the area. John has accompanied me on other brewery trips, such as Asheville/Richmond and West Coast, so he was happy to go brewery hopping with me today. All the places we visited are farm breweries.

Our first stop was Lone Oak Farm Brewing in Olney. It has a lot of land, with a barley field, picnic benches, a pavilion, tents, and play areas for kids. The grounds and the taproom are very pretty. We sampled:

• Pharmtasm (good juicy/fruity thiolized IPA brewed with Phantasm powder and Cosmic Punch)
• Haystack (quite good NEIPA with some bitterness)
• Sandbar (good juicy NEIPA with no bitterness)
• Flip Coast (good crisp, clean IPA)
• General Sherman (pretty good imperial IPA)
• Kiwi Me Away (fruited sour)
• Griff's Way (okay ESB)

Next we visited Brookeville Beer Farm, where I had been five years earlier. They are known for their pizza. The beers were disappointing, but the ambience was good and they played nice 70s tunes on the speakers. We tried:

• 16 Bar Stools (Belgian triple)
• Interdependence (IPA)
• Cultivation (NEIPA)
• Happenchance (witbier) (the only decent beer)

	Pizza oven.

Then it was on to Elder Pine Brewing & Blending in Gaithersburg. We tasted:

• Stormgazer (good NEDIPA)
• Anti-Hot (good NEIPA)
• Fog by the Steep (good NEIPA, similar to Anti-Hot)
• Barrel-aged Sheer Tyranny of Will (good 11% ABV imperial stout aged in Basil Hayden barrels)
• Passionfruit Reflections (pretty good tart witbier with passionfruit)
• To Give Form and Coherence to the Mystery (good funky mixed culture saison with two strains of Brettanomyces)

	Hop trellises.	Canning line.

Then it was a one-mile drive to Waredaca Brewing, where I had also been five years earlier. It got its name when it was a camp called WAshington REcreational DAy CAmp. It is now an equestrian eventing barn and riding lesson facility. All the beers we tried were decent; none were either good or bad.

• Beecher (IPA)
• Topsy (wee heavy)
• Unboxed (thiolized IPA)
• Small Batch Line of Fire (13% ABV English barleywine) (can)
• Winslow (NEIPA)
• Boomer (imperial Vienna lager)

It had been a great day. Even though some of the beers weren't very good, we had nice weather and beautiful scenery.