If you've been dying to visit Dublin's St. James' Gate Brewery and Guinness Warehouse but haven't actually been able to make the trip to Ireland yet, I've got some good news for you: Guinness is opening in about a month's time, A brewery in the United States was built. If you happen to live in Washington, D.C. or Maryland, the brand-new facility, called the Guinness Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House, will finally officially open on August 3, according to Food & Wine Baltimore, PA area, you're lucky: It's practically in your backyard.
By the way, I happen to live in Washington, DC. I can't tell you how ecstatic I am about the proximity of this place. I love Guinness. This is awesome.
The new facility is located in Relay, Maryland, approximately 10 miles south of Baltimore and approximately 35 miles north of Washington, DC. Like Dublin's St. James' Gate Brewery, which has been operating since 1759, it will function as both ale and lager. - A production facility and a museum of sorts; opportunities to take guided and self-guided tours and see more than 100 objects and artifacts straight from the Dublin facility will be part of the mix, according to the visitor center Food and Wine . programming. This sounds like a Guinness lover's dream.
…I mean, it’s my dream.
Ahem.
Anyway.
And, of course, there's a bar. In fact, a "test bar" actually opened in October 2017 in preparation for a full opening in 2018. When the brewery fully opens in August, a 270-seat restaurant will also be part of the experience - and if the test bar menu is anything to go by, there will be some excellent and creative beers to try: According to Open Gate in According to the brewery's website, the current menu includes Guinness Milk Stout, Guinness Gold Series, Guinness Cherry Stout and Guinness Guava Smart Ale, among others. Heck, yes.
This isn't the first time Guinness has opened a brewery outside of Ireland. This wasn't even the first time the company opened a brewery in the United States: In 1949, the Arthur Guinness & Son Brewery opened in the Long Island City area of Queens, New York. However, its life was short-lived and it closed after a few years in 1954. Guinness had other breweries that opened and closed during the year. For example, the original Park Royal brewery in London opened in 1936 but closed in 2005, when production of all Guinness products in the UK and Ireland was transferred back to Ireland. But the company currently brews in nearly 50 countries around the world, so perhaps you can expect them to eventually return to the United States.
Plans for the Maryland-based brewery were first announced in January 2017. At the time, Guinness parent company Diageo noted in a statement that, according to Fortune, "the new brewery will be the base for a new Guinness beer produced specifically for the U.S. market"; Tom Diageo, President of Diageo Beer Company USA Day added: “Opening a Guinness brewery and visitor center in the United States will allow us to collaborate with other brewers and engage with the vibrant community of beer drinkers.”
The site chosen for the facility already belongs to another brand in Diageo's portfolio; it was most recently used to store and age Captain Morgan Rum. Its history goes back much further, though: It originally opened in 1933 as the Maryland Distillery, the first legal distillery in Maryland after Prohibition ended, The Baltimore Sun reports. Soon after it was acquired by Joseph E. Seagram &. Sons. Seagram produced Calvert whiskey at the facility; in fact, by 1988, all of Seagram's Baltimore-area operations were operated by what became the Calvert Distillery. However, the Calvert brand was sold in 1991, and Seagram itself was acquired by Diageo a decade later. Bottling activities at the Relay plant ceased in 2015.
Calvert Distillery's decision to stop bottling has sparked a backlash in the region. Massive job losses: The plant's workforce dropped from 103 to just four, the Baltimore Sun reported. It's unclear whether the opening of the new Guinness Brewery will help mitigate those losses, but it's possible, as they say, it's not impossible.
According to Open Gate Brewery's website (which, interestingly, is newguinnessbrewery.com), there will be three breweries on site: a two-barrel pilot brewery, and a 10-liter system that will serve as a kind of test kitchen ( It will focus on experimental "small batch and one-off brewing" at the factory bar), as well as a 100-litre system that will take over production of Guinness Blonde American Lager. Blonde American Lager has been produced under contract by City Brewing Company in Latrobe, Pa., since 2014; however, production will now be transferred to Open Gate Brewery and distributed nationwide. We also hope to eventually use the 100HL system "to brew new beers for the U.S. market and release them regionally or nationally."
But here’s the thing: Open Gate Brewery won’t be producing any Guinness signature stout. Longtime favorites like Guinness Draft Stout and Guinness Extra Stout will continue to be imported exclusively from Ireland to the U.S. — so, you know, just... don't go to a new brewery expecting to get a pint of freshly brewed old Beer support. In fact, I think that's kind of exciting; it means the stuff on tap may not be available elsewhere ( cherry stout? Yes, please ). But if you must have a classic stout, the bar also has several imported Irish beers to choose from. The menu rotates, but you can see what's currently on offer here.
Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House will open to the public on August 3, 2018. Please visit their website for visitor information and more.
