The Guinness Open Gate Brewery & Barrel House will open near Baltimore on August 3 – the first brewery Guinness has operated in the US for more than 63 years.
But it won’t be making the brewer’s iconic stout, it will still be imported from Ireland. Instead, the brewery will produce Guinness Blonde American Lager and a range of experimental beers, including milk stout, coffee stout, cherry stout, India pale ale, rye pale ale, American wheat beer and a barrel-aged Belgian stout.
Ryan Wagner, Guinness brand ambassador, told USA Today the brewery was dedicated to being “a place for innovation and creativity for Guinness in the States”.
Oliver Gray, the brewery’s marketing manager, told Brand Channel: “The USA is probably the most dynamic and exciting beer market in the world right now, and, put simply, we’d like to be closer to the action. Having a brewery in the USA will help us understand and respond to trends more quickly, as well as brew smaller batches and get them to market faster.”
The site was originally the Maryland Distilling Company, established in 1933. Diageo, acquired the location in 2001 when it bought Seagram and has spent about $80 million creating the brewery.
Josh Noel, a beer writer at the Chicago Tribune and author of Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business, told USA Today: “This is like what the craft beer revolution has wrought. Consumers don’t want to just drink anonymous brands pulled off the shelf anymore. They want an experience.
“Guinness and Diageo have caught on. Guinness is obviously a hugely important brand for them in the U.S., but there can’t just be Guinness on tap everywhere. There needs to be a Guinness experience.”
The taproom at the brewery will test the waters for new releases.
“We are going to be looking for those beers that are successful within the taproom that we think have the ability to be scaled up,” Wagner said.
Diageo has hired some of the top brewers in the US to helm the operation, rather than relying on its team in Dublin. In January, it welcomed a female head brewer, Hollie Stephenson (above), to the team.
“The brewers here in the states are pushing envelopes further and faster than just about any industry,” Wagner said. “If you are trying to be a part of the American craft beer industry, it’s tough to do that from an ocean away.”
