Diageo plans to build a Guinness brewery in Baltimore
Funny they should say that. The maker of Guinness stout, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff, on 31 January 2017 announced that it wants to build a brewery and taproom at its former whiskey bottling plant near Relay in southern Baltimore County. It would be Guinness’ first US brewery in more than 60 years.
The first in over 60 years? Well, according to our archives, Diageo had a brewery in the US until 2007, when it sold the former F&M Schaefer Brewery in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, to Boston Beer for USD 55 million. Perhaps the 1.9 million hl plant did not qualify as a brewery any longer as Diageo had used it to produce the flavoured malt drink Smirnoff Ice since 2001.
Be that as it may, Diageo tentatively plans to turn the former Seagram’s buildings in Baltimore into a brewery and tap room with the brewery focusing on new beers for the US market, while the brand’s classic Irish stout would continue to be made in Dublin.
However, this being the US, the proposal is contingent on a new kind of liquor license in the state of Maryland. Current rules cap on-site beer sales at 500 barrels (585 hl). Diageo is seeking permission to sell as many as 5,000 barrels beer a year since it hopes the brewery and taproom will draw more than 250,000 visitors for tours and tastings in the first 12 months.
Local media said that the brewery would breathe new life into a site that has lain largely dormant since Diageo closed bottling operations there in 2015. At the time more than 100 people worked at the plant. Diageo inherited the property when it bought Seagram’s wines and spirits business in 2000. The site was the state’s first legal distillery after Prohibition was lifted in 1933, media say.
Beer tourism has become a big thing in the US. It is estimated that more than 10 million people tour craft breweries annually and brands like Guinness, while not craft, could be a big draw as well.
In the recent past, breweries and distilleries have invested millions of dollars in making their facilities a tourist destination as a way to fuel interest in their brands and thus increase sales.
Diageo would spend USD 50 million on the project, which could create up to 70 jobs, including 40 in brewing, warehousing and packaging. About 30 people could work on the visitor side of the operation, which would include a restaurant.
Diageo hopes to begin construction this spring and open in the autumn of 2017, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of imports of its stout to the United States.
