Diageo today announced its intention to build a U.S. version of Dublin’s Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Baltimore County, Maryland.
As currently planned, the company would build a mid-sized Guinness brewery and a Guinness visitor experience with a microbrewery at the company’s existing Relay, Maryland site. This new brewing capability and consumer experience, combined with a packaging and warehousing operation, would bring the company’s investment in Relay to approximately $50 million.
The new brewery would be a home for new Guinness beers created for the U.S. market, while the Guinness Stouts will continue to be brewed at St. James’s Gate in Dublin, Ireland.
“Opening a Guinness brewery and visitor center in the US will enable us to collaborate with fellow brewers and interact with the vibrant community of beer drinkers,” said Tom Day, president, Diageo Beer Company, USA.
Visitors would be able to tour the working brewery (concept art of which is pictured atop), sample experimental beers brewed on-site at the taproom, and purchase Guinness merchandise at the retail store.
Finalization of these plans is still contingent on reaching agreement on several considerations. Diageo hopes to receive approvals and to begin construction this spring with the goal of opening the brewery this fall to mark the 200th anniversary of Guinness being first imported into the US.
The project would re-establish a Guinness brewery in the US after 63 years of absence.
While many specifics are still being evaluated, it is estimated that this project could generate approximately 40 jobs in brewing, warehousing and an agile packaging operation, which may include canning, bottling and kegging.
