Guinness closes Baltimore County taproom after decade of tax incentives

Guinness Open Gate Brewery will close its doors to the public on Sunday, ending nearly a century of continuous alcohol production at its Baltimore County site. The closure follows a decade in which state and local officials changed zoning laws and offered tax breaks to lure the brand’s parent company, Diageo North America Inc., to the region.

Diageo has owned the property since 2001, after acquiring much of Seagram’s beverage business. The company shut down its original distillery operations in 2015, laying off more than 100 workers. To replace that revenue, Diageo invested roughly $90 million to build the Open Gate taproom, which opened in 2018. Will Anderson, the county’s former economic development director, described the project as aspirational, noting that Diageo modeled the space after its Dublin brewery.

The Maryland General Assembly lifted restrictions on barrel production and operating hours to help the project succeed. Dwayne Kratt, Diageo’s former senior director of state government affairs, told lawmakers in 2017 that the investment would grow the entire state beer industry. He stated that Diageo chose Maryland over other states with easier regulatory regimes because the company wanted to be there.

A state report identified the Enterprise Zone tax credit as critical to attracting the project. Dakarai Turner, a spokesperson for County Executive Kathy Klausmeier, said Diageo received $247,000 in tax credits between 2017 and 2022. Despite these incentives, the national wave of brewpub openings began to reverse around 2023, with closures outpacing new openings according to the Brewers Association.

In 2023, Diageo halted large-scale brewing and sold much of the land to MRP Industrial for $35.7 million. MRP is redeveloping the area into a logistics hub called Crossings 95. Diageo retained the Open Gate property, which maintained a small 10-barrel brewing operation and outsourced the production of its local beer to a facility in New York. A spokesperson for Diageo declined to comment on the status of the remaining property.

Jonathan Sachs, the county’s current director of economic and workforce development, said Diageo did not provide prior notice of the closure. He attributed the decision to broader macroeconomic trends in the beer industry. Dennis Clampitt, a local resident who supported the brewery’s opening, plans to visit the taproom one last time this weekend. He expressed frustration that elected officials have not spoken out more about the closing.

Clampitt noted that he spent years advocating for the brewery and drinking its beer. He now worries about increased truck traffic from the planned logistics hub. The site has produced alcohol since 1933, when the Maryland Distilling Company opened after Prohibition ended. The final day of operations will mark the end of that long local history.