Baltimore Blonde will live on, but it won’t be brewed in Maryland. It will be outsourced to a brewer in New York.
Guinness owner Diageo said in April it was closing its Guinness production facility in Halethorpe, Maryland — where Baltimore Blonde had been brewed — after just three years.
The production facility was used to make a variety of spirits in the Diageo portfolio, not just Guinness Blonde, Diageo said in a statement.
Diageo has now partnered with Utica, New York-based FX Matt, a 135-year-old family-owned brewer to continue Baltimore Blonde’s production.
It is the second made-In-Maryland beer loss involving FX Matt, which acquired Frederick-based Flying Dog Brewery for an undisclosed sum last month, moving most Flying Dog beer production to New York.
When Diageo North America Guinness announced the Maryland facility’s closure in April, it said the $50 million facility was underutilized. The closure results in about 100 job losses.
The closure of the facility in Halethorpe does not impact the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, tap room and restaurant, which continues to brew beers to serve at the tap room in its 10-barrel innovation brewery on the ground floor of the visitor center.
Diageo’s decision to move Baltimore Blonde production to FX Matt’s facility in New York came despite incentives offered by Baltimore County to continue operating and keep jobs in the state.
