The Gate Closes: Guinness Ends Its Maryland Chapter
Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Halethorpe will close to the public after November 1, 2026, ending an eight-year Maryland run.
Here's how we got here.
Some closings sneak up on you. This one has been building for a while. Diageo, the London-based drinks company that owns Guinness, has announced that the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Halethorpe will close to the public after November 1, 2026, with the rest of the operation winding down by year's end. The company pointed to rising operating costs, a tough economy, and changing consumer habits.
Greetings from Guinness in Baltimore, Maryland.
When the doors close, Guinness will be down to one American brewery: the Open Gate in Chicago which opened in Fulton Market in September 2023.
A Big Arrival in 2018
It's easy to forget how big a deal this was. When Open Gate opened on August 3, 2018, it was the first Guinness brewery on American soil since the company's New York operation shut down in 1954. Governor Larry Hogan cut the ribbon, and visitors lined up from day one.
Guinness reps Sean Brennan (brewer) and Ryan Wagner (brand manager).
The site itself has deep Maryland roots. The 62-acre campus off Washington Boulevard was once home to the Calvert Distillery, the post-Prohibition whiskey operation behind Lord Calvert, and later a Seagram's plant. Diageo picked up the property when it bought Seagram's in 2001 and spent a reported $80–90 million turning old whiskey warehouses into a modern brewery.
And it was a serious brewery. There were three brewhouses under one roof: a two-barrel pilot system, a 10-barrel experimental brewhouse, and a 100-hectoliter production brewery, plus packaging lines large and small. Guinness hired well-known craft brewers to run it, including Peter Wiens from Stone Brewing and Hollie Stephenson from Highland Brewing. The production side was built mostly around Guinness Blonde (the Baltimore Blonde lager), not the stout. The stout still came from Dublin.
The Fight Before the Pints
Open Gate didn't arrive quietly. Getting it here meant rewriting Maryland beer law, and the first version of the 2017 bill (HB 1283) would have cut taproom hours for craft breweries while making room for Guinness. Maryland brewers pushed back hard, and the compromise that passed raised the taproom limit from 500 to 2,000 barrels a year, with a path to buy back another 1,000.
To be fair to Guinness, the story didn't end there. In 2018, Diageo sided with Maryland's craft brewers against a bill that would have rolled those gains back. In 2019, Guinness and the Brewers Association of Maryland lobbied together to lift the cap to 5,000 barrels. Whatever you thought of a global company setting up shop next to our independents, Maryland's small taprooms still benefited from the deal.
Front steps to Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Slow Wind-Down
The first big crack came in April 2023, when Diageo announced it was shutting down the production brewery. Roughly 100 jobs were lost, and Baltimore Blonde brewing left the building. The taproom, restaurant, and 10-barrel experimental system kept going, and so did the steady stream of visitors. Now the rest of it is going too.
Diageo said the decision came after a "careful review of our operations and long-term business priorities." The company also plans to set up a $250,000 community fund for local groups working on economic opportunity and supporting the hospitality industry. According to the brewery, more than two million people have come through the gate since 2018.
Beer From Here event co-hosted by Guinness and BAM.
What It Meant
Open Gate was never a typical Maryland brewery, and it never tried to be. But it was a real place with real brewers making interesting beer, and for many people, it was a first step into something beyond the usual pint. It brought beer tourists to Baltimore County, and it helped push our taproom laws in the right direction.
It also fits a pattern we've been tracking all year. [Maryland brewery closures in 2026]. Closures have hit small and large operations alike. When a company with Diageo's resources can't make the numbers work, that tells you something about where the industry stands.
A first Guinness pour in December 2017.
I first stepped into Open Gate at its coming-out party on December 1, 2017. This was their way of introducing themselves to the local beer community. I remember Hugh Session of Heavy Seas being there. Even then, I knew this was a big deal for Diageo, Maryland, and the local beer scene.
I returned to Open Gate again soon after they opened in August 2018, as part of the Beer Bloggers Conference. They were gracious hosts, providing a grand tour, an excellent meal (even though the restaurant wasn't officially open yet), and an open bar tab.
I have gone back to Open Gate many times since then. They worked to support local beer with contributions to the Brewers Association of Maryland, and the event hosted a Maryland-only beer festival in August 2024, Beer From Here Festival.
Proud beer tender serves four perfect pints of Guinness
And each time I went, it seemed like the place had dropped off a bit. The beer was still good, but the food had slipped.
It was a Diageo showcase, certainly, and was always busy when I went. I guess not enough for an international company.
Whenever I talked with other local beer enthusiasts about Guinness Open Gate, it stirred up a lot of emotions when the main brewery was closed and friends lost their jobs.
Enjoying a Guinness pint at the newly opened Open Gate in Baltimore.
If you want one more visit, you have until November 1. Raise a pint to the gate. Then find a local taproom; Heavy Seas Beer is just around the corner, and plenty of others are still pouring.
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Sources:
WBAL-TV (https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-guinness-open-gate-brewery-closing/73983412),
American Craft Beer (https://www.americancraftbeer.com/guinness-brewery-baltimore-closing-november-2026/),
Baltimore Sun (https://www.baltimoresun.com/2019/04/30/maryland-brewers-to-pour-more-at-their-taprooms-have-room-to-grow-under-legislation-signed-by-gov-hogan/),
NPR (https://www.npr.org/2018/08/04/635335001/guinness-opens-its-first-u-s-brewery-in-64-years).
