Diageo Beer Co. USA plans to build a U.S. version of Dublin”™s Guinness Open Gate Brewery at its existing site in the town of Relay, Maryland. As currently planned, the company would spend an estimated $50 million to build a midsize Guinness brewery and a Guinness “visitor experience” with an innovation microbrewery at the Relay site.
The brewery would be a home for new Guinness beers created for the U.S. market, while Guinness Stout will continue to be brewed at St. James”™s Gate in Dublin. Visitors would be able to tour the working brewery, sample experimental beers brewed on-site at the taproom and buyGuinness merchandise at the retail store.
The project would re-establish a Guinness brewery in the U.S. after a 63-year absence. Relay was chosen for its proximity to major East Coast tourist and population hubs, availability of skilled employees, and space to build and adapt existing structures on the property.
Diageo USA, headquartered in Norwalk, estimates that the project could generate approximately 40 jobs in brewing, warehousing and packaging, while the visitor experience part of the project could create approximately 30 jobs. A significant number of construction jobs would likely also be created during the building phase, and the company would endeavor to hire as many local firms as possible to conduct this work.
Diageo hopes to receive approvals and to begin construction this spring with the goal of opening the brewery in the fall to mark the 200th anniversary of Guinness being first imported into the U.S.
As reported last week, Diageo Beer Company USA organic net sales increased 3 percent.
