Guinness Opens Its First U.S. Brewery In 64 Years

Pints of Guinness stouts are lined up at one of the outdoor bars at the new brewery. Guinness, famous for making stout beer, opened a new brewery in Maryland this week. It’s the first time Guinness has had a brewery in the U.S. in more than 60 years.

Emily Bogle / NPR

Guinness is famous for making stout beer – and this week, the Irish company opened a new brewery in Maryland. It’s the first time Guinness has had a brewery in the U.S. in more than 60 years. So: Does Guinness want to sell more stout to Americans? This time, it turns out, the brewer is trying something different.

First things first: Guinness will NOT be brewing its famous stout in America. To find out why, I asked Peter Simpson, the head brewer at the Open Gate Brewery in Dublin.

I think Guinness stout is such an iconic stout, it has such strong links back to Dublin and back to Ireland, that it would feel wrong to take it away from Ireland and to brew it over here,” Simpson said in the new U.S. brewery. “So it is always going to still be brewed back in Dublin.”