F. X. Matt will brew Baltimore Blonde for Guinness. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2023/...ery-will-now-produce-a-beer-for-guinness.html Between this deal and acquiring Flying Dog, it looks like F. X. Matt aims to be Marylands' biggest brewer [in Utica, NY. ]
There are some details in that article about capital investments made to the FX Matt brewery: “Fred Matt credits a $56 million investment in renovations and expansion the brewery made in recent years with enabling it to win the new contract.” And: “In 2021, Matt Brewing completed a $35 million expansion that was included giant new brew kettles and fermenting and storage tanks, along with a new digital/computer-operated control system.” It would seem that with all of this investment, FX Matt is well positioned for future growth. Also, there was mention that Brooklyn Brewery, which itself is partly owned by Kirin (24.5%), is a part owner of FX Matt: “…Brooklyn Brewery, which now owns a 20% share of the Utica brewery.” Can you follow the ‘bouncing money’? Cheers!
I wish Guinness would allow Harp Lager to be brewed in the US so availability would increase and we could it enjoy that hard to find beer much fresher. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen though.
Speaking of Maryland larger brewers, Duclaw (has a presence at Thurogood Marshall airport just got bought by NJ Riverhorse brewery. I guess Maryland is a small state and only meant for small breweries.
And Natty Boh is considered the pride beer of Maryland and especially Baltimore city, yet it’s been contract brewed in GA and OH for decades. Must be major issues (taxes, unfavorable laws etc) with doing brewery business in Maryland is all I can think of.
Before it was Baltimore Blonde, it was a Latrobe Lager, so contract-brewing is in the beer's short history. It's been brewed under license by Moosehead on and off for decades and probably the nearness of the brewery to the US had little effect on the availability of Harp. Regardless of where it is brewed, it's still going to be distributed through the Guinness/Diageo wholesale network. Hey, you forgot Pennsylvania - where it has been brewed at two different breweries, The Lion and City/Latrobe! Well, National Bohemian was brewed in Maryland after Heileman bought Carling National right up until Stroh bought Heileman (a merger of two very troubled brewing companies) in the 1990s and Stroh closed the brewery in MD a few years before shutting down totally. At that point, Pabst bought most of the Stroh-Heileman brands and Pabst had a contract already with Miller to brew most of its beers. Not sure you can attribute the sale of the Carling National Brewing Co. (at the time Canadian-owned) to Heileman in the 1970s, or the later demise of Heileman and Stroh to Maryland's tax or other laws. At the time US breweries, large and small, were disappearing from many states.
Where did you read that? Saranac is a line of beers brewed by F X Matt (and apparently they also used "Saranac" as a 'dba' name). The brewery itself was expanded and the brewing company's contract business makes up a good portion of its production - which within the industry is listed under the contractee's sales, not Matt's. In addition, they just bought the Flying Dog brand, which was nearly half the size (76k bbl) as Matt's 166k bbl according to the Brewers Association for 2022. So that's one way to "grow". By comparison, Matt's 2015 barrelage was 223k and, going back to the early days of the "craft era" (pre-Saranac - when their top brand was Matt's Premium) of the late 70s-early 80s Matt's barrelage was in the 480-430k bbl. range. Further back, when Utica Club was their flagship brand and their corporate name was the West End Brewing Co., they were brewing over 600k barrels of beer a year in the late 1960s.
I amended that for you. I lividly remember that day in September 2007 when after attending a Tokyo Verdy soccer match at Ajinomoto stadium in Tokyo's Tama region; having had the paradigm-shifting realization about non-J.R. railway lines' through-runs; I wound up at Billy Barew's Beer Bar in Shinjuku (which was playing a lot of Aerosmith on its PA system). It had the Saranac beers! I remarked, semi-vocally, "I can't have this beer in Chicago, which is a lot closer to Utica, NY. than Tokyo, Japan. What's up with that?"
