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Guinness Brewery Headed To Baltimore County, Adds 70 Jobs

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore County could soon be home to a Guinness brewery after Diageo Beer Company announced plans to bring the Dublin favorite here to Maryland.

It has been 63 years since Guinness beer was produced in the United States, but later this year, it could be brewed right here in the Baltimore area.

A multi-million dollar Guinness Brewery and visitor experience is in the works, with the facility set to be open in the fall, to mark the 200th anniversary of Guinness' import to the U.S.

It will be modeled after the Open Gate Brewery in Dublin.

Diageo Beer Company will be renovating their old facility on Washington Boulevard to make it happen.

"I think it's just going to bring a ton of tourism into Baltimore," said Tom Day, president of Diageo Beer Company USA. "So we're looking forward to impacting the economy in such a positive way."

The company expects about 300,000 visitors per year, and the project will create about 70 permanent jobs.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz says cheers to that.

"They view this as a regional tourism site, similar to what they're doing in Dublin," said Kamenetz. "So it's a home run for us. It's a $50 million investment on their part."

While this campus would hold a taproom, touring facility, brewing, packaging, warehousing, and more.

The world famous Guinness Stout will still be prepared in Ireland.

"We will now be having Guinness, for the first time manufactured in this country, right here in Baltimore County, in the form of their new product Guinness Blond," said Kamenetz.

It's a new attraction for beer drinkers and good business for taxpayers set to be pouring as early as this fall.

The Brewers Association of Maryland tells WJZ's Devin Bartolotta they support brewers large and small in the interest of quality beer and jobs in Maryland.

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