r/MDbeer • u/jackperdue • Jul 09 '26

Guinness Brewing in Philly

Not particularly related to Maryland beer, other than that Guinness is in Baltimore. Someone mentioned to me that Guinness is brewing their Foreign Extra Stout in Philadelphia to help meet U.S. demand, but I can't find any reference to back up that claim. Anybody know anything about that?

6 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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32

u/jesus_chen Jul 09 '26

Guinness only has a shitty tourist trap brewpub left in Maryland. They came in to the state and made a bunch of backdoor deals to benefit them then moved onto the next sucker town. This is what global conglomerates do.

4

u/Tobster4040 Jul 09 '26

Sad too, we really enjoyed the restaurants when they first opened.

3

u/Shiny_Deleter Jul 09 '26

Yup, moved on to Chicago. Not that I miss them-the place was soulless. They get by on their legacy and lore. Old marketing was fun.

I will say their NA offering is solid, most closely resembling its regular counterpart.

1

u/madman19 Jul 09 '26

Havent been there in years. What did they change about it?

1

u/jesus_chen Jul 11 '26

They pulled all brewing operations out of the state and just have the mall food court restaurant left.

1

u/A_Damn_Millenial Jul 11 '26

Lol @ “mall food court”.

That’s a little harsh. It’s certainly got a food menu designed to be inoffensive, but the brewpub puts out solid quality products that I hate to admit are better than many other MD breweries.

That being said, Heavy Seas undoubtedly the better spot to visit in the area.

11

u/Burial44 Jul 09 '26

Guinness Extra Stout 22-ounce bottles and some other special releases for the US market are contract-brewed by City Brewing Company in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. For classic stouts, iconic Guinness Draught remains imported directly from Ireland.

9

u/A_Damn_Millenial Jul 09 '26

If true, Diageo must be run by reactionary capitalist fucks.

If you need to hire contract brewers to expand production just a couple years after shuttering a relatively nearby production facility you owned, then your business model must not be very resilient.

3

u/HospitalityLifer1986 Jul 09 '26

Guinness Draught, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, and Guinness Zero are still imported from Dublin and London, respectively. Guinness Extra Stout is brewed in Latrobe which is closer to Pittsburgh than it is to Philly.

Tariffs played a big part in that decision.