The Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Halethorpe is turning one year old, and to celebrate, the beer maker is hosting a concert and birthday party on Saturday and rolling out a limited-release Grand Cru.
Country singer Frankie Ballard will headline the Aug. 3 festivities, and Charm City Cakes will provide a special Guinness cake and thousands of cupcakes to soak up all that beer.
As for the special brew, it has a 10.5 percent ABV and contains a superfecta of booze, combining a stout aged in bourbon barrels aged with a Belgian-style golden ale aged in rum barrels.
“Historically, the Grand Cru was often brewed and blended to mark special occasions, so it felt like an appropriate style for our anniversary,” head brewer Hollie Stephenson said in a statement. “We’ve felt so much support from the community in this first year, and we’re so appreciative that they’ve allowed us to experiment with unexpected beer styles and expand what Guinness means to beer drinkers in Maryland and across the country.”
The party begins ahead of the weekend with a beer dinner on Wednesday, followed by a cornhole tournament with prizes on Friday.
Since opening last year, the brewery–Guinness’ first to set up shop in the U.S.–has welcomed 400,000 guests to tour the facilities and brewed 80 different types of beers on–site, the company said.
In addition to offering the well-known Guinness Draught, brewed in Dublin, Ireland, the Halethorpe facility features the locally made Guinness IPA, Guinness Milk Stout, Guinness White Ale and Guinness Blonde, and has experimented with many different styles.
Last summer the blonde ale became the first beer made on the premises to be distributed nationally.
