"To be an Irish trivia host in America hosting at Guinness, that doesn't hurt," Stephen Walsh told The Banner this week. He was born in Ireland and has hosted a weekly trivia night at the Open Gate Brewery for the past four years. That regular night now has an end date. Diageo North America, Guinness's parent company, will close the brewery at 5001 Washington Blvd. to the public on Nov. 1. A company spokesperson told Patch that operations will wind down by the end of the year.
The official address is Halethorpe, but the brewery's Eventbrite listing gives it as Arbutus, MD 21227. For people who live on either side of that line, the next four weekends are what's left. The brewery has not announced a farewell event. What's left is a schedule that was mostly booked before the Oct. 1 announcement, so the final month looks a lot like a normal October there.
A calendar that was set before the news broke
The brewery's biggest remaining event was announced in July. The Nigerian Center released the details of the first Nigerian American Festival on July 16, 2026, for Oct. 16 through 18 at the brewery. The Oktoberfest tent was already up. The main Oktoberfest ran Sept. 18 through Oct. 4 with Oompah music, Bavarian food and six new beers, and that run ended Sunday. The tour calendar runs to the end of the month.
Here is what is on the calendar between today, Monday, Oct. 5, and closing day:
- Wednesday, Oct. 7. Regular guided tour, from $19.
- Oct. 8, 9 and 15. Tours focused on brewing and history, from $20 each.
- Friday, Oct. 9 through Sunday, Oct. 11. Roktoberfest moves the tent to live rock under the Munich-style canopy, with Oktoberfest beers and Bavarian food. The local chamber listing runs it from 11 a.m. Friday through 9 p.m. Sunday.
- Friday, Oct. 16 through Sunday, Oct. 18. The Nigerian American Festival. Festivities open Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17 is headliner day, and Sunday programming runs into the early evening.
- Oct. 21 and Oct. 28. The last regular guided tours on the posted schedule.
- Sunday, Nov. 1. Last day open to the public.
The weekends of Oct. 23 to 25 and Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 have no named events posted. A Halloween Movie Night picnic-table reservation, $75 for up to eight people for four hours, is listed as sold out, and the listing does not show the date. Because everything here was scheduled before the closure decision, check the brewery's listings before you go.
The festival weekend carries the most weight
The Nigerian American Festival is the last large event on the calendar, and it is also the first time the event has been held. Organizers describe three days of Nigerian music, performances, food, interactive activities, vendors and family-friendly programming. As of today, the Nigerian Center's page still lists the festival as upcoming. The Guinness events calendar also still promotes it, labeled "NEW!" at the top of the page.
Guinness has added paid experiences inside the festival weekend:
- Nigerian food-and-beer pairings, Oct. 16 through 18, $34.
- "A Husband's Wife," a stage performance on Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., $75. Richard Mofe-Damijo and Ajoke Silva-Jacobs star, and the play is written by Tyrone E. Terrence.
- Festival RSVP through Eventbrite, which marks the listing "Going fast," lists free parking and allows refunds up to seven days before the event.
Eventbrite shows an overall price range of $0 to $450 without breaking it down by ticket type, so that range is not the general admission price. The refund window matters for timing. Seven days before the Friday opening is Oct. 9, the same day Roktoberfest starts.
Hours, tours and what to do with a gift card
The taproom's posted hours for the final month:
- Monday: closed
- Tuesday through Thursday: 3 to 10 p.m.
- Friday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The brewery's site still carries a "Now Open Tuesdays!" banner and promotes a new happy hour, though the page does not give happy-hour times or specials. Both promotions were still running when the closure was announced.
Anyone holding a gift card should read the terms now. The official shop sells e-gift cards from $25 to $200. Under the current terms, they are valid at both the Baltimore and Chicago locations but cannot be used in the online shop or for tour bookings. Those are the shop's standing terms, not a closure policy. No source so far says what happens to Baltimore balances after Nov. 1, so spending a card in person this month is the simplest option.
What the site was, and what has already closed
Today's taproom is smaller than what opened in 2018. Diageo spent $90 million to build the brewery, the first Guinness brewery in the United States in about 60 years, and the company says it drew more than 2 million visitors. It was built on a former Seagram's bottling plant. Manufacturing on the site ended in 2023. The Banner describes what remained as a 10-barrel experimental brewery and taproom.
So the Nov. 1 closing is the second wind-down, not the first. Diageo announced more than 100 layoffs there in 2023. This round affects at least 174 food-service and facilities employees working for Aramark. That figure comes from a notice Aramark Campus, LLC filed with the Maryland Department of Labor, with layoffs effective Nov. 1. Diageo has not said how many of its own staff are affected.
"This was not a decision we made lightly," a Diageo spokesperson told Patch. The company said the closure "is not a reflection of the passion, talent, or dedication of our team, nor of the support we have received from consumers and the Baltimore community since we opened our doors in 2018." WMAR reported that rising costs and broader economic pressure were behind the decision.
Its local reach went beyond the property. Heavy Seas told The Banner that Guinness helped bring beer tourists to the area and raised awareness of Maryland's brewing industry. Kelly Dudeck, executive director of the Brewers Association of Maryland, told The Banner she is "very worried that we are going to hear of many more in the next 12 months," referring to breweries without a multinational corporation behind them.
After Nov. 1, the answers are thin
What follows the closing is unresolved. "It's definitely disappointing," said Jonathan Sachs, director of Baltimore County's department of economic and workforce development. "When they opened, there was a lot of excitement and a lot of promise." Sachs said the county is working with Diageo on the property's next use. He did not know whether Diageo plans to sell it, and none of this week's coverage names a future use.
County Executive Kathy Klausmeier said the county was disappointed and promised county workforce-development help for affected employees. Diageo plans a $250,000 community fund for local organizations and initiatives that support economic opportunity and the hospitality industry. No application process, recipients or timeline have been published.
None of the local institutions that fill Arbutus's own October calendar are closing. American Legion Dewey Lowman Post 109 at 1610 Old Sulphur Spring Road holds a Cash Bingo fundraiser on Friday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m., the same evening Roktoberfest opens. On Saturday, Oct. 17, the festival's headliner day, a Baltimore Bird Club leader runs a fall-migration bird walk from 9 to 11 a.m. that starts and ends at the Arbutus Branch library, 855 Sulphur Spring Road. On the Number Nine Trolley Line Trail, the county reports streambank stabilization complete and trail-surface repairs underway, with reopening expected around Oct. 9 if the weather allows. On Oct. 31, the day before Open Gate's last public day, the same Legion post holds a drive-in Trunk or Treat at 10 a.m.
The open question in 21227 is what happens to a large commercial property once a major employer leaves, and nobody can answer it yet. Equity One Realty is watching the Washington Boulevard site and will report on its next use as the county and Diageo make decisions. If you own nearby and want to know where your home stands in the meantime, start with an instant valuation.
