The History of Baltimore Beer Week
What is Baltimore Beer Week? The History of Baltimore Beer Week is a collaborative effort of businesses and beer enthusiasts in our community to celebrate and highlight the unique beer culture that exists in and around the Chesapeake region. Every October Baltimore Beer Week brings to life hundreds of beer-centric events that focus on beer culture, culinary aspects, meet and greets, homebrew demos and even beer history. All in the name of seeking to increase people’s awareness of all things beer in the famed “Land of Pleasant Living.”
The Star Spangled Banger a HUGE part of the History of Baltimore Beer Week was crafted by wood expert John Gasparine into a one of a kind hand-crafted mallet and uses wood from Maryland’s famous fallen Wye Oak tree.
How Baltimore Beer Week Began…
Joe Gold the founder of Baltimore Beer Week had been silently watching the beer landscape of Charm City evolve over the years as it suffered key closures of cherished beer establishments, lost brands – some of which were gold medal winners at the GABF and the perceived apathy from the general populous to this shift was too much to bear. He wanted to do something about it – but what was the platform?
His first thoughts were to organize a Baltimore Beer Club of sorts – that could meet monthly and support and promote the Baltimore Beer scene… After speaking to a few close beer aficionado friends (who loved the idea – but were put off by the amount of organization and coordination it would take), Gold decided that wasn’t the angle he thought would make the impact he was looking for.
Along came Philly Beer Week in the fall of 2008 and the idea of organizing one entire week to the pursuit of raising awareness for “all things beer” in Baltimore suddenly had some merit.
Gold then met with the organizers of both Philly Beer Week and New York Craft Beer Week to discuss their structure and challenges. In November 2008 Gold convened a small group of individuals at Max’s Taphouse to discuss the possible organization of a beer week in Baltimore. In attendance at that critical first meeting along with Gold were Baltimore beer scene heavyweights Hugh Sisson, Volker Stewart, Casey Hard, Rob Kasper, Dominic Cantalupo, Jim McGinty, Gene Myers and Alexander D. Mitchell IV.
From that first brainstorming meeting, the 2009 BBW Organizing Committee was formed. The very first organizing committee meeting was held in January 2009 and Baltimore Beer Week was born…
A colorful version of a portion of the above story was published on B the site in 2011, check it out.
For interviews or media information, contact either:
Joe Gold or Dominic Cantalupo at press@baltimorebeerweek.com