One of Maryland’s oldest brewpubs aims to fill gap in Anne Arundel’s beer scene

The oldest brewpub in Maryland is moving from its Baltimore home to Anne Arundel County, where it plans to open a large taproom and kitchen by late October even as the craft brewing industry faces a difficult period.

Oliver Brewing Co., which traces its roots to 1993, will fill a gap in Anne Arundel, which has a more nascent craft brewing scene than Baltimore, said Justin Dvorkin, a partner in the brew pub.

“This move is something we’re very confident about and secures our future for the next 10 to 20 years,” Dvorkin said.

Oliver closed its East Baltimore brewpub in January to focus on the move.

The larger space in Millersville allows Dvorkin to add an expanded taproom to his other hospitality company, the 206 Restaurant Group, which operates the Pratt Street Ale House in downtown Baltimore as well as Park Tavern, JB’s Sports Bar and Restaurant and Donnelly’s Dockside in Severna Park.

“As the tap room culture developed, it was a missing piece for us,” he said, adding that the new space will serve as a touch point to share the story of Oliver Brewing’s brand.

The move comes as shifting consumer tastes and drinking patterns, combined with a saturation of breweries, have led to a number of closures.

Oliver was founded by Hugh Sisson, the OG of Maryland craft beer, in the basement of the Pratt Street Ale House. He left to found Clipper City Brewing, which became Heavy Seas Beer .

In 2015, Oliver moved to a larger space in a small East Baltimore industrial park to expand its production. With the lease running out, Oliver began looking for a new home, Dvorkin said.

Oliver purchased a building on Jumpers Hole Road in Millersville in 2024, choosing to move to Anne Arundel where it would have more space and not be surrounded by other breweries, Dvorkin said.

In the new space, Oliver plans to create limited edition batches of its brews and sell other specialty products. Dvorkin also mentioned starting up a beer club and including local Anne Arundel County farm ingredients in its offerings as part of an effort to get more creative with products.

Dvorkin believes Oliver’s focus on a taproom and direct-to-consumer sales will be more lucrative than relying on the distribution of its beers, which has long been the main source of Oliver’s revenue. Competing on retailer shelves is leaving smaller craft brewing operations like his with slimmer margins, especially as prices for needed items such as aluminum cans rise, he said.

Contract brewing, which involves another company paying Dvorkin’s team to help with production, has become a useful way to increase business, he said. Oliver Brewing contract brews for Fin City Brewing Co. in Ocean City, Liquid Intrusion Brewing Co. in Brandywine and RavenBeer, which was inspired by Baltimore poet Edgar Allan Poe. They also help make the canned cold brew coffee sold at Ceremony Coffee Roasters locations.

Forward Brewing of Eastport in Annapolis leaned on Dvorkin’s company for contract brewing in recent years and moved more of its production last winter to the Millersville property, alongside Oliver Brewing.

Forward owner Cam Bowden said the production move builds on a more than three-year partnership between the two breweries. The new space gives Forward more room to scale up production and to cut high energy use at its Eastport brewpub, which he said generates increasingly pricey BG&E bills. Forward’s brewpub will remain open, offering the same recipes and labels, just brewed in a different location.

It took two years to build out the Millersville property, longer than Dvorkin expected.

Oliver tapped stockpiles of its beers to sustain the company to the fall opening, but other breweries like Monument City Brewing and Union Craft Brewing also pitched in to make a few batches of its beer so it could continue to sell during the transition.

Dvorkin said he hopes to build on that spirit of collaboration between craft brewers in the new Anne Arundel location.

“The competition is us against the big guys,” he said, “not us against each other.”