Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick MD, Maryland’s largest craft beer brewery, announced on Brewbound on Monday May 22, that it is being sold to New York’s FX Matt Brewing Company. Flying Dog will cease all brewery production in Maryland by August, moving all its production to New York. They plan to maintain a Maryland presence by building an “innovation brewery” and taproom in Frederick.
In a Maryland Daily Record article, Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso wrote in an email that Flying Dog was space-constrained, couldn’t produce craft beer in cans, had dated technology that was costing the company money and putting it at a significant disadvantage for growth in new and existing markets.
“Frederick is a great place to live and do business, unfortunately even though we have invested millions of dollars in the brewery, it has too many limitations and puts Flying Dog at too great a competitive disadvantage.”
Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso stated, “Frederick is a great place to live and do business, unfortunately even though we have invested millions of dollars in the brewery, it has too many limitations and puts Flying Dog at too great a competitive disadvantage.”
Flying Dog was originally founded in Colorado in 1990, and moved to Frederick in 2006. They had planned to build a $54 million brewery in Maryland, and had already spent around $2.6 million to purchase 32 acres for the project in the Frederick area. They cited “regulatory and legislative issues” in the state had caused them not to pursue that project further.
FX Matt produced 183,200 barrels of beer in 2021, while Flying Dog’s volume was 81,231 barrels. In 2022, there were more than 9,500 craft brewers in the country, according to Brewers Association statistics. For that year, the BA ranked Matt as the 14th largest craft brewer and listed Flying Dog at 34th based on the volume produced. Combining those volumes would have ranked the new brewery group within the top ten for that year.
In the Maryland Daily Record article, Jim Bauckman, director of communications for the Brewers Association of Maryland, says he doesn't see these recent actions as a negative mark on Maryland as a place to grow a brewery, but more a national trend of business consolidations. Bauckman said, “The industry is kind of growing up.”
Moving Flying Dog’s production out of Maryland hits the state brewing industry yet again after other recent announcements including the Diageo decision to halt major brewing of the Guinness Baltimore Blonde at their Halethorpe location, plus the closing of Full Tilt Brewing (Baltimore), Astro Lab (Silver Spring), and Gypsy Brewing (Huntingtown).
Which Flying Dog beers will survive the move to NY?
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