In May 2021, I traveled to Williamsport, MD, just south of Hagerstown, to meet Garrett Chambers. Garrett is one of the three founders of this up and coming Maryland brewery. I had heard about their beer from friends, then tasted their beer at festivals, and was now able to buy their beer at my local bottle shop. I wanted to learn more about the people behind the beer.
The Cushwa Brewing Co. brewery and taproom is neatly tucked into back of the Bowman Business Park in Williamsport Maryland, with the Potomac River and West Virginia just a couple of miles away. The taproom is bright and open, with lots of space and light to welcome craft beer drinkers.
Cushwa opened in January 2017, just four years ago, and moved to their new location in May 2020, all within the same business park.
They are comprised of three equal partners: Garrett Chambers, Marcus Thomas, and Scott Coleman. Before founding Cushwa, Garrett had worked in finance and investment industry and even taught Spanish. He gained his brewing experience while brewing at Four Quarters Brewing in Winooski, VT. Marcus worked in quality control and production facilities, and now focuses on the taproom management, marketing, and social media for the brewery. Scott worked as a structural steel engineer. He handles the brewery financial and legal issues. Like many craft brewery owners, they all were home brewers.
“Passion! I love brewing beer and wanted to own a business. Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else. ”
Garrett Chambers and Moxi
Scott and Marcus go back the furthest and knew each other from high school days in nearby Greencastle, PA. Garrett later met Scott through the craft beer app Untappd. While Garrett was still in Vermont, Marcus and Scott attended a Brewers Association of Maryland class on establishing a brewery and on the way home discovered their first location in the business park. This area is home to these guys and at the time, Antietam Brewing (Hagerstown, MD) was the only one in the area, so this seemed like a great location to open a brewery.
Why do they brew beer? Garrett will quickly say, “Passion! I love brewing beer and wanted to own a business. Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else. It was a passion project. It is something that we truly love. Craft beer is an identity in a lot of ways. We want to invest our time in things we feel are important.’ “We’d rather be working 60-70 hours a week for ourselves than 40 hours for someone else.”
Cushwa closed their first location due to the Covid gathering restrictions, so they used that time to build out the new brewery at their current location. When Covid restrictions hit, they had shipped out a truck load of beer but the next day it was understandingly returned. Things were about to change.
Call it good fortune or providence because their new canning line had opened about two weeks before the shutdown. As has been echoed by many craft beer companies over the past year, canning and the ability to ship beer saved their business.
Currently, indoor taproom guidance allows 100% capacity but with six-foot spacing still limits the number of people that they can sit inside. Garrett recalls that most people are really good about the restrictions but there are a few that “kick against the rules” especially when it comes to wearing masks. But they insist on enforcing the government guidelines so they can stay open for everyone else.
Production has grown over their four years in business. In 2019, they did just 400 barrels. With the new brewhouse and seven more tanks, they expect to grow production in 2021 to around 3,000 bbls, and 4,000 bbls in 2022.
They are really proud of their New England style IPAs and these are what they are best known for, selling 4-to-1 over other styles. With Garrett cutting his teeth brewing in Vermont, you can see why. They will make a few kettle sours but these are typically available only in the taproom. One sour series is their Electrofruit beers which they brew about once a month. Also, look for their Rambo imperial milk stout (and variants) brewed with lots of barley and chocolate.
Also, within an easy walk is Homaide Brewing. The Cushwa guys expect having Homaide as a neighbor will help bring attention to the local beer scene—they are here by design. Stephen and Lucas specialize in Belgian-style beer, plus a variety of other styles and should not be missed.
And if you see a beautiful blue heeler companion in the taproom with a guy that looks like he can brew beer, that would be Moxi. She doesn't venture too far from Garrett, Cushwa co-founder .
When thinking about how COVID has changed the craft brewing business over the past year, Garrett will say, “One of the things I miss the most pre-covid was festivals where there are high level breweries, the being able to bounce ideas off of each other, just talking about the industry, trends, ingredients, procedures, all of that stuff on a really nerdy level is fun.”
Later this year they hope to team up with neighboring Homaide Brewing for some outdoor music events. Also, they plan on expanding their offerings to include local wines and cider for people that for some reason don't drink beer.
Rad Pies Pizza
If your travels take you to Cushwa Brewing, there are a few things you will need to know. One, excellent pizza is readily available at Rad Pies inside the taproom. Garrett acknowledges, “Having a permanent food option makes a huge difference.” Rad Pies is doing so well with this cooperative venture that they just added a second pizza oven. They make traditional and of course, offer some of the raddest pies on earth.
“Rad Pies is an autonomous unit for mid-sized brewery snacking. We love and respect all things pizza. Our goal: create the raddest pies on earth and offer other breweries the opportunity to drop a Rad Pies in their spot. ”
Rad Pie owners are Christopher Hubbard, Kenneth MacFawn, and Chef Adam Hatfield. Kenneth and Chris also own the White Rabbit Gastropub in downtown Frederick. They constructed the kitchen through the major part of the pandemic and opened in July of 2020. Business has steadily increased and they've had some very successful events working with Cushwa. They soon will be experimenting with some exciting baked goods to accompany their perfect pie.
Expanding on the Cushwa business model: “We most certainly will be opening more Rad Pies; at least we plan to open a full service Rad Pies near Frederick MD next year. The franchise idea is still in its infancy but the Cushwa experiment is going well so we are going to explore that opportunity.”
Cushwa Brewing Co.
10210 Governor Lane Boulevard #2010
Williamsport, MD 21795
(301) 223-3434
http://cushwabrewing.com
https://www.facebook.com/cushwabrewingco/
This is an expanded version of the article I wrote for the Mid-Atlantic Brew News — June/July 2021 edition.
Mid-Atlantic Brew News (MABN) is a bimonthly publication for beer enthusiasts with over 30,000 copies distributed across the Mid-Atlantic region, with a focus on craft beer happenings across six states (MD, DE, VA, NJ, PA, WV) and DC.
