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Sucks big time. They make the best sours in the city IMO. A city this size should be able to support 20+ breweries without much trouble.

Well it seems like it could be a few things going on. On Facebook they responded to this person when they asked if it was just the food and they would still brew.

they said "a lot of ugliestness to deal with behind the scenes right now before they can even think about brewing beer"

I don't love their beers enough to support them, but their weird stuff like those Nerds ales and the Lemon Peppermint sour are so goddamned good. It's a shame. Really wish they'd bottle and sell.

Ugh I guess no more Suspendido at Clavel :( That was one of my favorite beers.

IMO their beers went downhill after their last bead brewer left (2ish years ago?). Their beers were either really really good or downright bad. More recently they’ve had more misses than hits

The absolute worst beer I've ever tasted in my life was a Full Tilt pear sour. I still get grossed out thinking about it. Tasted like straight-up vomit.

Not that I want to see the place close over it, though.

Breweries open/close elsewhere all the time, but is Full Tilt the first Baltimore brewery to close since the new brewery wave started 7-8(?) years ago?

Baltimore has pretty good contract brewing options through Peabody (which is also how Full Tilt got started IIRC), so I think there have been some brands that brewed once or twice and gave up.

But I don't think any full fledged brewery has closed down.

DuClaw is probably the closest: They sold, and their restaurants all changed to Yard Houses. The new owners have had trouble getting their tasting room re-opened (which was really cool).

Never really got a lot of love it seems, but Brew House No. 16 closed a little over 4 years ago. I think they'd only been open like 3 years though.

I'm so sad about this. Two or the nicest guys and they gave so much back to the community too.

That’s Suspended Brewing, not FT.

Extremely unsurprising news lol. Their beers were mediocre and the last time I was there, we witnessed a full on brawl between staff. Entertaining but sounds like a disastrously managed place. Hope a better spot opens there cuz it’s a cool location

WHOOPS nevermind

Their beers were not what I'd call good.

I will not dispute that, but it was a Baltimore brewery that opened within the time frame that the commenter above me pointed out that subsequently closed lol

The last time I went to Full Tilt was over the summer. There was one female bartender who was rude as all hell. Multiple people where leaving the bar because of her. So it wouldn't surprise me if one of the factors in this closing was poor customer service.

Nor was their food. Was really disappointed as I was living at Calvert and Chase when they opened and was looking forward to good beer and food. Unfortunately it provided neither.

Yikes. I have a hard time believing that particular batch was brewed as intended, but who knows? I once had a berry sour at a brewery in Frederick, and the dominant flavor was metal. I informed the staff, thinking that maybe there was some issue with their kegs or their lines. Their response was, "Oh, no, that's how it supposed to taste." Coincidentally, they also shut down within a couple of years.

The city absolutely has the ability to support that many breweries (and off the top of my head is pretty close to that number if not exceeding it) but at this point they do at least need to have fairly good beer and be well-run.

We’re past the days of a brewery just needing to exist and being able to charge 7 bucks a pint for mediocre beer because of the novelty of them being a brewery. If you don’t have good beer, you’ve got to have good food, or a really unique location like Ministry, or something, because there are other breweries nearby now.

The brewery industry is going to become more like the restaurant industry where it’s competitive enough that it’s important to actually be good. The consensus (and my own opinion) was that Full Tilt just wasn’t very good.

If only there was a hint in the name

Not too surprised, their beers are meh and the barcade vibe they had going on has been usurped by Peabody.

Also a weird location with mediocre food.

Agree on the food comment but I liked the location. York has a good stretch of stuff goin on and I liked having a brewery there

Probably Kim. She was so manic the last time we were there, it was bugging us out tbqh lol

I feel like there's nothing else there. I mean, Belvedere square is nearby, but that area is a little too sketch for me to want to wander around while drinking through 2 blocks of nothing. And belvedere is pretty much just daytime.

Compared to other breweries which are either big (Union) so need to be isolated, or in the center of neighborhoods (Ministry, Nepenthe)

Nah nah there’s good stuff. The Senator, zen west, clandestino, Swallows, Heritage smokehouse. I get that walking in the middle of the night alone down by like woodbourne might feel a little sketchy but everything from Full Tilt going north is fine. Also the city link red runs along there 24/7 so that’s always an option if you feel uncomfortable walking. Idk just my 2 cents

I'm not getting on a bus to ride two blocks from a brewery. That area definitely feels sketch to me, even going north there's just not much there along the walk and it would feel sketch.

That’s fine - everyone has a different comfort level. I’d def recommend checking out Heritage Smokehouse though.

No big loss, I remember they were asshats about COVID when it first started and tried to blame everyone from Jack Young to Hogan on why they couldn't reopen, and then went on racist tirades on Facebook when they were called out about the literal pandemic going on. Plus Fleet St may be the single worst beer I've ever tasted.

I hear what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing, but there's definitely a cultural element to this as well. Denver has something like 150 breweries. I obviously don't expect Baltimore to ever even approach that level, but still, it's not like all 150 are good.

Was this the place in the old firehouse?

Awesome location. Terrible everything else. Could have been a red brick station for all I could tell.

yeah. The days of succeeding simply by being a micro brewery are gone methinks.

For me the food was good beer was decent, brew house 16 had terrible wait times on any food service, imo that’s what did them in.

Between them and Ministry I’m not sure which beers are worse.

A huge loss for the sour beer community :(

Any and all reccs for local sours welcome

Sure, but Denver is an outlier. I think Baltimore is a very typical city when it comes to breweries and interest in beer and it’s only getting better. DC has, like, 8 breweries. Baltimore has roughly 18ish depending on what exactly you consider to be a brewery. Plus I’d imagine we have more suburban breweries within 30 minutes or so of the city than a typical city, considering just how much affluent suburbs we have around here.

I feel like you’re definitely thinking of a different spot.

I’m super bummed out. This was a spot I know I could relax at with my kid or a big group. It will certainly be missed.

Definitely Kim, she’s the best.

Ah yeah I guess in my mind I'd consider them more of a brewpub/restaurant than a bonafide brewery

Ooo which one was that?

I wouldn’t even call it a good location. The space was awesome, yes. But that area on Calvert is just people speeding through to get to 83 or w/e.Parking is impossible and traffic is wild right there.

Nailah’s, Angeli’s and Noir are also great spots right there that fill very different roles in a social/food scene. Not to mention Enoch Pratt right next door on Bellona.

Good point. Location is the wrong word.

And that area should be amazing for foot traffic. Stupid ass car centric city.

It’s weird because I think they got markedly better outside of the sours. Their hazy beers definitely had me coming back.

Agreed! I bet you could still fit a street car system on Calvert if you really tried 🤪

100% their sours are great 😪

Nailah's is a little pricey for me, but it's definitely good

Fair. I just know that the owner was always talking about one day packaging and distributing their beers and attempts were made a few times. But that guy had no idea wtf he was doing and ran it into the ground pretty spectacularly

False wet city does

Wet City!!

ooh actually...it's been a long time since I've been to Wet City and I'll admit I momentarily forgot about them. You might be right lol. All of the Dan's Jams I've tried have been excellent though.

House Cat Brewing.

They’d make a great beer and then say “let’s never make that again” or maybe make it one more time. Their soul candies were better a few years ago. They mostly only sold 4 packs of 16 oz beers instead of 6 12s. Probably to save money but I hated drinking 16 ounces of sugar sours. Hopefully another brewery or restaurant can come in and save that space

Not local here but Dewey Beer has a bunch of fruit smoothie and sours out that can be find at a lot of stores. Burley Oak makes it usually in small kegs to a few spots. Also Southern Grist from Nashville stuff makes it up here if you are looking for some others...oh RAR is good too

I'd vote Ministry on this cause I enjoyed a lot of full tilts sours and limited runs

Sounds like Waverly may be on its last legs

Burley Oak, if you're willing to go down to Berlin, has the best sours I've ever had. Dewey, which isn't much farther, also has a great selection.

I used to try ALL the local beers, but this was the only spot I never visited. The location is awkwardly between the city and Towson. Doesn’t sound like I missed anything, but their Hops the Cat was decent once upon a time. I’ve noticed that their beers were never on the shelves where I shop.

Baltimore can absolutely support more breweries, but they have to be good. I’d like to see a GREAT brewery. One for the beer geeks to get hyped about.

I've known Kim for twenty plus years. Manic is a proper description

Oh?

Wico Street Beer Co

Wico Street Beer Co

Definitely wet city! Food is wayyyy better too

Damn. I was just there a little over a week ago and they were pretty busy. I thought the Stout I had was pretty good. A friend really dug his beers as well. My food was, well, bar food. But the place was full of families eating with their kids all hanging out.

Yep. It was a family-friendly spot that was big enough for community gatherings and casual hangs. Loved seeing parents with kids out on those picnic tables.

To all the people saying this area is weird or sketch: sure, but families live here and like living here and there are a ton of new spots along York Rd that have made the area feel so much safer thanks to the added foot traffic.

Contract brewing? Is that paying them to brew something for you?

As someone who likes sours, idk if I’d even call some of what they call sours “sours.” Most of the menu lists things as “sour IPA” or “sour DIPA” too.

Yeah, it's a good way to demo your brand/product before dropping a couple of million on your own brewery.

Friends who have opened breweries have said that having the product information from contract brewing as part of your business plan makes it much easier to get the business loan (if you're going with traditional funding, which has other downfalls)

https://www.peabodyheightsbrewery.com/co-op-brewers/

You brew on their equipment, with the help of their brewer, and under their license. But I believe you have to get your labels approved by the FDA yourself.

This is incredibly sad. Not only do I enjoy performing there regularly, but it’s also one of my favorite local breweries overall. Great craft beer, delicious food, retro arcade games, friendly people, etc. I will miss this place. P.S. - My last acoustic show there will be this Friday, 3/3, at 6 p.m.

Their grilled cheese sandwich was the best around. I’ll miss this place.

Not sure if it's still the case but you used to be able to do carryout for 1/2 the price of their sit down restaurant. You just had to go into the carryout entrance next door. It was the same food, same portions, just half the price if you weren't dining in. Made it super reasonable. Lamb shank at $30? Pass. Lamb shank at $15? Hell yeah.

Goodness.. Tell me more about this brawl??

Hmm I will look into that. Thanks!

THAT part, I can’t count the times I’d try a beer there, love it, and then never see it again.

Basically, they fired this young guy from the kitchen and on his way out he was just roasting everyone else who worked there. Then he came back like 10 mins later and was arguing with the management, and then the other kitchen staff was kinda lightly escorting him out when he said something to a bigger dude who turned to him and was like wtf did you say, and then they literally threw hands and it spilled out into the outside area in front but no serious blows were landed. Then the bigger dude came back in and we were all staring like wtf is going on and he was like “he called me an African slave!” And we were like gotcha. Then the little guy came back AGAIN like ten mins later but just needed to use a phone and then left and then came back AGAIN a final Time cuz he left his bag lol. Then Kim bought us drinks. Overall, very strange situation and I was convinced it was gonna escalate into something even worse but instead it was just good entertainment.

Yeah I need details plz

The one owner said he hated repeating beers. He was overly confident in their stuff and wouldn’t listen to anyone. Their pumpkin beer would come out 1-2 months later than all other breweries. Their cans had no similar design or fluidity. Aka thejr branding was terrible. A better business owner can cover up for bad beer

I used to hate ministry of brewing and Mobtowns beers but in 2-4 years they’ve both really improved. Fulltilt went in reverse

Both Crooked Crab in Odenton and Pherm in Crofton seem to have a lot of sours. If you’re up for a road trip. If you hit those two on the same day and have a DD, there’s another one in Crofton that’s pretty decent. Chesapeake something.

they’ll have trouble filling the space, landlord is a malignant schmuck.

Sure, but there's also a reason why restaurants close so frequently and breweries don't, and Brew House 16 was firmly on the wrong side of that line.

That’s super awesome and now I have a rabbit hole to explore… thanks!

kind of surprised at the ambivalence I'm seeing in the comments here -- I loved the place and thought they had several great beers. I'll miss them for sure.

That’s too bad. I enjoyed that location although it’s been several years since I lived in town. Not a bad location in Govans

I hope not. I like the little pocket of breweries going on there. And Waverly has the best selection of sours around there.

I was just there 10 days ago, they had 2 sours on the menu I think. It was good beer, but not many choices. Hopefully they’ll rotate some more on.

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