USA, MD: Bayheads Brewing Company getting ready to launch in Chesapeake City

After being awarded their county liquor license on June 28, Bayheads Brewing Company just has to put the finishing touches on their facility and obtain equipment before starting their operations in Chesapeake City, the Cecil Daily reported on July 3.

Since the fall of 2015, the partners behind the project have been preparing to open a brewery together, but the plans started to come together in early 2016.

The reason for starting a brewery was simple: “We all love beer,” said Charlie Copeland, a partner on the business.

Initially, each of the partners was experimenting with homebrewing.

“We started doing it on our own, then we got together, and we started brewing together,” Copeland said. “We started doing our own research.”

Eventually, they decided to brew together.

“We started brewing together early 2016,” said Jason Zang, another partner. “We’re all kind of taking an active role in brewing.”

Since then, they’ve continued to brew together, and they’ve found some success. In October, their pumpkin beer took first place at the Roxtoberfest homebrewing competition in Pennsylvania.

It’s too soon to say what kind of a variety they’ll brew and how many barrels they’ll produce.

“We haven’t been dabbling too much into the styles of beer at this point,” said Mike Dix, explaining that they’re focusing on building their brand and marketing the company.

“It’s safe to say we’re going to have a variety,” Zang said. “Something for the craft beer enthusiasts.”

Dix said the barrel count would likely be a “function of what we see as far as traffic.”

Located just south of Chesapeake City at 2525 Augustine Herman Highway, the brewing company’s 1,500-square-foot facility will feature a brewing operation and tasting room of about equal sizes.

“Obviously, there’s breweries that are bigger and smaller,” Zang said.

“For the barrel size we’re doing, it’s pretty comparable,” Dix said.

However, they hope the project does more than just produce beer.

“The brewery business is pretty straightforward,” Dix said. “What people should know about us is that we’re all in as far as the community is concerned. We want to help the downtown community and we want to get people excited about Chesapeake City.”

Chesapeake City has increasingly invested in its marketing as a tourist destination, and the brewers want to help drive people downtown.

“We want to bring in more eyes to the town,” Copeland said.

With federal, state and county liquor licenses now in hand, as well as a building permit, all that’s left for the brewery is to acquire the equipment.

“We’re waiting on some additional equipment to come in,” Zang said. “We’re going to be moving as quickly as we can.”

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