Heavy Seas Beer

Heavy Seas Beer is a production brewery in Halethorpe, just outside Baltimore, and describes itself as Maryland’s largest and original craft brewer. Founder Hugh Sisson joined his family’s South Baltimore bar, Sisson’s, in 1980 and helped draft the 1987 state bill that legalized brewpubs in Baltimore City. Sisson’s became Maryland’s first brewpub in 1989. He opened Clipper City Brewing Company in 1995, and in 1999 it acquired Oxford Brewing Company, the state’s first production craft brewery. A line of bolder, higher-strength beers called Heavy Seas launched in 2003, and Loose Cannon IPA followed in 2005 and became the flagship. The company took the Heavy Seas name in 2010. Today it brews year-round beers, seasonals and collaborations, plus non-alcoholic Dominion craft sodas, and runs a taproom that offers tours, events and private bookings.