HALETHORPE, Md. — It’s a big weekend for the Guinness Open Gate Brewery. It is the only Guinness brewery in the United States and it just opened this past summer, which means this weekend will be its first St. Patrick’s Day.
That got the attention of our friends at Jimmy Kimmel Live! which you can watch every night on WMAR-2, after WMAR-2 News at 11.
Jimmy decided to send his trusty security guard, Guillermo, to check out the new brewery. We caught up with him just as he got started with his first ever visit to Baltimore.
Like any first-time visitor to the brewery, Guillermo had two things on his mind:
“It's my first time in Baltimore and I'm looking forward to drinking good beer, eat a lot of good food,” he said.
He'll find both at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery. It is the North American home of the legendary Irish beer-maker.
We don’t know exactly what will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but we talked with a representative from the brewery, before Guillermo’s tour.
“I'd say a pint or two, Probably. We're going to talk through that. We're going to introduce him to some of the local cuisine I think, is also part of the agenda today,” Said Ryan Wagner, the brewery’s designated ambassador. “Showing him everything that Guinness is about - 260 years of heritage now, dating back to 1759. This is a brand new chapter, a brand new American chapter for Guinness.”
For St. Patrick’s Day weekend, they’re expecting 10,000 people, spread across two sessions Saturday and two more on Sunday. They’ll enjoy the Guinness Blonde, which is brewed here, along with a number of small-batch, experimental beers. None of them will be green.
“We have a great responsibility to uphold the traditions to uphold the expectations that people have when it comes to Guinness and St. Pats,” Wagner said. “We're the cultural home of Guinness in the United States. If we can't handle St. Patrick's Day then we're in trouble.”
Since the brewery opened last year, people from around the world have dropped in..
But Guillermo is the first security guard-slash-sidekick. And he will be the man introducing the Guinness Open Gate Brewery to a national audience.
“I cannot wait to get drunk with you guys,” Guillermo said.
The segment featuring Guillermo's visit will be on Thursday night’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
For more information on St. Patrick’s Day at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, click here.
