Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 02:30:00

Baltimore's first city taproom license went to a room smaller than a thousand square feet, run on weekends by the three founders pouring their own samples. Union Craft Brewing has grown from that 2012 start into the anchor of the Union Collective, a 155,000-square-foot former Sears warehouse at 1700 West 41st Street in the Medfield neighborhood. Founded in 2011 by Adam Benesch, Kevin Blodger and Jon Zerivitz, the brewery launched with Duckpin Pale Ale from a Union Avenue plant in Hampden in 2012 - back when Maryland taprooms were illegal and breweries could only give six three-ounce samples on a tour. The founders testified in Annapolis for the bill that legalized manufacturing taprooms, won the first license granted in Baltimore City, and packed their tiny tasting room every weekend until, ten million beers and 30,000 barrels later, they outgrew the building. The 2018 move created something bigger than a brewery: the Union Collective, developed with Seawall, gathers independent Baltimore makers - a coffee roaster, distillery, creamery and climbing gym among them - around Union's tripled brewing capacity and a 7,500-square-foot taproom and event hall. The venue side is a fixture of the city's calendar - live bands and DJs in the taproom and beer garden, anniversary festivals with acts like Big in Japan, Pride Ride afterparties, markets and fundraisers - with food from the resident Carroll and Son storefront inside Union Hall. In 2021 the founders converted the company to employee ownership, offering units to staff with five years of service, extending the Beer Unites philosophy from the glass to the balance sheet. The old Sears warehouse now does what the name promises: one roof where brewing, manufacturing and Baltimore's social life meet over a Duckpin. The taproom's event calendar has also made it a neutral ground for the city - neighborhood associations, charity pint nights and city-wide festivals share the hall with touring bands - fulfilling the founders' original Annapolis testimony that a brewery taproom could be civic infrastructure, not just a bar.