Where's Marty? Celebrating National Beer Day At Heavy Seas

Hi everyone!

Thursday is National Beer Day. And while a lot of good lines come to mind, we don't have enough time to unpack them. But it's also too good of a local subject not to highlight. We did just that at the now-legendary Heavy Seas brewery.

This tale goes back to the early 1980s when a young lad named Hugh Sisson was running a craft beer car in Baltimore, the only one of its kind at the time. Sisson got some political support to pass a bill legalizing brew pubs in Baltimore. And with the political stroke of a pen, what we now know as a lively and growing craft beer industry in Maryland was born.

In the 1990s, Sisson started his own brewery, Clipper City. He made bold brews that had a punch including "Heavy Seas," which ended up becoming the name of the brewery. Heavy Seas now has its own brew pub at the Halethorpe plant, where new craft beers are tried and small batch beers made on premises are served--almost like the chef's table in a restaurant.

Thursday morning, we were joined by Heavy Seas brewmeister and operations manager Christopher Leonard. He'll be the first to tell you that the craft beer scene around Baltimore is vibrant and full of good beers. He said local brew masters get together occasionally to share ideas, which benefits everyone involved including the consumer.

(By the way, it takes a big man to say our competition is good, but I will guarantee that all the locals in the industry will give a well-deserved tip of the hat to the guys out in southwest Baltimore.)

Watch and listen to the segments. They are quite informative. And in the second half-hour, our segment had a very cool story about a Ukrainian brewery helping all the American brewhouses help them. Listening to Chris tell the story, you'll realize that a lot of folks are thinking outside the box to help a worldwide effort when they can.

Check out Heavy Seas' website. As I like to say, it's worth the surf. And cheers to Hugh Sisson, not just for making a good product and making us proud but for all he does behind the scenes (which is a lot).

- Marty B