Baltimore Craft Brewery, RavenBeer Relocates to State-of-the-Art Duclaw Brewing Company

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Submitted by humphrey on Thu, 11/30/2017 - 2:02pm

Fast approaching its milestone 20^th year in business, Baltimore, MD-based RavenBeer, is relocating its headquarters from the Peabody Heights Brewery, it helped to build, to the state of the art facility at Duclaw Brewing Company in Baltimore County. The new address is 8901 Yellow Brick Rd, Baltimore, MD 21237

Joining RavenBeer’s founder Stephen Demczuk in the move, is his esteemed, veteran Brewmaster, Ernie Igot, Igot is now the head Brewmaster at Duclaw’s operations.

“I am elated to collaborate with Dave Benfield and his team at DuClaw Brewing,” stated Stephen Demczuk, founder of RavenBeer. “DuClaw is a magnificent facility that produces some of the finest beers around. Our partnership will help us both grow more efficiently and give us greater purchasing power.”

Brewed by the Baltimore-Washington Beer Works (BWBW) in Baltimore Maryland, RavenBeer and its brands are named after Baltimore's literary genius, Edgar Allan Poe. Originally produced in the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, RavenBeer unveiled The Raven in the USA in June 1998. Their portfolio has grown to 7 beers such as Tell Tale Heart IPA, Pendulum Pilsner, Annabel Lee White, The Cask (of Amontillado) Dobbel Bock and Dark Usher and 7 cask conditioned firkins, all named after POE’s legendary short stories and poems. The award winning Poe series artwork was created by Kevin Kallaugher (KAL), the editorial cartoonist for London’s The Economist and Baltimore Sun. Mark Supik and Co. make the internationally award winning Poe book tap handles.

Demczuk believes that with the booming and competitive state of the craft beer market this move to DuClaw will only strengthen its position in the marketplace. With some 80 breweries in Maryland and over 5,700 breweries in the USA, founder Demczuk thought to be proactive and seek out a partner where both parties would mutually benefit.

Echoing the excitement, Dave Benfield exclaims, “The entire team at DuClaw is delighted at the addition of esteemed Baltimore-based, RavenBeer in our brewery. We are excited at all of the collaborative opportunities.”

RavenBeer will continue producing its seven brands at DuClaw’s Brewery operations. The year, 2018 marks RavenBeer’s 20^th Anniversary. A special release of their signature The Raven Special Lager is expected, as are other specialty brews and ‘one-offs’ in the near future. RavenBeer is distributed in the Mid-Atlantic region and in Chicagoland. RavenBeer focuses on maintaining classical beer styles and primarily German style beers.

Founder, Stephen Demczuk went to Geneva, Switzerland as a Post doctorate fellow and visiting scientist where he discovered great beer. He formed ‘Beer Around the World,’ the first beer-of-the-month club in Europe based in Luxembourg. From there, he met Wolfgang Stark of Haus der 131 Biere in Hamburg where they created the idea of The Raven Special Lager and was first brewed in Germany in 1997. Stephen returned to the USA and with the help of Hugh Sisson brewed the Raven at Clipper City Brewing Co. (later Heavy Seas). From there Stephen co-formed Peabody Heights as RavenBeer was growing and increased production space was required. Stephen is a board member of the Brewers Association of Maryland and of the Poe House of Baltimore.

Contact RavenBeer HQ @DuClaw: 443-559-9900/ www.ravenbeer.com / Social Media: RavenBeer

Patti Neumann is Founder of Sip & Swirl Society & Publisher of www.CITYPEEK.com, an award-winning food & wine blog.