Local company brewing more than just beer

For almost ten years, Eastern Shore Brewing has been a staple of the St. Michaels community.

It's a place for locals to enjoy good beer and good company and it's that sense of community that drew Eastern Shore's head brewer, Zach Milash to the town.

"We have a great time with the local community being in St. Michaels. It's a fun town, there's always just fabulous local events going on different festivals, parades the community around here is just great. I love it and it kind of inspired me and my wife to move down here because you just can't go wrong with a town like this," exclaims Milash. 

Milash takes that local aspect a step further by using Maryland grown products in their craft beers.

"We are using malt from friends of ours at Dark Cloud Malthouse. They're a local Maryland Maltster, they grow and malt their own barely varieties right here in the state and so just this year we started doing this session IPA with their malt and its really great because it ties into the local aspect."

According to Maryland's Comptroller Peter Franchot ,its not just Eastern Shore Brewery that is making a big impact economically both on the local and state level.

"They don't ask for anything from the state of Maryland they don't need any subsidiaries, don't need any tax breaks, they don't need any money they just want to be allowed to grow and produce their great product and these businesses are about 70 percent of the state's GDP so they are very important," explains Franchot.

Recently passed state legislation could make it harder for future breweries to set up shop in Maryland, something that Franchot, who is the chief regulator of alcohol in the state, is very disappointed about. 

"I thought House bill 1283, which was passed by legislature, was essentially a knife in the back to the future of the industry this could be a billion dollar sector in our economy craft brewing in Maryland."

Milash agrees.

He tells 47 ABC that this legislation will de-incentivize future local brewers, which is something even established breweries like Eastern Shore are against.

"Most people would assume breweries compete with one another but for the most part breweries kind of do what we do here. We each have our own community we serve and having good breweries around the state really inspires people to drink more beer and then it inspires them to come visit us here or drink our beers elsewhere," says Milash.

In response to the new legislation passed, Franchot tells 47 ABC he is planning on new reforms for the state's liquor laws.

"We are going to go and try and reform the state's beer laws so Maryland is the best state in the country for local breweries. Right now we're one of the worst because of the recent legislation passed by the legislature."

He also says he hopes the legislature will take them seriously this time around.