USA, MD: Forward Brewing getting ready to launch in Eastport

In the coming weeks, an Eastport nano-brewery will open its doors on Fourth Street, becoming the first establishment of its kind in the neighborhood, the Capital Gazette reported on January 11.

Forward Brewing, a 28-seat restaurant and taproom, will be housed in a former marine electronics store at 418 Fourth St., which has been in Camden Bowdren’s family for more than 30 years. Bowdren, a lifelong Eastport resident, and his wife Claire are aiming to open in early February with the possibility of some soft openings in late January for food and beer tastings.

The location will offer an intimate beer hall style, with a menu that includes a rotating mix of small plates, soups, salads and an entree or two.

The term nano-brewery is assigned to establishments with a brewing system that is even smaller than microbreweries. A smaller system allows for flexibility in what kinds of beer can be offered, Cam Bowdren said.

“One of the things that we really like is that it makes us nimble and dynamic with what we’re supplying,” he said. “We can try something, and if it’s not our favorite beer then we have tried it, and we’ve shared it, and we’ve run out of it.”

Although small breweries have opened around Maryland and elsewhere in Anne Arundel County, Forward Brewing will be the first brewer to operate in Annapolis for several years. Rams Head, which opened a brewery on West Street in the late 20th century, it moved its operations to Delaware several years ago.

So far, the Bowdrens have contract-brewed two beers, a Kolsch-style ale called Boat Beer and a red IPA, both of which will be available when the restaurant opens. The taproom will be outfitted with 12 taps that will slowly be filled out as the brewery gets up and running, Bowdren said.

Being small offers other advantages, Bowdren said, such as recycling spent grain, utilizing a trash room — rather than a dumpster — to sort waste and sourcing food locally to reduce environmental impact. The operators plan to share spent grain with local farms for animal feed and plan to fun oyster planting in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Bowdrens applied for variances to allow parking on their split-zoned properties, with a 10-foot buffer along the commercial and residential portions, which the Board of Appeals granted. There will be eight parking spots.

“Our focus is really on our space, our taproom and being a restaurant,” Claire Bowdren said. “Being able to offer that product which is made in house and the same goes with our beverages, with beer, just focusing specifically on that community, that location, that neighborhood.”

Though the Bowdren’s brainchild is weeks from being realized, the project was delayed after appeals were filed in opposition to the brewery by some Eastport residents who argued that it and other proposed projects in the neighborhood, including a new location for Adam’s Ribs, would increase traffic and further reduce parking in an area where it’s already at a premium.

Other residents have since argued that the brewery’s license should not have been approved because though the state issued a license to brew beer, City Code doesn’t allow manufacturing and distribution in community shopping districts.

The appeals were later withdrawn.

The setting is designed to get people to engage with each other, Bowdren said, and the small-plate menu will further encourage community interaction.

“Tapas is something that you have while you are sitting around with friends drinking beer. It’s something to nibble on and share with the table,” Claire Bowdren said. “That’s kind of our ideal scenario for that part of the menu.”

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