Millersville Is Already Brewing Anne Arundel's Beer. The Taproom Comes Next.

Where was the last beer you ordered at Forward Brewing in Eastport actually brewed? For most of this year, the honest answer has been Millersville, in a building on Jumpers Hole Road just off Route 2.

The local news has told the move as "Baltimore brewery opens a taproom in Millersville," but that taproom has no opening date yet. By early September, Maryland Beer Journal reported that Oliver Brewing Co. was already brewing and packaging beer at 8370 Jumpers Hole Road while construction went on around it. Two Anne Arundel brands, Annapolis Beer Co. and Forward Brewing, had moved their production there too. So Millersville was making the county's beer before it had a single public seat for drinking it.

What already comes out of 8370 Jumpers Hole Road

The building works more like a shared brewhouse than one company's headquarters. In August, The Banner described a contract brewing business in which other companies pay Oliver's team to help produce their beer. The Banner and Maryland Beer Journal together name these brands as made there:

• Oliver Brewing Co., the building's owner, with English-inspired ales plus IPAs, lagers, stouts, sours and experimental releases
• Forward Brewing, whose taproom is in Eastport
• Annapolis Beer Co., which says on its own site that it works with partner breweries while it plans its own brewery and taproom in the Annapolis area
• Fin City Brewing Co. of Ocean City
• Liquid Intrusion Brewing Co. of Brandywine
• RavenBeer, a brand inspired by Edgar Allan Poe
• Ceremony Coffee Roasters, whose canned cold brew coffee is also produced there

That list covers the Eastport waterfront, an Annapolis-area brand still looking for a home, a beach town three hours away and a coffee roaster. All of it runs through a building that most Millersville residents pass on Route 2 without a second look.

Why the brewers came here

Each brewer had a space problem, and each solved it on Jumpers Hole Road.

Forward's was the most cramped. In a March newsletter, reported by Eye On Annapolis, the brewery said it had spent five years brewing in an area about the size of a two-car garage. Storage was limited, grain deliveries were hard and the workspace was tight. It moved its fermenters and brewhouse into the space it now shares with Oliver. The goals were more cold storage, a faster canning line, more barrel-aging capacity and room to grow production and distribution. It hoped to start brewing in Millersville in April. Forward owner Cam Bowden gave The Banner another reason. Brewing at the Eastport brewpub ran up BGE bills that kept getting more expensive.

Oliver's problem was a lease. In 2015 it moved its production into a small industrial park in East Baltimore, and when that lease was ending, it started looking for a new home. Oliver bought the Jumpers Hole Road building in 2024. According to The Banner, partner Justin Dvorkin said Anne Arundel offered more space and a location not surrounded by other breweries. In The Banner's telling, he sees Anne Arundel's craft scene as less developed than Baltimore's, and the brewery means to fill that gap.

The two needs fit together. Forward needed room. Oliver had more room than one brand would fill, and selling brewing capacity helps cover the cost of a big building. Millersville gained a production center first. A taproom made sense only after the building was already busy.

A Baltimore name, rebuilt slowly in Anne Arundel

Oliver's history explains why the move matters to beer drinkers. Here is how The Banner's reporting lays out the timeline:

1. 1993. Bill Oliver founds the brewery in the basement of the Wharf Rat, which later became the Pratt Street Ale House. The Banner calls it Maryland's oldest brewpub.
2. 2015. Production moves to a bigger space in an East Baltimore industrial park.
3. 2024. Oliver buys the Jumpers Hole Road building.
4. January 2026. The East Baltimore brewpub closes so the company can focus on the move.
5. Early September 2026. Brewing and packaging are underway in Millersville, and construction continues.

The Banner reported that the buildout took two years, longer than Dvorkin expected. During the gap, Oliver sold beer from its stockpiles, and Monument City Brewing and Union Craft Brewing brewed a few batches of Oliver beer to keep it on shelves. Dvorkin summed up his view to The Banner this way: "The competition is us against the big guys, not us against each other." The building in Millersville puts that idea into practice, with one company's equipment brewing for several others.

The Capital Gazette covered the move in late August and photographed head brewer Christopher Cowell with Dvorkin in the new brewhouse. Dvorkin's hospitality group also runs places many Millersville residents already know. The Banner lists the 206 Restaurant Group's Park Tavern, JB's Sports Bar and Restaurant and Donnelly's Dockside in Severna Park, along with the Pratt Street Ale House downtown.

The Crafthouse: what's planned and what's still pending

Oliver's website calls the public side of the building a "new Crafthouse on Jumpers Hole Road." As of late October, the site says the full website is "fermenting." It lists no hours, menu or opening date. It asks visitors to join a list so they can be "first through the door," and it notes the venue is 21+.

The opening window has been stated in two places. The Banner reported in August that Oliver planned to open a large taproom and kitchen "by late October." Maryland Beer Journal's September update gave late October or early November. Both are forecasts. The quickest way to know when the doors open is the sign-up list at oliverbrewingco.com.

Here is what Oliver has said it plans for the space, as reported by The Banner:

There's a business reason the taproom matters this much. Dvorkin told The Banner that selling directly to customers should pay better than distribution, which has long brought in most of Oliver's revenue. Small brewers competing for retail shelf space are left with thinner margins, especially as costs like aluminum cans go up. Contract brewing keeps the tanks busy, and the taproom is meant to bring in more per pint. For Millersville, that means a brewery with a reason to want local regulars, because a nearby customer at the bar is worth more to it than a six-pack sold in a store.

What the move changed in Eastport

The beer moved to Millersville, and Forward's taproom stayed in Eastport. Bowden told The Banner the brewpub would keep the same recipes and labels, brewed somewhere else. Moving the brewhouse out also freed up space in Annapolis. Eye On Annapolis reported in March that Forward applied to add 14 seats, put in a second set of taps for that area and the outdoor space, and install a small brewing system for limited specialty batches about twice a month. The space has a garage door that opens in good weather and a dividing door that could allow private events. Reopening outdoor dining was still in progress and had taken longer than expected. Those were applications and plans at the time. Forward's event calendar shows the Eastport taproom still holding events this fall.

The Millersville production space and the Eastport seats came out of the same move. Forward's main brewing now happens on Jumpers Hole Road, and the room it left behind in Eastport is being reworked for more drinking and dining.

What to watch on Jumpers Hole Road

When the Crafthouse opens, Millersville will have a taproom attached to a brewhouse that already makes beer for Eastport, Annapolis Beer Co., Ocean City and a coffee roaster. Visitors will be sitting in the building where Forward and Annapolis Beer Co. now brew. The limited releases, the beer club and the farm-ingredient beers Oliver has described are the parts that only happen on site.

At the ORSO. Team at David Orso, we keep track of what's opening in Millersville the same way we track what's selling. Our team can tell you what new neighbors like the Crafthouse mean for your corner of Anne Arundel County. Contact Us.