Dr. Jones, I Presume: Steve Jones Leaves Oliver Brewing Company

Baltimore brewing legend Steve Jones began his career in the basement of the Pratt Street Alehouse in 1999, under the tutelage of Barret Lauer, now Director of Brewing Operations at DC’s Right Proper.

The pub system Jones began on is no longer there; Oliver shifted operations to a much larger production brewery on Shannon Drive near I-895 in late 2015. Jones’ last batch in the Pratt Street Ale House basement was gyle number 4,403 on August 8, 2015. That number means that over 4,000 beers had been produced in the basement of the Pratt Street Ale House. Appropriately, that last “gyle” was a collaboration with Kurt Kroll and Brandon “Millhouse” Miller, of Manor Hill Brewing.

The Pratt Street Ale House’s basement brewery was a cramped, tight space, often dimly lit being below street level. More than once this reporter smacked his head on a floor beam exiting the stairwell. But what the space lacked in physical grace, its brewer more than made up for in knowledge, prowess, and camaraderie.

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