Maryland bar and brewery marketing that plans every event around your license's last call

Maryland brewery licenses come in several classes, and each one carries its own closing time. Check yours before you print an event poster. The two most common closing times sit four hours apart.

A production brewery holds a Class 5 license. If its taproom permit came after April 1, 2017, it may serve only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. That limit is written into Maryland's Class 5 brewery law, which also caps on-site sales at 5,000 barrels a year. Taprooms licensed on or before that date sit outside the 10 p.m. limit, and so does a brewery that filed its federal brewer's notice by then. Your local board can tell you which group you are in.

A farm brewery keeps the same 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. day under the farm brewery law. A brewpub works differently. The Class 7 micro-brewery license sits on a restaurant's Class B license, and its retail hours are the Class B hours, under the micro-brewery law. So a brewpub keeps the late hours its county gives restaurants and bars.

Here is what that does to the calendar:

• A 10 p.m. taproom books trivia at 7 and live music from 6 to 9:30. The closing hour goes on every listing, so nobody drives in at 9:45 for a pint.
• A tour day can promise free samples. A Class 5 brewery may pour up to 18 ounces a visit, free, to adults on a guided tour or at a scheduled event.
• A brewpub can host the late show, but its event page should still name the county's closing hour.

Writing "open late" on a 10 p.m. taproom's profile is the kind of slip that costs a regular's trust on a Friday. Set the hours on Google, Instagram and the website from the license itself.

Maryland's alcohol law gives each county its own title, and Annapolis has one too. So the hours on your ads come from your own county's title, never from a bar across the line.

• Montgomery County. Rockville, Bethesda and Silver Spring bars on a Class B beer, wine and liquor license may serve until 2 a.m. Monday to Thursday and until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Food has to be on offer the whole time, under the Montgomery hours rule. A late-night ad there can lead with the kitchen.
• Baltimore City. At closing time the whole operation ends, food and entertainment included, under the city's closing rule. The board can let some restaurants keep feeding seated diners, but that exemption does not cover the DJ.
• Annapolis. The city has its own licensing board, apart from Anne Arundel County's. That board sets the hours for each license type, under the Annapolis hours rule.
• Worcester County and Ocean City. Licenses come in 6-day and 7-day versions, and a 6-day Class B license sells Monday through Saturday only, under the Worcester hours rule. A Sunday brunch ad only makes sense on a 7-day license.

A group with locations in two counties should not run one "open late" ad set for both. Give each location its own ad schedule, ending at that location's last call. This page is not legal advice, so confirm your hours with counsel or your local board.

Maryland is stricter about promotional texts than the federal rules most texting tools are built around. Send early, send rarely and keep proof that each guest said yes.

The Stop the Spam Calls Act bars a sales call or text to a Maryland guest after 8 p.m. or before 8 a.m., by the guest's own clock. It also allows three at most in 24 hours on the same subject. "Doors open," "kickoff in an hour" and "two seats left" already add up to three.

The act also asks for prior express written consent before an automated system sends a sales message. A sign-up sheet with no consent wording does not prove that.

Guests can take a bar to court over it. Under the act's private suit rule, a guest may recover up to $500 a violation, or actual damages if those are higher.

Age matters on the list too. The carriers' messaging code lists content that does not meet age-gating requirements among the messages senders should prevent. So the sign-up should check that each guest is 21 or older before any promo text goes out.

A game-night text plan that fits Maryland:

• One text per game, sent by 6 p.m., with the kickoff time and your last call.
• Overtime news on Instagram and your Google profile, never in a 10 p.m. text.
• A QR code at the bar that records consent and age in writing.
• Stop requests honored at once, whatever words the guest uses.

The federal side of consent is covered in our texting and AI answering guide.