M8 Beer, a new brewery inspired by Australia, will open this fall in South Baltimore

Jeff Osborne first came to Baltimore for squash.

Osborne moved from his homeland of Australia in 1999 to work as a squash pro at Woodberry’s Meadow Mill Athletic Club. He spent a few years here and then in New York before returning to Australia in 2005.

But he never forgot Baltimore’s charm. “It’s one of those towns where, if people have never been here, they really don’t understand how cool Baltimore is,” Osborne said.

This time around, he’s back for beer. Come September, Osborne and two silent business partners will open M8 Beer, a new brewery set to take over Checkerspot Brewing Co.’s space at 1399 S. Sharp St. in South Baltimore as Checkerspot moves to a new home.

M8 — pronounced “mate,” like the Aussie slang for “friend” — will serve beers popular in Australia and beyond. The brewery, slated to open sometime before the Ravens’ regular season opener on Sept. 10, will debut with an abbreviated beer lineup. The first offerings on tap, brewed at another facility through a contract brewing agreement, will include a pilsner and a Pacific ale, staples of Australia’s craft beer scene; a hazy IPA; and an XPA, or extra pale ale, featuring a lower alcohol content.

Eventually, the 15-barrel brewery plans to grow its list to 15 beers on draft, Osborne said.

Following his time as a squash pro, Osborne turned to entrepreneurship, operating a gym back in Australia. He’s never been a brewer, though, so he hired Brendan Fitzsimmons, formerly the head brewer at AleCraft Brewery, to take charge of beer production for M8.

The brewery will inherit most of Checkerspot Brewing Co.’s equipment, other than a canning line. Checkerspot, meanwhile, is poised to move to its new home at 1421 Ridgely St., just a half-mile away. The brewery, owned by Judy and Rob Neff, has been a fixture on Sharp Street since opening in 2018, and will continue serving beer there through Aug. 31 before opening on Ridgely Street Sept. 1. A grand opening party for the new brewery space, featuring live music and the release of a new special edition beer, is scheduled on Sept. 16.

The timeline for the move leaves little time for M8 Beer to get up and running, so Osborne and his partners plan to renovate the taproom and an upstairs space after opening it to the public. But Fitzsimmons has already had a chance to test the brewery’s equipment, Osborne said, thanks to the Neffs, who invited him to help brew at Checkerspot.

In addition to beer, the new brewery will also have a full kitchen serving dishes with an Australian twist, like kangaroo bangers — sausages made with kangaroo meat — and brisket. Other dishes will incorporate Asian and Latin flavors.

“Australia, like America, is a very multicultural place,” Osborne said, “and so our food is influenced by that multicultural kind of uptake where we get some really cool flavors and some really interesting stuff. People often joke that Australia doesn’t really have its own culture, we just borrow everyone else’s.”

Osborne said the brewery’s Aussie influence will be present on the menu and in beer names that reference Australian culture. But “we’re not going full Outback Steakhouse on this place,” he said.

“We are here in Baltimore, and we’re not trying to turn this place into a mini Australia, by any sense. There won’t be any kangaroos roaming around.”

The new brewery hopes to attract Ravens and Orioles fans thanks to its proximity to both stadiums. Osborne thinks M8 Beer might attract some of his former squash colleagues, as well.

“One thing that squash players are famous for is drinking a lot of beer after every game,” he said.