In Memorium: Albert Sisson

News from former Clipper City rep Tom Cizauskas' blog, in the CRABB box to the right. Indirectly, we have this chap to thank for his role (quite substantial, as it were) in the Mid-Atlantic craft beer renaissance/revival:

Albert Sisson died yesterday evening.

In 1979, Albert opened the Sisson's Pub in Federal Hill district, then still known as Southeast Baltimore. Sisson's venture was a gamble; it was a neighborhood on the decline.

The pub thrived however and soon became part of the area's revitalization. It became a destination spot throughout the greater Baltimore area, especially prized for for its Creole cuisine.

His son, Hugh Sisson, added brewing equipment in 1989, making Sisson's the first post-Prohibition brewpub in Maryland (Virginia and DC, for that matter).

Hugh Sisson is the General Partner of the Clipper City Brewing Company.

If a measure of a man's wealth is the measure of his friends, Albert Sisson was an incalculably wealthy man. Many a patron became a friend, after Albert, wearing his trademark large suspenders, had served him a pint and swapped a tall tale.

The family will announce memorial details.