Red Brick Station's Daily Crisis IPA at Fire Station 1 in Silver Spring

Hook & Ladder Brewing Co. had been involved with a project to install a functioning brewpub and/or production brewery in the old Silver Spring Fire Station, on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, across the street from the old Baltimore & Ohio railroad station (and MARC stop), since early 2007.  Apparently, the long-delayed restaurant is ready to open any day now--but NOT as a brewpub.  The partners in the Hook & Ladder Brewing Co. "had to pull out of the project," according to a post by Tim Carman at the Washington City Paper's "Young and Hungry" blog:

Hook & Ladder founder and brewmaster Rich Fleischer says the economy played a role in the brewery pulling out of the restaurant and brewpub. “It just didn’t make sense for us to continue on the project,” he says.

The restaurant is slated to open sometime in the next week, possibly as early as Friday, and on hand, according to Carman, will be one beer from another "fire station" brewery--Red Brick Station's Daily Crisis IPA, brewed at the "fire station" on The Avenue at White Marsh.

[Owner Jeremy] Gruber says the beer program will include 12 taps and 20 bottles and will venture beyond Hook & Ladder selections.  He plans to include Flying Dog, Magic Hat, Stella, Blue Moon, Sam Adams seasonal, and other options on draft; the bottle selection will mix familiar commercial lagers with offerings from Kona and Goose Island, among others. There will be no brewing on premise to start, but Gruber hasn’t ruled that out in the future.

Left unclear is whether the deal for Daily Crisis is a one-off temporary arrangement for the restaurant, or part of a longer-term beer supply strategy between two fire-station-themed beer-friendly restaurants. Restaurant management confirmed this morning that Daily Crisis would be a "permanent" addition to the line-up, but the only Red Brick Station beer in the house for the time being: "At this time we do not intend on carrying other White Marsh beers."

Now, for the bonus prize:  Does anyone remember yet a third fire-station-themed brewery/brewpub in Maryland?  Answer in the comments if you do!