Exhibit 99.7

The Campbell Group Advertising Public Relations
Inner Harbor Center
400 East Pratt Street, Suite 500
Baltimore, MID 21202
Phone 410.547.0600
Fax 410.547.6508

                                                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                 MARYLAND FAVORITE NATIONAL PREMIUM BEER IS BACK
             Baltimore Waterfront Festival Goers Get a Taste Preview

         BALTIMORE, MD (April 28, 1999) - The beer with a past is coming back.
Marylanders attending the Baltimore Waterfront Festival will get a chance to
sample the new National Premium beer -- an old Maryland favorite that is being
reintroduced by Frederick Brewing Company.

         "We are confident that people who remember National Premium from days
gone by will enjoy the original recipe for National Premium beer that we are
resurrecting," said Majorie McGinnis, President of Frederick Brewing Company.

         National Premium beer was first introduced by the National Brewing
Company just after Prohibition ended in 1934. During its heyday in the 1960s,
over 200,000 cases of National Premium beer were sold with tax revenues
exceeding $40,000 per year. Distribution reached into metropolitan New York,
southern Connecticut and northern New Jersey in addition to Maryland. National
Premium's reputation was watered down - literally - through a series of
corporate mergers and acquisitions in the 1970s and 1980s until production
stopped in 1996. Frederick Brewing Company acquired the licensing rights to
produce, market and sell the original recipe of National Premium beer beginning
in May 1999.

         Founded in 1993, Frederick Brewing Company (FBC) is the largest craft
brewery in the Mid-Atlantic region, with National Premium becoming the 23rd beer
on its roster of awardwinning and seasonal beers. Other FBC brands include Blue
Ridge beers, Hempen Ale(TM), the first U.S. craft beer brewed with hemp seeds,
Wild Goose and Brimstone.

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                [GRAPHIC OMITTED]      Baltimore       Now York

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         Comptroller William Donald Schaefer was the first Marylander to taste
the new National Premium beer at a press conference on April 28. He was joined
by Hannah Byron, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Maryland's Department of
Business and Economic Development. Frederick Brewing Company offered a portion
of the first month's sales of National Premium beer to go to the charity of his
choice. Comptroller Schaefer has chosen to assign the proceeds to a charity in
memory of Jerry Hoffberger, the founder of National Brewing Company, which first
produced National Premium beer.

         The Baltimore Waterfront Festival is being held at Baltimore's Inner
Harbor from Thursday, April 29 to Sunday, May 2. Festival-goers will find
Frederick Brewing Company booths in the refreshment areas near the Chesapeake
Kitchen and Bay Cabaret area. The hours of the Baltimore Waterfront Festival 10
a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and
Saturday.

                                     # # #

                FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, THE MEDIA MAY CONTACT:

Anne Mannix              Randi J. Rom                  Christine Farrell
The Campbell Group       R.J. Rom & Associates, Inc.   Frederick Brewing Company
410-547-0600, ext. 218   410-367-6525                  301-694-7899