In the past I had a feeling that only small, local breweries were closing, usually the ones I’ve never heard of. And more often than not they were not that good. Yes, there were some exceptions - Pretty Things comes to my mind, but they were scarce. However lately I’ve been hearing more and more breweries I’m familiar with are closing taprooms or even whole business. Some of these were even able to produce sought after beers aka whalez.
Modern Times - closed their brewing facility and went contract. Not sure if they plan to continue with barrel aging program, probably not.
Weathered Souls is closed for good. Probably most sought after imperial stouts from Texas.
Over the past two years some more good breweries closed - Orpheus from Atlanta, Cascade (Portland), Metropolitan (Chicago), Ingenious (Houston)…the list is probably way longer. I wonder if these are the signs of bubble busting.
Everyone said the same thing last year and breweries were still up. This year they might be down a little, but still healthy enough. I wouldn’t visit any of my local breweries if I had to pay full price. Ill do it when out of town, but paying the better part of ten dollars for a short pint of beer is sort of ridiculous on a regular basis.
Definitely a tough time for craft beer no matter the size.
It is interesting to see what breweries and brewpubs do that have been surviving for 2 decades compared to the ones closing. From my perspective, the longtime survivors rely on more than making fad beer styles. You need to attract a diverse group of customers. Typically this means diversity of products and competitive pricing. You can survivor only so long making overpriced hyped stouts or hazies for beer bros.
Observing the rise and fall over 20 years, I’d go along with this. Pertaining to beer, I’ve seen a few here fold when they continually keep the same solid recipes and styles, tho excellently brewed. The ones that make only the same menu, same recipes; a stout, a lager, a blonde, pale ales, wild, etc - seem to barely survive or eventually rely on a food atmosphere. A few locals have somewhat adopted, by making the same beer or tiny tweaks then periodically giving it a new name.
Orpheus owner/brewer (Jason Pellet) moved to Amsterdam and opened a brewery there called Hollows (@hollowsbeer) so not really a closure, just a repositioning.
