As we often discuss on our site, and our podcast, we get the most clicks when a brewery closes. On a positive note, this post is void of breweries closing… right now. It does attempt an honest accounting of how many changes we’ve seen in the last decade. But just to manage your expectations, we have seen many brewery closures this year and last, and before long I’m sure we’ll see more.
Ten years ago we covered the local winners of the Great American Beer Festival and what struck me is that out of the seven local winners, only three are still making beer at their brewery today. The list immediately requires asterisks if you consider that one of the breweries is no longer making beer in Maryland (but now New Jersey) and the other is no longer brewing out of DC or Virginia (where it once had brewpubs in both) but is contracted out of a DC brewery who was one year old in 2014.
The list of winners as it was a decade ago consisted of:
Capitol City Brewing Company
DC Brau Brewing
DuClaw Brewing Company
Gordon Biersch Brewery Rockville
Gordon Biersch Brewery Annapolis
Heavy Seas Beer
Union Craft Brewing
Today, only DC Brau, Heavy Seas, and Union breweries are currently making beer where they made it a decade ago. On to the asterisks!
DuClaw, after being acquired by River Horse Brewing Company, had its operations shifted to New Jersey. The Gordon Biersch locations in Annapolis and Rockville shuttered in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Capitol City closed its Virginia location in Shirlington and a DC location near Union Station and now only its New York Avenue restaurant exists. Their beers are currently brewed at Atlas Brew Works (who opened in 2013). In other words, the beer it was making in 2014 is no longer made at its brewpubs anymore.
It’s easy to write off these closings and say “this is just churn,” or something even more dismissive like “these beers sucked.” And if I am biased so be it, my friends worked at these breweries and I appreciated what they brought to the beer scene. Let me address it as a labor issue, and say that I always tense up when I hear of breweries or brewpubs closing.
The loss of jobs is always something to be taken seriously. When another human being is unable to earn wages the way they once did, that’s a terrible thing. But in a way (perhaps I’m guilty of wearing rose colored lenses) the beer that was once coming out of Capital City’s tanks is now the beer from Strange Bird. As we wrote in 2022:
Strangebird’s founder and brewer, Micah Krichinsky, started professionally brewing in DC as an intern at District Chophouse with Barrett Lauer. He then worked at Capitol City Brewing Company before moving to Dogfish Head.
So in the spirit of one door closes and another door opens, perhaps these breweries who are no longer in existence or have become contract brands can be a part of the future. The brewing system which once made award-winning beer for Capital City is now in use and earned Strange Bird a medal at the 2024 World Beer Cup. Another set of tanks from Gordon Biersch’s former Navy Yard location is now being used in York, Pennsylvania. The churn continues.
One response to “The Circle of Brewery Life: Closures, Beer Medals, and More”
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I learned so much from Barrett at District Chophouse and Mike and Travis at Cap City. All great brewers and even better humans. If you make your way up to Strangebird in Rochester, you will be surrounded by the equipment from Shirlington. The copper faceplates still hanging from the Lauter tun and kettle stand as a marker of history and of my matriculation. The brewers of DC in the late oughts – early 2010s were a big reason I started brewing. It was a familial community. As time progresses, burnout takes hold, and breweries close, but I am so fortunate to have been brewing beer in DC during that golden age.
Thanks to Matt Ryan from Cedar Run for passing this along. Thanks so much for the shout, Michael. Keep up the good work!
🍻