We have our second area brewery closing of 2025: April 5th will be the last day for Ashburn’s Old Ox Brewing. Their lease is up, the initial founders have retired, and their children would like to pursue options outside of brewing. In a message on their website, the Burns family writes, “Our lease is up at the end of April. At the same time, Graham [Burns] and Mary Ann are ready for their next adventure, retirement. Additionally, Chris and Kristin have some exciting opportunities outside the brewing world.”
Old Ox had hoped to find a buyer, but the landlord found a potential future tenant. It’s possible that Old Ox beers live on, either at another location or via someone purchasing the brewery’s recipes and branding, as was the case with Maryland’s Calvert Brewing last year. Old Ox was almost merged with/acquired by Silver Branch three years ago, but that deal fell through and the Old Ox had trouble finding brewery staff for their Middleburg location. In May, 2024 the brewery also posted a position for a head brewer in Ashburn.
I’ll mourn Black Ox, their rye porter, and I always looked forward to a can of their holiday seasonal, Keg Nog. If their cherry blossom saison, Festivale, is available, the DC Beer crew will be pouring it at metrobar next month, stay tuned! That brand is the official beer of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, and it’s not lost on us that City-State will also no longer have their cherry blossom offering as they’ve stopped brewing and transitioned to being a bar and taproom.
Whatever happens, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the 11 years of love we’ve felt from all of you. We’ve had some amazing times and we’ve created memories that we’ll carry with us for the rest of our lives. We appreciate you.
All our love,
Chris, Kristin, Mary Ann, Graham
Many breweries signed leases between 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Virginia, so we’re not done with closures and perhaps mergers. As always, watch this space for news, be it happy or sad, and please send Old Ox out with a bang.
