New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
After 2 years of COVID struggles, some local breweries are closing
Breweries have been a thriving business in Connecticut, but over the past month or so, a string of them shut down one after another.
Bristol’s Better Half Brewing closed on Dec. 31.
“Like all small businesses around the world we tirelessly worked to keep our doors open during the pandemic and received much support from our community,” the owners said in a Facebook post. “Unfortunately we have not been able to make it completely on the other side and are announcing we have closed our doors effective 12/31.”
Since then, two more announced the closures of their taprooms in Connecticut: 30 Mile Brewing Company in Old Saybrook and Shebeen Brewing Company in Wolcott.
“As a small business we are not immune to the challenging economic conditions of the past 2 years. At this point, it is not sustainable for us to continue on as we have,” a Facebook post by 30 Mile Brewing Company stated. “We opened 30 Mile Brewing in 2016 with the goal of providing a community gathering space for people in the Old Saybrook area to enjoy craft beer. We feel over the past 5 years, we have accomplished that goal. We have met many amazing friends in our taproom and have tried to be the best possible partner to our community.”
In addition, Cottrell Brewing
Company in Pawcatuck announced a departure from its space and is currently “examining all of our options to somehow continue.”
Justin Terribile, an owner of 30 Mile Brewing Company, told Hearst Connecticut that the decision to close came roughly a month and a half ago. Terribile attributed the closure to a “decline in taproom business” as well as emerging trends in the industry that the company couldn’t keep up with. One of those main trends was serving food.
During the pandemic, new state guidelines stated that breweries had to serve food in order to join in on the post-lockdown reopening. At that time, Phil Pappas, executive director of the Connecticut Brewers Guild, wrote a letter urging the governor to reconsider.
“Before the pandemic, breweries
were never legally required to offer food prepared on premise, but we have adapted and altered our businesses entirely so that we can remain open to the public,” he wrote.
In time, the food trend stuck at breweries, and more than a year later, Terribile said he felt the effects.
“We don’t have the option of serving. People are more inclined to sit for a longer time period in places that have food,” Terribile said. “With us having the inability to have food, it has limited the amount of time that people spend.”
Though businesses — including breweries — closing during the pandemic is not new news, the rapid succession of the recent brewery closures have industry leaders worried.
“Keeping their doors open has been a real struggle for so many Connecticut breweries,” Kevin Mardorf, founder of CTBeer.com, said. “With all the COVID restrictions, limiting folks going into their taprooms really took a toll on their business.”
The hardships facing craft breweries have affected the entirety of the beer industry, as reported last year by the Brewers Association. In 2020, the sales volume of craft beer dropped by 9.3 percent. The retail dollar sales of craft beers also decreased 22 percent, now equating to $22.2 billion in revenue for craft breweries.
According to Mardorf, different factors play into each closure, but a number of ongoing trends in the beer community are evident, such as staffing concerns and market saturation. There was also the issue of having to close down taprooms during the 2020 lockdown.
William da Silva, a founder of Derby’s Bad Sons Beer Co., is of the opinion that the only way for smaller breweries to make money is through taproom sales, which became increasingly difficult to make during the pandemic as taprooms closed and many breweries were forced to focus on wholesale sales.
“In the beginning, when it first happened, our taprooms were closed. A lot of these smaller breweries live on their taproom because the wholesale business — you really don’t make any money. You need to scale up to really make any money,” da Silva said. “The wholesale business went up but the volume just wasn’t there.”
da Silva added that a change in Connecticut liquor laws during the pandemic may have hurt smaller breweries more than it helped. Changes included a number of Connecticut liquor permit revisions, which brewery owners like Terribile said were “costing us more for the same permits.”
“They changed the liquor laws on us. A lot of these breweries couldn’t pivot,” da Silva said. “That hurt a lot of breweries. They couldn’t open up their taprooms unless they became really creative and figured something out, and spent a lot of money.”
“A lot of guys aren’t equipped to do that,” da Silva added.
Despite the adversities facing breweries, Terribile admitted that the last two weekends of business for 30 Mile Brewing were “our busiest two weekends in three years.”
“We have enjoyed the past six years of getting to know our community and providing a service to the community,” Terribile said. “We’re grateful for all the friendships that we have made during that time.”
Mardorf also believes that there is a lot going for the Connecticut craft beer scene, including a slate of new breweries that are expected to open this year like Almost Famous Brewing in East Granby and the newly-opened Surfridge Brewing Company in Centerbrook.
“On the bright side, more breweries are coming in,” Mardorf said. “There is really a lot of great beer in the state. They’re doing it exceedingly well in Connecticut .... If people make good beer, I think they’ll get through this time.”