Buckbean Brewing announces closure, fourth within the past two weeks
KRNV TV reports the upcoming closure of Buckbean Brewing. Owner, Doug Booth, told KRNV TV that it is due to the sluggish economy and higher-than-projected costs. Grain costs are reportedly increasing and causing price hikes industry-wide. Production numbers aren’t available for the brewery. Buckbean opened in April of 2008 and is most well-known for being one of the first early producers of craft beer in cans in the U.S. and host of the CANFest.
Buckbean is the fourth brewery to announce closure within just the past two weeks. No official word has appeared on the brewery’s Facebook page yet.
via KRNV TV.
What were the other brewery closures?
it isn’t necessarily a bad trend. The only beer I had form them was the Orange Blossom ale but it totally sucked, some brewers deserve it and I actually hope the shitty breweries around the nation begin to close.
@ 1st Mike: Bavarian Barbarian was one. There was a whole thread going on about the owner publicly whining about how people were contacting him about buying his equipment and looking for insight on where things went wrong, which he felt was insult to injury.
@ 2nd Mike: I’m not sure a single mediocre beer should engender such hate. I’ve had their Tule Duck Red Ale and really enjoyed it. Hangar 24’s flagship beer, the Orange Wheat, is a rather weak offering, but they make plenty of other fantastic brews. As with any booming market, there will be plenty of pretenders that just don’t make it, and those that stick around. That’s OK, though. You can’t have every offering be amazing, otherwise you have a rather short yardstick to measure things by. And if mediocre craft beers didn’t exist, there would be nothing to fuel our snobbish derision.
In the end, instead of wishing closure on shitty beer makers, I’d wish them the insight and fortune to make better beer.
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I would like them to have the insight to make better beer, but lets face it some do not, that is just a fact of life.
I hate when “sluggish economy” is used as a crutch or excuse. So these closings have nothing to do with other factors like poor marketing or a lack luster sales force? Did they not see it coming with scores of breweries opening up … make some noise!! Squeaky wheel gets the oil!! Assuming the beer is up to snuff.
Regardless, sad to hear.
It’s sad to see them go. I liked the Tule Duck Red and the Black Noddy was very good. Living in Nevada and trying to support Nevada brewers, there isn’t a whole lot of those beers to choose from, so it sucks to see one close. I agree with Tom in that when you start to see your brand suffer, work at making a better beer. Competition could be a blessing.
@ Jason Alstrom- So only breweries with kick ass marketing and over-the-top salespeople should survive? I’ve seen firsthand and heard numerous times of alleged “craft” salepeople using the same bullshit (and sometimes illegal) tactics as the big boys. So I guess it’s OK to do that to survive Mr. Crafty McCrafterson? That said, if this is the real Bro, go back to your site and spew your bullshit there. (can’t delete my post here pal!) If not, fuck off to the person who would actually want to pretend to be an Alstrom.
Thanks for your comment, mervaldez. Jason is also welcome to comment here.
Jason is just suggesting that some of the people closing up businesses aren’t owning up to their own faults and placing blame on others. I’ve noticed this as well though it isn’t always the case.
i think it sucks that some people have invested so much time and money into a business and despite trying pretty damn hard to make it work, it just can’t happen for them. it couldn’t have been an easy decision to close down the place. perhaps they never should have got into canning or sending beer out to other markets they couldn’t support (like in FL where i am–why are they here?).
also there’s nothing wrong with blaming the economy when there’s a lot of truth to that for MANY businesses.
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So I’m new to this industry. I’ve read the posts but still unclear to me why the business failed… bad product? under-capitalized? poor sales and marketing? If anyone out there could succinctly provide their best insights on why these six breweries have failed, I would appreciate it.
JIM