USA, TX: Ingenious Brewing Company closing the doors permanently in January

The owners of Humble's Ingenious Brewing Company said on December 26 they are closing the doors permanently during the first week of 2024, marking an end of the six-year-old business, the Houston Chronicle reported.

"It is with a heavy heart that today we have to announce the upcoming closure of our dear brewery." the company said in a Facebook post. "As many of you are aware, COVID-19 and the consequential economic/sociologic changes have been brutal to craft beer industry; we were no exception."

Founded in 2017 by Justin Gyorfi, a urologist, and Mike Broderick, a home brewer originally from Pennsylvania, Ingenious has billed itself as a brewpub that specialized in small-batch beers, particularly stouts and IPAs.

The company was issued its first license from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in 2017, and most recently renewed it in August, according to state records. The brewpub opened to the public in 2018.

The company said the financial blows caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had finally taken its toll.

"We strapped down and pivoted every way possible to try and lessen the loss," the post said. "Unfortunately it’s now nearly 3 years later and despite multiple rounds of loans and the employee retention credits keeping us floating, the outlook is even worse than when this started."

The bar closures in the early days of the pandemic caused other establishments to stop ordering kegs from the brewery, the company said in 2020. The company said it was buoyed for a time by beer-to-go sales.

According to the Brewers Association, a trade group, more than 385 independent breweries in the United States closed in 2023. Craft brewers were affected by "slowing demand growth, competition from across beverage alcohol and a retail environment marked by declining draught sales," according to the association.

Ingenious Brewing's taproom will be open through Jan. 6.

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