USA, NJ: Ashton Brewing Company closing its doors after nearly fiver years in business

Nearly five years after opening in the former home of another brewery, Ashton Brewing Company is closing its doors in Middlesex, MyCentralJersey.com reported on November 12.

The brewery that focused on balanced, drinkable beers at the former location of Demented Brewing Company is closing by the end of the year, or when its remaining beer runs out.

The landlord of the space is already in talks with potential restaurant and brewery owners.

“Starting out right when COVID hit brought us our first challenge, but now rising costs, a flooded market including out-of-state breweries and a rapid increase in new breweries within the time we opened has made it impossible to sustain our business,” co-owners and husband-and-wife Steve and Donna Ashton posted on the brewery’s Facebook page.

“Our focus has always been about the beer, and not the spectacle, but in the end, the industry changed and that became a broader focus," the post continued.

Despite the impending closure, Ashton Brewing Company will release seven more beers this year, including one every Friday until Black Friday, when four of them will be on tap.

Those four will be variations of an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, such as the Hunter’s Moon pumpkin spice and coffee stout on tap now, and the Aztec Two Step Mexican chocolate imperial stout hitting taps Friday, Nov. 15.

Three other beers, like a scotch ale aged in whiskey barrels and a porter aged in rye barrels, will be released around Thanksgiving.

But this won’t be head brewer Steve Ashton’s last foray in beer.

“I definitely want to stay in the beer world,” he said. “It could be we do something on a smaller scale, or it could be that I work for someone else.”

Ashton, who homebrewed for 30 years before opening Ashton Brewing Company, was always interested in opening his own brewery. When he was able to take early retirement from his job working in finance at an insurance company, he decided it was time. To now close the brewery is “sad,” he said.

“I’m not thrilled that this is how it went but I’m very proud of what we’ve done,” he said. “And I still love beer and I will continue to make sure our beer is as good as possible until the end and see what else we can possibly do down the road. But this setup and this location just wasn’t working for us, so we need to figure something else out.”

Ashton said that the first time he got emotional about the shutdown was when he read comments on social media.

“The beer was always excellent! Steve and Donna put out a great breadth of products that not many NJ breweries could match. Sad to see the brewery close,” said one. “So so sorry to hear!! My favorite beers by far!! A big loss for the beer community,” said another.

Some of the flagship beers at Ashton Brewing Company over the years were the Your Lips…Are Juicy double IPA, Czech pilsner Jersey Dreamin’ and American stout Velvet Elvis. Ashton’s brewing philosophy has stayed the same since his opening day.

“We want to have a balance and for our beer to taste like beer,” he said. “It’s about being able to sit down and have a beer and not feel like your palate is overwhelmed.”

In a beer scene full of ultra-hopped IPAs and extreme pastry stouts, that idea was a rarity, and one that kept customers coming back. But it wasn’t enough to keep the craft brewery, which lacked a large stage or scenic outdoor space, afloat.

“Our taproom was always meant to be a quieter place,” Ashton said. “We don’t bring in big bands because we don’t have the space and it’s really drawn away from us. A lot of our regular customers come here because they love our beer, but they’re also going to places that have a lot going on where you can spend the day."

Plus, Ashton said, his brewery suffered after COVID when many larger, out-of-state breweries, such as Trillium Brewing Company and Other Half Brewing, began distributing to New Jersey, creating more competition in liquor stores and bars.

“I don’t want to be at a point where I’m screwing over vendors because they’re small businesses, too,” Ashton said. “But at the end of the day there just wasn’t just enough volume for us to move to the next level and it’s been incredibly taxing. We realized we needed to let it go before it killed us.”

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