3 Floyds Brewing (2020)

From Josh Noel discussion with nick and posted on twitter
"- he has furloughed brewpub staff indefinitely: “It’s the most painful thing I have had to do, cohorts of years and years.” - the Three Floyds brewpub will reopen at some point “in the future when it’s safe”
- Three Floyds is *not* being sold - the brewery and distillery are still operating
- Nick says the brewpub may not reopen for a year or even two: “I can’t put people in danger; no one should die over a beer. I would die for beer and probably will but I’m not going to make people endanger themselves.'"

Three floyds will survive, but with some difficult decisions. Sucks that some staff are furloughed and most likely some staff will loose their job if brewpub is going to be closed for that long.

 

Per Josh Noel, may be a year or two until it opens again. I’m assuming (hoping?) the tear down and rebuild is what’s going to happen.

https://twitter.com/hopnotes/status/1262937781355057152?s=21

 

Jinx

 

2 years? Ok bro...

 

While this news isn’t shocking, it is quite disheartening. Ever since my wife and I heard that Indiana began to open restaurants at 50% capacity, we were anxiously awaiting 3 Floyd’s to open back up.

This however, does make sense to me. Anyone who has ever eaten at the brewpub (not sure about the distillery, haven’t eaten there) knows that it is not conducive to social distancing, especially the bar area. My guess is that it just doesn’t make sense for both health and financial reasons to risk opening back up.

With all that said, it still very much sucks...and yes, I'm very much aware that one of our favorite restaurants not opening for a long time is a first world problem.

 

apparently nick has never been to Dark Lord Day

 

I don’t think there’s any qualifier necessary. It’s a real bummer. The brewpub was absolutely imperfect but I appreciated that you knew who the brewery was after visiting the place. This also has to be a an eye opener regarding the industry. If the #31 biggest craft brewery in the country felt forced to close its brewpub, then we know it won’t just be fledging breweries with tough calls. I do understand that their strong distro allows for this decision

 

Their stance hasn't changed this entire time. It's always been "when it's safe" for both employees and patrons.

 

Definitely sucks, but as others have mentioned, not terribly surprising given their space limitations. This seems like a good time for them to try to get moving on the proposed construction of the newer, bigger brewpub (assuming that's still happening).

 

Cue a thousand jerk-offs crying "I THOUGHT 3 FLOYDS WAS METAL!??".

 

I saw a comment from a brewpub investor saying that the brewpub went from insanely profitable to losing money over the past two years. And another person echoed this on Twitter. If that is the case, perhaps it is a good time to close it for a while and possibly work on that huge expansion or do something to open it in a profitable manner.

I've already seen the politicized "I won't be visiting you ever again!" type posts over this.

 

Is it possible that they can't make money at 50% capacity, sure...but I imagine it also acts as a loss leader as I would buy beer to go whenever I went to the brewpub. Perplexing but I am sure they have their reasons which, as a private company, are for them to know and not for us.

 

How? Mismanagement? Isn’t the place usually packed? I understand more local competition, but I always have to wait to get in. I don’t know how you can go from insanely profitable to losing money unless either you have no customers or someone new didn’t know how to run it in a fiscally responsible manner. I don’t buy it.

 

If that truly is the case I'd assume that sales at the kiosk are separate from sales at the brewpub. Technically the kiosk is an off premise location that can have different hours than the brewpub. That hasn't always been the case. As of about two years ago you just used to add any bottles or merch to go on your tab.

 

He claims their costs have doubled from 10 years ago and the pub isn't consistently as busy as it was in the past. Of course as an investor he only gets a financial report and whatever he hears by word of mouth, he doesn't have the full picture.

But I heard from other pub investors as well that said the past few years have not looked good for their investment...

 

If you are Nick and have access to low interest business loans and banks love you, wouldn’t you try and get your pub investors to cash out before undergoing a large, profitable undertaking?

 

It would not surprise me if the returns on their investment have decreased in the past few years. 3 Floyds is no longer the shiny new object in the beer community and does not jump on the latest fads like hazies and fruit puree Berliners. Additionally, Zombie Dust went from selling out in hours to turding up grocery store shelves. That said, I would have difficulty believing they are losing money.

 

Zombie Dust turding up shelves is still beer sold and paid for to 3 Floyds.

 

Exactly.