Houston Brewery Closings (2024)

It's got to be tough to open a brewery these days, in general. Your beer has be to better than good craft beer. It can't just be better than bud light, anymore.

Inside the loop / downtown has got a lot of breweries. That's got to make things even tougher. Granted there are a lot of people there. both living and working.

Still isn't much to the North and West.

 

I hit up Counter Common about 10 months ago and while the beer and food were fine, the vibe was somewhat weird. Loved the menu, the beer was ok but there was something about the space that I found somewhat off, can't explain. As for Black Page, went there on my birthday last year and really enjoyed it. Thought the beer was solid and the space unique. Of the 2 this one makes me the saddest. Now that I have grandkids, the brewery visits on weekends are not the thing they once were, so find I am not hitting up breweries as much as I did in past , pre covid/grandkids.

 

Hm just found out I will be stranded downtown this Sunday with son in law why wife and daughter take kids to Bluey show, might have to hit up Black Page since it will be their last day

 

Counter Common was local for me and I was there all the time. From the first time I walked in, I looked at their enormous brew house and fermentors and worried that they were way too big for the market they were in. They never had more than 5-7 beers on tap (despite a much bigger tap wall) because they couldn't go through the beer fast enough to justify brewing enormous batches.

I really liked their beers and their food was a crazy good fusion of Korean, Mexican and American bar food. The (now former) owners are very cool and very earnest and hard working guys.

I want to think that if they just started smaller, they would have been a success. They were too big for what's possible these days.

I know I shouldn't be negative, but it feels to me like the Houston craft beer scene is dwindling. Budweiser won by buying Karbach, which many people still think of as the best craft beer in town. Nobody cares any more. Spindeltap has been a ghost town lately every time I go there (maybe I just manage to find the off times?) and no other craft brewery pulls in big crowds any more. Lots of the remaining breweries have changed hands, sometimes multiple times (Local Group/Gristworks, Holler, Brash, Astral, etc.). I wonder if things are this bad everywhere.

 

I think the Vinn Diagram of people who use BeerAdvocate and people who think Karbach is the best (or even 'good') craft beer in Houston is probably two separate circles. My point in saying that isn't that I think their beer quality is bad. I think the opposite is true.

However, I think they've shifted to more mass market, widely palatable brews. Ex. all the seltzers, radlers, variants on Love Street, Crawford Bock (basically a shiner clone), etc.

They don't do (or at least release) any more FUN series, etc.

And for THOSE reasons, I don't purchase Karbach anymore. Used to be heavily driven by the buy-out. I've softened on that and care less, though I still couldn't tell you the last time i purchased an ABInBev beer. Karbach just doesn't make anything that I want to drink anymore. The exception would be Hopadillo, which is still good, but there are better offerings in town.

 

Brash's antics would have caught up with them no matter who good / bad the market is. Events with the Church of Satan? Unlicensed operations / no permits? Not a recipe for success no matter what the market is.

 

Yeah for Karbach, it has the younger crowd, I have gone to a couple of events in the past and that is pretty much what I see there, granted nice spot, but I would rather go to a local brewery when given the chance. As for the beer scene dwindling, well can't really comment on it. I was glad to see the crowd that turned out at Black Page, and was saddened because this is one of the few breweries my wife can actually enjoy because they sell wine. My reason for not doing much since covid is more religion based (no it isn't what you think). I work really weird hours and only get about 5 to 6 hours of sleep during the week. On weekends I tend to sleep 10 to 12 hours both days. So when it came to church, Ecclesia downtown had Saturday nite services and me and my wife would go down every Saturday which usually entailed hitting up a brewery and restaurant before coming home. Since covid, they have suspended those services, but are planning on starting them up again here next month at a different location which is off downtown, so my religion might lead me to going to more breweries in the future.

But honestly, the effects of covid are still being felt across the world and in Houston also. For some reason there is a massive gap in service industry workers (if they have moved on to better paying jobs with benefits, then this is a good thing). I think as you mentioned above @kbenson, knowing your market and running a tight ship is what it takes to survive going forward. As I looked around Black Page on Sunday I couldn't help but thing if they had done some type of in house food (not just for the hell of it, but but some thought into it) they could have bolstered their business some, having food trucks is great, but that margin leaves your brewery in someone else's cash box.

 

First thing I thought when I read that sentence is "8th Wonder." Cool spot. They definitely know their market; it's more of a part/bar spot than a traditional 'brewery' spot and they attract a crowd to match that ambiance.
All with very unremarkable, though palatable to 'the masses' beer.

 

I cannot honestly tell you a time I didn't go to 8th Wonder and enjoy myself. I am not in their core demographic, but it is a nice space and they have pretty good beer. They are in my mind an example of a brewery that is pretty well run. They have been on top of all trends, and their taproom is blown up every time I go there. When looking online to see when they first opened in East Downtown (EDO) I found this: https://www.houstoniamag.com/eat-and-drink/2023/06/8th-wonder-brewery-sold .
Totally missed this when it happened, but totally understand it. They were one of the first, if only breweries in Houston that got into distilling, then moved into CBD/Delta 8/9 products and have done THC seltzers. They have stayed on top of the market throughout the years

 

They definitely know, and stay on top of the market. It's a great spot if you want to have some reasonably priced beers before walking over to Minute Maid or something.

 

Apparently it closed July 30th. I don't even think I knew it was open. The space sounds nice and the location is good right next to White Oak Music Hall. Hopefully the new owners can make it work. They are 100% leaning into Houston's love for Houston so that's a good sign. I wish them the best and will definitely check them out soon.

 

Looking at google reviews, seems like someone had a wedding/reception there in earlier November, sadly this has never been on my radar.