This has already been posted on the Mountain forum, but north Idaho is pretty close to eastern Washington so I thought I'd mention it here. BiPlane Brewing in Post Falls has closed their doors: http://www.facebook.com/beerfourme Although their final FB post would seem to indicate that the owners have divorced, I suspect their closure was more due to the perilous nature of trying to sustain such a small operation.
I fear we are going to see a lot more attrition in the coming year or two. The size of the brewery is less important than a solid business plan and keeping the cash flowing in the right direction.
I know the brewery was for sale last year too, so I am not suprised. They were nice people, and made some cool beers.
For me the sad part is, I'd never even heard of them until this thread. I have friends who go over that way every few months, I would have had them grab me a few growlers.
Well, I'm not sure they would have stood out all that much to you, with all the beer you have access to on your side of the state. It was a little brewery that didn't make anything that was spectacular, but their beers were competently brewed and, with a half-barrel system, the consumer was nearly always guaranteed the beer was fresh. Every time I stopped there, the taproom was always at least half full of locals, so I think they will be missed. But from what I've heard from someone at another regiional brewery, the owners tried to lowball things from the beginning, and were always in over their heads when it came to matters financial, so I wasn't terribly surprised when I saw they closed.
Yes, and with so many new breweries opening, the marketplace is going to get more crowded and the less well run (from a business perspective) will have an even harder time staying afloat.
