Why do breweries close so early?

I wonder how their location effects their hours. A lot of the ones that close earlier than I would expect are located in industrial areas. There might be local zoning ordinances limiting their hours of public operation.

 

I don't really know the answer to this, but I'd wager it's because they're owner operators to a large degree and that they spend a good bit of their waking life there. Why would they want to be there at 1am? Everyone needs a break.

 

That's true also many of them don't brew enough beer to keep longer hours.

 

Resident Culture in Charlotte is my favorite brewery, and during the week they are open 3-10 for the most part, 12-11 on Fri and Sat. Seems more than reasonable to me, and don't forget there's the inevitable cleanup after they close, so they're putting in a ton of hours that we don't see both on the front side and back end.

 

It's really what makes business sense and this is largely decided by the businesses customer base. Some towns are more active and breweries stay open late because there are customers to support those hours. Breweries will always close earlier than bars because liquor can fuel people later into the night than beer. When breweries close, most bars and clubs are just getting going.

I do agree that some close a bit early. Usually from what I've seen it's a package brewery taproom. Their bread and butter is in packaged beer so I can see only being open during peak hours. The struggle is real.

 

Yeah, nothing good happens to me if I stay at a brewery or beer past 10 p.m.
Nothing.

 

Pretty sure if bars could make a living without staying open late, they'd close early too.

 

I work in a bar and by the time 1-3am comes around, security is kicking drunk people out for being obnoxiously drunk. They probably want to avoid that reputation plus when i did work in a brewery, the brewers got there at 4-5am to start.

 

Purely speculation on my part, but I'd think their insurance costs would be higher if they were open til the early am like bars. Insurance costs are probably already high because they are brewing on premise.

Plus the cost of labor. Most breweries I frequent open somewhere between 10am-Noon. Many bars around here that are open until 2am don't open for business until 5pm, and that's if they serve dinner. Bars that are just a spot for people to get drunk may not open until 7-8pm.

 

I would think state laws and/or the particular license they have has a lot to do with it.

 

I currently work a brewery, it is mostly because of the crowd that late nights lends itself to. Late night folks who already have been drinking liquor downtown and stroll in looking for some high ABV brew. That's a good majority of the folks who come in late. As well as it is typically a slower time anyway, so might as well close shop early and leave it to the bars to stay open.

 

Most of the breweries around my parts are usually closed Mon-Wed all together, and Thursday Friday...open around 3 or 4pm and close around 9-10pm. Weekends, same close time but open either at noon or 1pm.

For those of you who get to work remotely off a laptop w/ wifi, wouldn't it be great to get to sit in a brewery during the daytime every now and then for a change of pace? Better than a coffee shop or Panera.

 

I hate when breweries chose early. I have young kids and I always like to have dinner with the fam and then put the kids down. I usually don’t go out until @8pm. Since I am not interested in night clubs or the bar scene and just want good beer from my local brewery. However, they close @9pm. So I end up paying Uber more than I like. I can see why but I just want to complain anyways.

 

Lakefront in Milwaukee closes at 10pm. I could drink there all night. The owners don't want to deal with dumbasses at 2am, puking and starting fights because you looked at their girlfriend. Go to the bar after the brewery, you'll still have a good time.

 

Unless I misinterpreted OPs post, i am kind of shocked by how many people think OP is expecting breweries to be open midnight or later. Feel more like he is looking for them to be open till what feels like a pretty reasonable time - closer to 10 or so, not 8pm.

 

I think part of it is the neighborhood the brewery is in. I've noticed in Raleigh, as well as a few other cities in the US, if it's either a rough neighborhood, or just out of the way and there isn't much traffic after 10 pm, they close earlier than ones in better/busier areas.

 

Breweries are also destination places and mostly for beer drinkers who appreciate the beer. So you plan around their hours, and I'm supposing you don't go there to get hammered, you can do that at the local shit hole chugging $1 PBRs. So there's really no reason to stay open late or even all day, and if lengthening their day was financially successful they would do so, especially for new start ups. But they don't because they don't need to do so, especially if they do Crowlers and Growlers.

 

Exactly. Have a few, bring home a Crowler or two. I love how laid back my favorite breweries are.

 

This is the perfect answer. Liquor/Alcohol laws are getting more highly enforced due to the increase in visibility and amount of breweries/beer in general. The after 8 pm crowd of drinkers (though not all) tend to lean more toward 'drink to get drunk' rather than sit and enjoy a pint. Breweries have a lot to lose and don't want to risk any sort of alcohol violation or riff-raff that could potentially cause any harm to the brewery (loss of license, liability of someone being over-served, drunk ass holes being drunk ass holes).

 

Possibly to weed out the bar hoppers late at night, but I agree, 5pm up to 8pm is too early. Cigar City closed at 10, we only had about 30 minutes in the joint, that was disappointing. I'd say 11 or 12 is a good time to close, give people some time to arrive and relax a bit, but not much later than that. After all, it's a brewery not a bar, you're there to sample and purchase beer, not to get tanked on bulleit.