Taft’s Sells Their Brand, And Is Closing Their Last Space…

Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
Photos By: The Gnarly Gnome

12/4/24

Closures are miserable. We know that, and I feel like we’ve suffered a few really painful ones in 2024. It’s not that craft beer is doomed or that Cincinnati’s incredible craft beer scene is somehow collapsing upon itself, mind you. Openings are still outpacing closures here in Cincinnati, though this is the first year in decades that those numbers are close – and they are WAY closer than any of us like to see them.

If we take a bigger step back, it’s like that all across the country. Brewery openings have slowed down to a crawl, and closures are increasing. People are drinking less beer than they were before (though craft beer is still slowly taking market share away from macro breweries).

The industry is in a rough spot right now, and it would be crazy to think that somehow Cincinnati is immune to the changes.

A Brief History Of Taft’s

I started hearing plans of something big happening in Cincinnati beer back in 2014. There was a team working to restore an old church in OTR and transform it into a new brewpub, the likes of which the city of Cincinnati had never imagined before. With project costs estimated upwards of 10 million dollars – this was a brewpub that was built to be a showcase. Three floors of taproom – a specialized menu featuring tri tip steak… it was a hit.

After only a year of business, the team was already looking to expand, looking for not only a production facility to help the brand grow, but a space that could become another, new concept. We were blessed with a taproom that was called ‘The Brewpourium’ – featuring a space that was more like the taprooms we were familiar with, coupled up with a pizza concept that quickly started to make a name for itself even without the beer.

The brewery was expanding its production, with plans to start cranking out a ton of beer and an idea to replicate its Brewpourium concept in other cities as well. They saw the first of these expansion taprooms in November of 2019 as they opened up their Columbus space.

A Pandemic, A Changing Industry

Coupled right alongside a global pandemic only months after they opened their new space, drinkers have also started shifting what they are drinking. The beer market has been shrinking, and it’s been tough for all breweries to find their place in the middle of that.

These challenges have been a lot for almost every brewery, but the places (like Taft’s) that were on the path to becoming a regional brewery were hit the hardest. Their model had to change, and they started filling up their excess capacity by copacking and contract brewing in their production space. Impact Beverages was born.

The contract side of the business (Impact) was expanding rapidly, outpacing all of the brewery’s own beer and becoming the centerpiece of the whole operation. The business couldn’t ignore what was happening forever… and in 2023, things started changing.

The Closures

I’ve talked at great lengths about the closure of Taft’s Ale House. It came as a shock to a lot of folks in Cincy, but when you took a birds-eye look at what they had been building over the last few years… the decision to close the brewpub was the next logical step. I don’t know the details about what it cost to operate Taft’s Ale House, but there’s no way on earth that it was cheap. With their focus being pulled into the Impact side of their business, a market that is going through serious changes… it had to happen.

They followed the news in 2024 with the long-anticipated closure of their Columbus Brewpourium. It was clear that Taft’s as a brand had changed, the business that was in charge of managing that brand had changed and the world around all of us was changing, as well. It shouldn’t have been a shock to us all, then when today the news hit that as of 12/29, the Cincinnati taproom (The Brewpourium) was not only closing for good – but the Taft’s Brand was sold and was going to move into its new life with a new company.

Saving History

The Cincinnati Beverage Company (CinBev) isn’t just the brewery in OTR that is responsible for brewing Little Kings, Hudy Delight, and Christian Moerlein. CinBev is a collection of brands that were lost, pieces of Cincinnati’s Beer history in danger of being lost forever unless someone saved them.

The company has been under new ownership since 2022, with their new management team deadset on saving not only the brands that they own but several historical brewery buildings in OTR, as well. They’ve brought production back under CinBev after having to contract their beers at “unnamed” partners in town (cough, cough… Impact).

There are few other companies that are set up to take over Taft’s brand in the way that CinBev is.

So, What Happens To Taft’s Now?

To put it as simply as possible, we don’t really know. In the short term, I anticipate not much. They’ll keep producing the brands, and you’ll still see them on shelves. (They might even keep producing them through Impact for the time being. I’ve heard they’re in desperate need of some new production space.)

Will we eventually see CinBev open up a Taft’s taproom of their own? Will we see the return of a new and improved ‘Taft’s Ale House’, or ‘Brewpourium’? I’d venture to say that anything is possible, and if the brand is able to grow under CinBev’s guidance… who knows?

For now, you should know that the taproom is open until 12/29/24 for you to say your goodbyes, suck up every last memory that you’re able to… and you definitely should. One thing that we can always be certain of in situations like this is that even if Taft’s is able to see a new life and a new physical taproom in the future – it’ll never be the same, nor should it be.

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