Enjoy a serving of brewery consolidation alongside your turkey! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Turkey Day! We’re early this week because of the holiday. Hitting you up on Drinksgiving Eve. We hope that tomorrow you get to enjoy some quality time with friends and/or family. At the very least, we hope it’s tolerable. And we hope you enjoy some good craft beer at your Thanksgiving table.

Mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. Ho hum. This week, two more consolidation stories involving some very different kinds of breweries. The lesson is the same: once a brewery starts down that path, it usually doesn’t move forward in a straight line. It seems that once you start wiggling, you keep wiggling.

Faubourg Says Farewell to the Big Easy

Faubourg Brewing is shutting down operations at its brewing facility in New Orleans. This marks the end of the century-old brewery formerly known as Dixie, but not the end of the Faubourg brand. You might recall that Dixie changed its name to Faubourg a few years ago because the name Dixie was… um, duh. That development is not related to this closure, though. A company representative told Brewbound that high water costs and tax bills, along with staffing difficulties, contributed to the decision. Likely, there were other factors at work too.

Just 18 months ago, Made By The Water (MBTW) acquired a majority stake in Faubourg Brewing. MBTW owns a portfolio of craft breweries across the Southeast. Along with Faubourg, the portfolio includes Catawba Brewing, Oyster City Brewing, and Palmetto Brewing. According to data from the Brewers Association, the four brands combined to produce 51,000 barrels in 2022.

The plan was to use the 85,000-square-foot Faubourg facility in New Orleans as the main production hub for all of MBTW's brands. There was still work to be done at the facility, but now the company has pulled the plug. As far as MBTW's brands are concerned, moving forward the company will rely on contract brewing arrangements with IndieBrew in Georgia and New Realm in Virginia.

The taproom and event space in New Orleans will stay open for the foreseeable future. Also, a small-batch brewing program at the site will continue. Faubourg will still brew some beers at the site for the local market, but the majority of production will happen elsewhere. The shutdown will impact about 20 people, reports say.

The pre-craft history of Faubourg/Dixie Brewing dates back to 1907. The story is long and complicated. If you're interested, check it out on Wikipedia.

Ipswiching Gears… Again

Ipswich Ale Brewery, one of the oldest craft breweries in Massachusetts, will transfer most of its production to RiverWalk Brewing in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The move is part of an expanded partnership with RiverWalk Brewing. The deal was announced last week.

On social media, a statement from Ipswich Ale said, “As the beer and beverage industry continues to evolve and present challenges, we are poised to pivot with our business and adapt to the ever-changing beer landscape… Our current facility was designed for a capacity that is underutilized, and is the driving force behind our decision for this change.”

The sales manager at Ipswich Ale Brewery, Chuck Freeman, told Brewbound that the brewery plans to maintain a small brewhouse in the town of Ipswich. He added, “The intent is to get away from chasing unrealistic sales and production volume for this size facility and getting back to focusing on the creativity and passion for beer in a business model that is sustainable for all Ipswich employees.”

In 2015 Ipswich hit its highwater mark, producing 26,800 barrels of beer according to data from the Brewers Association. Production has steadily declined since then and in 2022 the brewery produced 8,500 barrels. Freeman told Brewbound that RiverWalk has committed to 4,000 barrels of production for Ipswich.

Ipswich Ale was founded in 1991. The last few years have proven eventful. In 2019 the company entered into a partnership with Newburyport Brewing. That partnership agreement turned over Newburyport's production and operations to Ipswich. Later that same year, both breweries were acquired by Huntwicke Capital Group, a publicly traded portfolio company that owns a diverse range of businesses--a soccer academy, an investment management firm, a real estate company, and a brewery.

Earlier this year, Rob Martin, the founder and longtime president at Ipswich left the company with a $1.8 million retirement package. Now, this latest partnership agreement. Ipswich continues to wiggle forward.

Say What?

Last week on The Taster Tray we talked about non-alcoholic beer. We included a poll to see what y’all think about the stuff. The comments we received were pretty much in line with the poll results. We got a lot of responses, some representing each opinion. As you can see below, the majority of you think craft beer is for real and is not going away anytime soon. But at the same time, a significant portion of you think it’s just a fad.

This week's Taster Tray was composed by Kendall Jones.