Boston Beer Company is winding down its own-premise operations in Los Angeles.
The company plans to close its Truly LA and Angel City taprooms at the end of their respective leases, according to an internal memo sent today by founder and future-CEO Jim Koch, and confirmed by Brewbound.
Boston Beer will “gradually slow down operations” at Truly LA “over the next few months, switching to Friday and Saturday service only by the end of the year,” according to a statement shared with Brewbound.
In the internal memo, Koch also noted that Truly LA has been in decline, and with its performance, combined with increased operational costs and rent, “we unfortunately don’t see a clear path to growth or profitability for Truly LA in the future,” he wrote.
Angel City will continue to operate through the end of its lease in April 2026. However, it may not be the end for the craft brewery, as Boston Beer plans to “put significant effort behind selling Angel City so the brand can continue to live on outside of Boston Beer.”
“While Angel City Brewery has been doing well, the brand no longer lines up with our long-term growth strategy,” Boston Beer said in the statement. “Our overall strategy at Boston Beer is to focus on growing our core, national brands. We believe there is potential for this brand to succeed outside of Boston Beer as a strong local offering, and we’ll be putting significant efforts behind selling Angel City so the brand can continue to live on.”
The company added: “Our coworkers are our top priority, and we’re making this move gradually to give our people the opportunity to do what’s best for them. The goal is to absorb as many Truly LA coworkers as possible into our Angel City Brewery team for the duration of the lease and avoid a significant impact to coworker shifts.”
Through its former Alchemy & Science subsidiary, Boston Beer acquired Angel City’s brand in early 2012 and opened the brewery in May 2013. In Angel City, Boston Beer found a local craft beer brand business model it replicated in other cities (Concrete Beach in Miami, Coney Island in New York).
Angel City survived longer than its other local siblings. Concrete Beach’s brewery was converted to a Dogfish Head-branded taproom in 2020, then closed in 2022 amid “dramatic rent increases.” The company continued production of Concrete Beach’s flagship Havana Lager for the local market after the brewery was rebranded, but stopped in 2022, according to its Instagram profile.
Coney Island followed a similar model to Angel City in that it was an existing brand Boston Beer acquired, rather than built from scratch like Concrete Beach. The company bought Coney Island’s brand from founder Jeremy Cowan in 2013.
Boston Beer shuttered Coney Island’s taproom in 2023, but has maintained production of several of its offerings for the New York metro market. It remains unclear if Boston Beer plans to seek a local buyer for the brand, as it is doing for Angel City.
Late last year, Boston Beer revealed it had taken a $42.6 million non-cash impairment charge on its craft brands, primarily Dogfish Head ($41.2 million), as well as Coney Island ($1 million) and Angel City ($400,000). With the charges, Coney Island and Angel City’s trademark assets were both written down to zero.
Truly LA was opened in early 2022 as a “fully immersive seltzer taproom” with taproom-exclusive flavors on draft, as well as Truly cocktails available. News of the taproom opening came weeks after Boston Beer pulled its 2021 financial guidance due to “hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to third party brewers and other costs” as hard seltzer demand began to wane.
Once the Los Angeles locations close, Boston Beer’s remaining own-premise footprint will include Samuel Adams’ three locations (Jamaica Plain and Faneuil Hall in Boston, Cincinnati), Angry Orchard Cider House (Walden, New York), and four Dogfish Head locations (Rehoboth Beach, Milton and Lewes, Delaware).
The latest news comes less than a week after Boston Beer announced CEO Michael Spillane would be departing from his leadership role, with Koch taking over the position, effective August 15. Spillane will remain in an advisory role with the company until March 31, 2026.
The news also follows Boston Beer’s Q2 earnings release, which saw depletions (sales to retailers) fall -0.8% and shipments (sales to wholesalers) -5% year-over-year (YoY), as well as the lowering of the company’s full-year guidance.
Truly continues to be one of the largest drags to Boston Beer’s business, continuing to post double-digit declines in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels year-to-date (YTD) through July 12 (dollar sales -16.2%, volume -18.2%), according to data shared by 3 Tier Beverages. Declines have accelerated in the last four weeks, with dollar sales down 17.4% and volume declining 19%.
Note, scan data does not include on-premise or own-premise sales.