BrewDog Closes Indianapolis Taproom

BrewDog USA has permanently shuttered its Indianapolis-based taproom, a spokesperson confirmed Friday.

“Today, we made the tough decision to permanently close our Indianapolis bar,” the company said in a statement. “We are doing everything we can to ensure a smooth and fair transition for our Indy-based team members, including offering all team members full-time jobs at our other locations, a stipend for relocating, and helping facilitate future career moves.”

The company explained that the closure “was a result of a combination of factors.”

“We exhausted all of our options prior to making the tough decision to permanently close,” a spokesperson said.

News of the closure was broken by beverage-alcohol industry journalist Dave Infante, who publishes the Fingers newsletter.

BrewDog opened the Indianapolis location, the Scottish craft beer maker’s first U.S. taproom outside of its homebase of Ohio, in September 2019.

Last year, the Indianapolis taproom terminated three women and one non-binary person. All four belonged to the LGBTQ community and were told they were being dismissed because the company “wanted a change in culture.” After an internal investigation, BrewDog USA also terminated the manager who approved the firing.

Earlier this month, BrewDog CEO James Watt wrote on LinkedIn that BrewDog is in the process of opening 27 taprooms in 2022, including Atlanta, Waterloo, Brisbane, Paris, Basingstoke, Las Vegas, Berlin, Hull, Cork with Ipswich, Lincoln, Durham and three in India.