2020 will see Captain Pabst’s final voyage.
Pabst Brewing Company announced yesterday that the Captain Pabst Pilot House, its Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based brewery, taproom and event space, will permanently close on December 21.
“This has been an extremely difficult year for all hospitality and tourism businesses, the Pilot House included,” the company wrote on the location’s social media pages. “We’ve loved our time in Milwaukee running a taproom, event space and brewery on the grounds of the original complex, building new connections in the city that started it all.”
According to Wisconsin Public Radio, 18 employees (16 part-time and two full-time) were affected by the closure.
The closure marks an end to the modern day iteration of the Pabst brand’s ties to its ancestral hometown of Milwaukee, where it was founded in 1844. The company’s brewing operations have already relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where the company was headquartered for a time before moving its central operations to Los Angeles, California in 2011.
Last month, Pabst closed its deal to acquire Molson Coors’ Irwindale, California-based production brewery, near Los Angeles.
The Captain Pabst Pilot House, a Methodist church built in 1872 that Pabst converted into a restaurant and employee training center around 1900, offered brewery tours, allowed drinkers to sample research and development beers and hosted live music. The 2020 closure isn’t the building’s first since Pabst acquired it — the company shuttered the space in 1996, and it sat dormant until reopening in 2017.
Pabst rechristened its Milwaukee taproom in January 2020 as the Captain Pabst Pilot House to pay homage to company namesake Frederick Pabst, who captained ships on Lake Michigan before marrying into the family that owned Best’s Brewing Company, which by 1889 was renamed Pabst Brewing Company.
With the rebranding of the space, Pabst also announced a line of Captain Pabst craft beers, which launched with flagship Seabird IPA, named for Frederick Pabst’s favorite ship. The line will be discontinued, a Pilot House spokesperson confirmed to Brewbound.
Year-to-date through November 1, dollar sales of Pabst products — which include flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, beyond beer offerings such as Pabst Hard Coffee and PBR Stronger Seltzer, as well as heritage beer brands such as Lone Star, Rainier and National Bohemian — have increased 4.5%, according to market research firm IRI.
On-premise restrictions in place to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to surge across the country, have forced breweries nationwide to reevaluate their taproom and brewpub operations.
Some have shuttered their own-premise establishments for the winter or indefinitely, including Surly Brewing, Flying Dog Brewery, Three Floyds, Revolution Brewing, Trillium Brewing and Sycamore Brewing. Others, such as Founders Brewing and Ninkasi Brewing have laid off hospitality and field sales staff.
Other craft breweries have abandoned their own-premise establishments altogether.
In June, FIFCO USA announced Magic Hat Brewing would vacate its Burlington, Vermont-based brewery and performance arts center, effectively ending the pioneering Green Mountain State brewery’s connection to its home. FIFCO USA now produces Magic Hat offerings at its brewery in Rochester, New York. Burlington, Vermont-based Zero Gravity has taken over Magic Hat’s former space.
Later in the summer, Miami, Florida-based Concrete Beach Brewing, owned by Boston Beer Company, ceased operations at its taproom in the city’s Wynwood District. Sister brand Dogfish Head, which launched a residency in the space in February, will convert the space and move in permanently.