Press Clips: Carol Stoudt to Retire, Brewery to Cease Operations; Seven Stills’ License Suspended for Tied House Violations

Pennsylvania’s Stoudt’s Brewing Company to Close

Stoudts Brewing Company will cease operations at the end of the winter, as founder Carol Stoudt retires after 33 years, according to a press release.

“This was a difficult decision to make,” founder Carol Stoudt said in the release. “But we’re not moving enough volume to justify the expense of keeping the brewery open. However, we’re not closing the doors to any business opportunities that could help the Stoudts brand live on.”

Stoudt founded the brewery in 1987 and was the first female brewmaster after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, according to the release.

The Stoudts complex in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, also houses a restaurant, event space, bakery, market and antiques store, which will remain open after brewing operations cease. The company said it will begin scaling down production immediately and wrap up at the start of spring, as it prepares to sell the brewery.

Stoudts produced 2,400 barrels of beer in 2018, the most recent year in which production data is available from the Brewers Association.

California ABC Suspends San Francisco-Based Seven Stills’ License

The California Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control has suspended San Francisco-based Seven Stills Brewery and Distillery’s operating license for 90 days for violating the state’s tied house laws, according to a report from SFGate.com.

The suspension will begin in March, which the company opted for in lieu of a fine, which could have topped $600,000, based on $10,000 for each of its 60 infractions.

In anticipation of the financial hit that will come from suspending operations, Seven Stills has closed its taproom in the Mission District and its Egbert production facility.

The company’s new taproom in the city’s Mission Bay district will remain open during the suspension, but its brewing facility is not functional and the company does not have the financing to finish it, according to SFGate.

Timetable of Molson Coors’ Denver Job Cuts Revealed

As Molson Coors prepares to shutter its Denver headquarters as part of a consolidation plan announced in the fall, the Denver Business Journal reported that a small number of employees will move to the company’s North American headquarters in Chicago or support office in Milwaukee.

A January 15 letter from Molson Coors to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s office, obtained by the Business Journal via the Colorado Open Records Act, revealed that the company had planned to lay off all 300 Denver-based employees. Instead, the letter explained that 67 employees have left the company and another 191 will be terminated in waves beginning this month and concluding in July 2021.

Some Denver-based employees will move to Milwaukee and Chicago, but that number was not available.

Molson Coors announced its revitalization plan in October, which calls for reinvesting $150 million annually in its core products, above-premium offerings and new innovations in the beyond beer space. That plan also led to the company shedding about 500 jobs, closing the company’s offices in Denver and making Chicago its North American headquarters. In the months since, the company has also announced plans to shutter its production facility in Irwindale, California.