Plain and simple, we’ve long exited the rainbows and unicorns era of the beer industry. We’re not wanting to turn all doom and gloom, but one can’t ignore the significance of the workforce downsizing announcements made in recent years from the likes of Stone, Green Flash, even Anheuser-Busch and most recently New Belgium, who last week announced a 4% cut to their workforce.

Now it seems, even some of the industry’s most talented young breweries aren’t impervious to the heightened level of competition and tighter market competition. Niwot, CO’s Powder Keg Brewing, announced this afternoon that they will be closing their doors next weekend effective after Saturday, March 10, 2018.

Over the past four years, head brewer Phillip Joyce had created innovative, unique beer offerings for the small town of Niwot and the rest of Northern Colorado. This past year Powder Keg produced 112 barrels of beer that included a wide range of successful core styles such as Totes McOats and Vietnamese Brunch, but also began expanding horizons with experimenting with a prolific wood barrel-aging program that yielded progressive sours and spirit forward offerings such as Premiere Blanc, Palisade Reunion, Heritage series and Supervoid.

(Read: Powder Keg’s Palisade Reunion Batch 2 Showcase)

“Powder Keg fought long battles with rent costs that outpaced sales growth, on-premise sales that declined with increased market saturation and regrettably low foot traffic,” notes Joyce.

“We’re really sad to go, we love this community, we love our regulars, and we loved the beers that we made,” continued Joyce. “I havent completely processed, it’s sad personally because a lot of my professional brewing experience started here. But I’ve learned a lot.”

The Powder Keg team will host a final goodbye celebration on Saturday, March 10 from noon-10pm, where they’ll dig into their cellars to clear out some of their remaining stash, and will also be selling crowlers of their beer including fan favorites Supervoid, Coffee Supervoid, Coconut Supervoid and Breakfast at Que’s to-go.

Joyce and Schmidt still plan to remain in the beer industry in the near future.

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