I must admit; this writing comes after reading comments on the internet of yet another brewery closing their doors and leaving customers in the dark. For those who don’t know, Jackass Brewing abruptly closed over the weekend. No notice, just a post on social media that they were “turning off the lights.”
What is frustrating about this is how many people were left in the dark. The actual closing post has the comments turned off. But social media users rushed to the most recent post with comments still on to voice their frustrations. (The comments on Reddit are much less favorable).
What I read is infuriating. As you can see above users commented on how the brewery took their money for private events or gift cards, only to be now left in the dark on the status of those events and where their money went.
You might say “well the brewery will work those things out privately, there is no need to publicly shame them.” And I do hope they do that. But the fact that guests weren’t given any sort of notice and must resort to the comments section of a social media post shows how businesses don’t properly coordinate these decisions. They just click post on social media and move on.
While Jackass Brewing is used as the motivator here, this isn’t a singular issue facing just them. Look at the mess that is Bald Birds… to this day they still haven’t publicly acknowledged closing their latest taproom. Or Tied Hands who quietly shut down multiple taprooms. It seems like in 2026 the method for closing your business is just a weakly made social media post, comments turned off, and moving on like there is no other impact. Customers with unused gift cards? Screw ‘em. Staff that weren’t given proper heads up and are now looking for work? Their problem, not yours.
No one says running a business is easy. The stress on owners is immense. (Made even harder in Jackass’ case after the tragic loss of an owner). But here’s the thing… the data supports that your businesses will fail rather than succeed within their first 5 years. If you’re walking into an industry with a high failure rate, you should probably be ready to face that day when it comes. The data is telling you that you will most likely close… it shouldn’t then come as a surprise.
The craft beer boom of 2017/2018 in PA had a lot of different impacts. While most of them were positive (more locally made beer on the market, more jobs added to communities), we are seeing a fair share of negatives as well. One of the biggest downsides of the rise in craft beer are people who probably should have never entered the world of small business ownership. From cutting costs, employee mistreatment (*cough* Bald Birds/ Tired Hands *cough*) and just closing with no notice the industry is still riddled with poorly run businesses.
So that’s why I have to say that the downsizing of craft beer isn’t all that bad. We are starting to weed out businesses that should have probably never moved out of the garage.
