When you open a brewery, you’re rolling the dice, although failure rates may not be as high as the recent spate of closures suggests.
“Fifty-one-point-five percent of the brewpubs and 76% of the microbreweries that have opened in the modern era (since 1980) are still open (so failure rates of 48.5% and 24% respectively),” Craft Brewing Business reported.
So, brewpubs fail at a much higher rates than traditional restaurants, while microbreweries succeed at a slightly higher rate, according to Datassential Sales Intelligence.
“The rate of restaurant failures at five years of operation has steadily fallen since 2018, when the U.S. restaurant failure rate was 31.1%. The restaurant failure rate hovered above 30% until 2022, when it dropped to 24.9%, and the rate has steadily declined since,” the data showed.
Those numbers, however, show just how challenging operating a brewery can be. Nearly half fail, and every closure takes an emotional toll on both owners and customers.
Now, a Massachusetts institution, Great Marsh Brewing has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed its doors, and plans to liquidate its assets.
Great March Brewing files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Great Marsh Brewing has met a sudden end. The brewery closed its doors earlier this month and after a June 10 bankruptcy filing, according to documents on PacerMonitor, it plans to auction off all its assets.
The company has been operating from its waterfront brewery, restaurant, and taproom since 2019.
“Great Marsh Brewing Co. is going out of business, putting both its 12,000-square-foot, 225-seat building and all of its furnishings and equipment up for auction. A sale is scheduled for June 10 from the firm Aaron Posnik & Co,” NBC Boston reported.
More breweries closing:
- Beloved beer brand discontinues brewing operations
- 18-year-old brewery shuts down as closures mount
- Gold medal-winning beer brand closes its brewery, no bankruptcy
The auction requires a $150,000 deposit, which must be increased to 10% of the sale price withing five business days after bids close, according to the Aaron Posnik & Co. website.
“John Collins founded the brewery after brewing beer at home for years, according to a history described by MassDevelopment, the state agency that provided a $5 million tax-exempt bond to build the brewery. He bought the site, formerly the Asian restaurant Fortune Palace, in 2017 for $845,000 and opened the building two years later,” Boston Business Journal reported.
Collins, Great Marsh’s founder, could not be reached for comment.
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Great Marsh Brewing joins a growing list
Great Marsh is the latest Massachusetts craft brewery to close, along with Cambridge Brewing Co. in Cambridge, Flying Dreams Brewing in Marlborough, BearMoose Brewing Co. in Everett, Barrel House Z in Weymouth and others, according to Boston Business Journal.
The industry has been hit by rising costs, a challenging economy, and one factor that creates a problem for all breweries — falling demand.
“Measured in July in the BA’s midyear survey, craft volume was estimated to be down 5%, a somewhat steeper decline than the full-year trend of 2024 (-4%). While full 2025 production numbers will not be finalized until the Beer Industry Production Survey in Q1 2026, scan data for Q3 2025 suggests a continued weakening in the back half of 2025,” the Brewers Association (BA) shared in its 2025 Year in Beer.
That drop in production came as more breweries closed than opened.
“Barring a drastic change in the last few weeks of the year, 2025 will be the second consecutive year in which brewery closings outpace brewery openings. Throughout the year, the BA has tracked 268 new brewery openings and 434 closings,” the BA reported.
The trade association, however, pointed out that the numbers aren’t as bad as they seem.
“While striking in headlines, closings still represent a relatively low percentage (4.4%) of total operating breweries, especially when compared against leisure and hospitality businesses broadly,” according to the BA.
The industry has faced considerable headwinds, according to BA Staff Economist Matt Gacioch.
“Changing consumer behaviors, retailer rationalization, cost increases due to inflation and tariffs, and more competition than ever have been compounding difficulties in 2025. And still, brewers are stepping up to meet today’s challenges head on by adjusting their offerings and, sometimes, their entire business models,” he said.
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