Bauhaus Brew Labs to close northeast Minneapolis brewery after 12 years
Bauhaus Brew Labs will shut its Northeast Minneapolis brewery after 12 years, ending a run that now reads like a case study in craft beer pressure.
Bauhaus Brew Labs is closing its Northeast Minneapolis brewery at the end of June, ending a 12-year run that once made the German-inspired taproom one of the most visible names in the Twin Cities beer scene.
The shutdown is not being framed as a snap decision. The brewery said it had been pushing to change its business model, cut costs, grow revenue and find a stable path forward, but the financial strain proved too heavy. In its explanation, Bauhaus pointed to supply-chain cost increases, shifting consumer preferences, the COVID-19 pandemic and a recent surge in federal immigration enforcement activity that it said had hit hospitality businesses in the area. For a brewery built around a large destination taproom, that mix of pressures left less room for error than there was in the boom years.
Matt Schwander launched Bauhaus in July 2014 in the Crown Iron Works building at 1315 NE Tyler St., a former industrial site that has become one of Northeast Minneapolis’ better-known beer addresses. The building itself carries a much older local story, with a past that included wartime airplane-wing component manufacturing before redevelopment turned it into the Crown Center. More than $1.6 million in public grants helped support that transformation. Bauhaus then layered its own identity onto the site, leaning into German-style lagers, a spacious taproom and a neighborhood-event calendar that made the space feel bigger than a brewery alone.
That model has been under pressure across the industry. The Brewers Association says 2024 was the first year since 2005 that U.S. brewery closings outpaced openings, with 430 openings and 529 closures nationwide. The association’s 2025 data showed 300 openings and 481 closures. Over the same stretch, U.S. craft beer volume fell 4% in 2024, a reminder that even a market with thousands of operating breweries can still be losing ground.
Bauhaus also spent years trying to widen its lane. Alongside beer, it added hard seltzers, THC drinks and non-alcoholic beers, including the Nah line Schwander helped push as demand for alcohol alternatives grew. A 2022 KARE 11 segment noted that Schwander stopped drinking alcohol in 2007, a detail that helps explain why Bauhaus moved early on nonalcoholic options.
The brewery said it will stay open through Art-A-Whirl and its annual Liquid Zoo event before closing for good. Its final weekend is set for June 26-28, and Bauhaus says that farewell will center on staff, fans and the neighborhood that helped turn a former factory building into one of Northeast Minneapolis’ most recognizable taprooms.
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