Chicago Loses Five Breweries in Six Weeks as Market Pressures Mount

Five Chicago-area breweries closed or announced closures in the span of six weeks, a concentrated shakeout that has local brewers openly predicting more casualties ahead. Alarmist Brewing & Taproom, Flapjack Brewery, Casa Humilde, and Whiner Beer Co. are among those shutting down, with Whiner's last day set for March 29. Illuminated Brew Works will follow at the end of June.

The losses landed against a backdrop of dramatic industry growth that ran out of runway. According to Brewers Association data cited in the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois went from 54 breweries in 2011 to nearly 300 by 2024, a number that has mostly plateaued since the pandemic. Brian Buckman, founder and head brewer at Illuminated Brew Works, didn't soften the diagnosis: "There's just been a race to the bottom really since about 2020."

At Whiner Beer Co., the closing hits particularly hard because co-owner Brian Taylor saw it coming and tried to pivot. He said the brewery attempted to break into the non-alcoholic and low-ABV market but it wasn't enough. The taproom at The Plant in the Back of the Yards neighborhood won't sit empty long: SomosMonos, founded by Rocío and Victor Santoyo and René Lemus, is already set to move in.

The timing of the closures also produced a notable countermovement. On March 10, Half Acre Beer Company and Maplewood Brewery & Distillery announced a merger to form a new, yet-to-be-named beverage company. The two describe the deal as combining complementary strengths: Half Acre focuses on craft beer, while Maplewood brews beer and also produces spirits and nonalcoholic drinks. Gabriel Magliaro, founder of Half Acre, framed consolidation as pragmatic survival. "The beer market is not for the faint of heart these days, so getting a whole new set of resources and access to the tools and toys they have, which they do a bunch of stuff that we don't do and vice versa, this is fun," he said. The merger had not been finalized as of the announcement but is expected to close in the coming weeks.

Nobody in the industry is pretending this is the bottom. One source quoted in the Sun-Times put it plainly: "There will certainly be more closings. There will also be more openings. After a certain point, just like any industry, you reach the point of market saturation. There were indications that craft beer was getting to that point prior to the pandemic." The Half Acre and Maplewood merger suggests that for Chicago's remaining breweries, diversifying beyond a single pour may be the clearest path forward.