Clovis brewery to close by month’s end amid rising costs

Incinerati Brewing Company will pour its last beer in Clovis by April 26, or sooner if the taps run dry, ending nearly seven years in business at a moment when rising costs are forcing more small breweries to the brink.

Owner Mike Sumaya said he is selling everything inside the brewery and is looking for bulk buyers, a sign that the closure is immediate and final. He also said the taproom never generated enough business for him to quit his day job, underscoring how difficult it has become for independent hospitality businesses to turn steady foot traffic into stable income.

The closure lands hard in Clovis, where Incinerati had become part of the local beer scene and the Clovis Tap Trail. Visit Fresno County has described the brewery as one of Fresno’s first incubator breweries, and its history traces back to a 2017 alternating-proprietorship setup hosted by 411 Broadway Ales & Spirits. That arrangement was billed as the first of its kind in the Central Valley, and the same fundraiser said Sumaya had brewed for Riley’s, Full Circle Brewing and LCB Tehachapi, while also winning the inaugural Central Valley Hop Shootout and a silver medal at the California State Fair.

Sumaya’s path moved from a homebrewing start in Fresno to a Clovis tasting room of his own. A 2020 profile said he was preparing to move the operation to its own brewing location and tasting room in Clovis, a milestone that made the current shutdown more striking: a business that once symbolized growth is now being liquidated.

The broader market helps explain why. The Brewers Association says 2025 is shaping up to be the second straight year in which brewery closings outpace openings. The group tracked 268 new brewery openings and 434 closings in 2025, while craft beer volume was estimated to be down 5% at midyear. Even as the sector still supported more than 443,000 jobs nationwide and contributed $72.5 billion to the economy, inflation, tariffs and changing consumer behavior continued to squeeze operators.

For Fresno County, Incinerati’s exit is more than the loss of a taproom. It removes another independent gathering place from Clovis’s commercial map and raises a larger question for local breweries, bars and restaurants: how many can absorb higher costs, slower spending and thinner margins before the next closure lands on Tollhouse Road, Sunnyside Avenue or somewhere else in the county.