{"id":238193,"date":"2025-05-12T14:38:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/beervana-lessons-from-speakeasys-closure\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T14:38:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:38:02","slug":"beervana-lessons-from-speakeasys-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193","title":{"rendered":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy’s Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\nUpdate: I finally had a chance to correct that egregious typo in the title. So many apologies.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nYesterday afternoon, San Francisco’s Speakeasy Brewery shuttered their doors. A tweet came out followed by this announcement<\/b><\/a>:<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

\n“Speakeasy
\n Ales & Lagers has been forced to immediately cease brewing,
\npackaging, and tap room operations at their San Francisco brewery for an
\n indefinite period of time. Difficulty securing capital investment and
\noutstanding debt obligations led to this difficult and painful decision.
\n The company\u2019s primary creditor will determine the future of the brewery
\n and brand, and no decision or further information is available at this
\ntime.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“According
\n to Speakeasy founder and CEO, Forest Gray, ‘The brewery has worked with
\n multiple investment banking groups and have had numerous meetings. One
\nfact has become central to the process, and that is the company is
\nfinancially insolvent and requires new capital to move forward. Whether
\nthat will happen is unclear, but I do hope the brewery and brand will
\npersist.'”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIt
\n was an unexpected announcement and I haven’t seen any description of
\nthe particulars, but I think we can infer quite a bit from this<\/b><\/a>:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nIn 2015, the company\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0an
\n ambitious $7.5 million expansion project, financed by Union Bank, that
\nwas slated to increase its production capacity from 15,000 barrels to
\n90,000 barrels. At the time, the company\u2019s products were sold in 14
\nstates and Gray had projected sales of 50,000 barrels.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSpeakeasy
\n was a big brewery. In 2015, it was the 86th largest craft brewer–or
\namong the largest 1%. Small breweries close all the time–and have, even
\n during that growth boom in the past few years. \u00a0Not every business plan
\n is well-conceived, not every brewery capable of making good beer. But
\nSpeakeasy has been around 20 years and understands the business of
\nmaking and selling beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
Some
\n people link this, misleadingly, to 1,200-barrel\u00a0Valiant Brewing, which
\nalso closed last week. But Valiant was founded in 2013, and was a
\ntypical closure. Over the past five years, a brewery closes every week
\nin the US on average. Most were small and meh, so we rightly pay no
\nattention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWithout
\n details, we’re left speculating, but Speakeasy fits a pattern we
\nsaw–well, just about the time it opened in the late 1990s. That was during the first craft beer “shakeout,” which wasn’t a shakeout at all, but a flattening of growth that stranded breweries that had overleveraged themselves based on expected steep growth. Any time a brewery expands, whether that’s from a nano scale to a seven-barrel system, or the leap that Speakeasy took, there’s risk. It’s hard to lose when the market is growing at 15%; breweries can exploit whatever level of market they plan on entering. But carrying millions in debt when sales flatten out can end a brewery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIn the late 1990s, that’s exactly what happened. Breweries made the jump to large facilities capable of producing a quarter million barrels just at the moment they flat-lined at sixty thousand. This led ultimately to high-profile failures or buyouts. Here in Oregon, Full Sail, BridgePort, and Portland Brewing all spent the late 90s and early aughts trying to survive expansions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nSpeakeasy will certainly not be the last casualty of the current tightening. Their timing was unfortunate, but far from unique–many breweries of all sizes are looking uneasily at their sales figures and wondering what the future holds. Craft beer plateaued in the late 1990s and didn’t start growing again until the mid-aughts. When it did, the industry looked a lot different. If this is a second plateau, it may last for years. If so, Speakeasy is just the first of many failures to come. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: I finally had a chance to correct that egregious typo in the title. So many apologies. Yesterday afternoon, San Francisco’s Speakeasy Brewery shuttered their doors. A tweet came out followed by this announcement: “Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has been forced to immediately cease brewing, packaging, and tap room operations at their San Francisco brewery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[16370,5135,5200,87867],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-238193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-beervana","tag-closure","tag-lessons","tag-speakeasys"],"yoast_head":"\nBeervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Update: I finally had a chance to correct that egregious typo in the title. So many apologies. Yesterday afternoon, San Francisco’s Speakeasy Brewery shuttered their doors. A tweet came out followed by this announcement: “Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has been forced to immediately cease brewing, packaging, and tap room operations at their San Francisco brewery […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy’s Closure\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\"},\"wordCount\":613,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Beervana\",\"Closure\",\"Lessons\",\"Speakeasys\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Beer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\",\"name\":\"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":365},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy’s Closure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Update: I finally had a chance to correct that egregious typo in the title. So many apologies. Yesterday afternoon, San Francisco’s Speakeasy Brewery shuttered their doors. A tweet came out followed by this announcement: “Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has been forced to immediately cease brewing, packaging, and tap room operations at their San Francisco brewery […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":365,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy’s Closure","datePublished":"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193"},"wordCount":613,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png","keywords":["Beervana","Closure","Lessons","Speakeasys"],"articleSection":["Beer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193","name":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy's Closure - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png","datePublished":"2025-05-12T14:38:02+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1439325302004.png","width":696,"height":365},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238193#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beervana: Lessons From Speakeasy’s Closure"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/238194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238193"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=238193"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=238193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}