The craft beer industry downturn, which continued from 2025 and into this year, has led beer brands, such as Ballast Point Brewing Company, to permanently close breweries and taprooms.

Ballast Point Brewing Company closed its San Francisco brewpub in the Mission Bay neighborhood on June 29, a year after closing a tasting room in San Diego’s Miramar neighborhood, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The company did not say how many employee jobs were affected by the closing.

“We are grateful to everyone who visited, shared a beer, celebrated milestones, and made this location part of the local craft beer community over the years. Thank you for your support and for the memories we’ve made together,” according to a Ballast Point Instagram post.

Ballast Point Brewing Company operates three tasting rooms after closing its San Francisco operations.

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Ballast Point operates 3 tasting rooms

The brewery invited customers to visit its tasting rooms in Little Italy in San Diego, Anaheim, and Long Beach, Calif., which continue to operate. The brewer’s beers can also be found at local bars, restaurants, and grocery stores, the post said.

“To everyone who supported our San Francisco Tasting Room over the years, thank you. Your enthusiasm and loyalty have meant the world to us, and we look forward to raising a glass with you again soon,” the Instagram message concluded.

The brewer, which sold its Miramar production facility to non-alcoholic beer brand Athletic Brewing in 2024, closed another brewery in San Diego and shuttered a tasting room in Temecula, Calif., in 2019.

Constellation bought brewer for $1 billion

Ballast Point’s facilities closings come years after giant beer, wine, and spirits producer Constellation Brands bought the beer brand in 2015 for $1 billion, according to Brewbound.

The brewing company’s value had fallen to $223 million by January 2018, and Constellation subsequently sold the beer brand to Illinois-based Kings & Convicts Brewing Company in 2019 for just $17 million, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported at the time.

Constellation was eager to unload Ballast Point, as its sales and trademark value were plummeting at the time.

“I think they decided it was time to get what they could and focus on their core brands,” Bart Watson, the Brewers Association’s chief economist, said of Constellation.

Award-winning IPA beer

Ballast Point Brewing Company, founded in 1996 in San Diego, is best known for its award-winning Sculpin IPA beer that has won gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival, California State Fair, and the European Beer Star Awards in recent years, as well as “Champion Small Brewery” award at the World Beer Cup in 2010, according to its website.

Craft beer industry volume sales declined by 4% in 2025 while retail dollar sales decreased by 2.8% to $28 billion, which accounts for 24.8% of the $113 billion U.S. beer market, the Brewers Association said.

The number of operating craft breweries also declined by 2.9% to 9,578 in 2025, the association said.

Other breweries close operations

Among the craft breweries to permanently close down their business was Zipline Brewing Company, once the largest craft brewery in Nebraska, which closed its brewery, taproom, and beer hall, suffering from the effects of industry headwinds following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Lincoln, Neb., brewery and taproom, located at 2100 Magnum Circle in Lincoln, shut down its operations on June 11, giving no advance notice to its employees, according to Nebraska Public Media.

Also, award-winning beer brand Wheelie Pop Brewing closed its production facility and taproom in Seattle’s Ballard Brewery District on June 14, according to a company Instagram post. The company did not give a reason for closing.

Wheelie Pop Brewing‘s Mill Creek/North Bothell taproom, about 12 miles north of Seattle, is still operating.

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