Giant beer brand closes 50-year-old brewery, selling facility | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The beer industry has faced economic distress over the last two years, with overall U.S. beer production and imports down 1% in 2024 and craft brewer volume sales declining 4% in 2024 and about 5% in 2025, according to a Brewers Association report.

Domestic beer shipments also declined 5.9% in 2025, for a loss of over 8.68 million barrels of beer, according to the Beer Institute as Beerbound reported.

Shipments in 2025 reached 139 million barrels, a decine from 147.7 million barrels in 2024.

Declining demand and consumption

Key reasons for this downturn include a drop in consumer demand and declining alcohol consumption rates from younger generations, the Brewers Association reported.

Brewers have cited several other reasons for their economic issues including increased product and labor costs driven by inflation and rising lease rates.

Rising material costs detrimental

“Raw material costs have emerged as a significant constraint in the North American craft beer market, with substantial increases in the prices of essential ingredients, such as malted barley and hops, alongside packaging materials like aluminum cans,” according to a 2026 North American Craft Beer Market Report by Mordor Intelligence.

“The impact of these cost increases has been particularly severe on production economics, forcing breweries to revise their pricing strategies and operational models,” the report said.

The downturn in the beer industry over the last two years has led brewers across the nation to close their breweries to the disappointment of consumers who love their brew.

Anheuser-Busch closes its 50-year-old Fairfield, Calif., brewery on Feb. 22.

Brewer sells plants

Anheuser-Busch, which in December 2025 announced the closing of three of its breweries across the nation, will close its Fairfield, Calif., brewery on Feb. 22, after selling its Newark, N.J., plant in December and closing its Merrimack, N.H., facility by the end of January.

The brewer plans to sell its 170-acre Fairfield property, as commercial real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield has been hired to market the site for sale, according to San Francisco Business Times, as reported by SFGate.

“We will be shifting production from these three facilities to our other U.S. facilities and these changes will enable use to invest even more in our remaining operations and in our portfolio of growing, industry-leading brands,” Anheuser-Busch said in an email to the Fairfield Daily Republic in December.

Brewery worker layoffs

The Fairfield brewery in the San Francisco Bay Area will lay off 238 employees when it closes, according to the company’s Dec. 12 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice.

“We will support the approximately 475 full-time employees currently working at these three facilities by offering them a full-time role elsewhere in our U.S. operations,” Anheuser-Busch said in December.

More closings:

The city of Fairfield estimated it would lose $1.2 million a year in water revenue and up to $559,000 in property taxes, depending on what happens with the unsecured assets on the property, the December report said.

The closure is expected to cost the city $10.7 million annually, as well as about $8.9 million in annual state taxes and $3.3 million in annual federal taxes, according to the report.

Anheuser-Busch closed another San Francisco Bay Area facility in 2022 when it shut down its Oakland distribution center and 142 employees were laid off, SFGate said.

Anheuser-Busch brewery closings

Newark, N.J.
Merrimack, N.H.
Fairfield, Calif.