The hits keep on coming for Minnesota breweries as Fair State Brewing Cooperative announced Friday that their Minneapolis taproom will close Monday, Dec. 8.
The closure comes on the heels of two others in the past two weeks, Schram Haus Brewery in Chaska and Invictus Brewing in Blaine, as breweries nationwide grapple with steadily declining sales and consumption of beer and alcohol.
Minnesota’s first co-op brewery and first with a unionized staff, Fair State Brewing Cooperative fell into a troubled state last year, a decade after it opened in northeast Minneapolis and quickly became one of the Twin Cities’ most reputable beermakers.
A late Friday email to its members said in part, “The Cooperative is no longer operating as a fully functional business.”
The brewery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2024, hindered with debt from the pandemic. After exiting bankruptcy that September, Fair State announced plans to sell its St. Paul production facility, where most of its canning and large-batch brewing was done.
The majority of its assets, both physical and intellectual, were sold to Ranchers Beverage Co. as collateral for prior loans, the letter to members said.
That included the original northeast Minneapolis taproom and small-batch brewery on Central Avenue, which Ranchers continued to fund, according to the letter. Earlier this year, the taproom appeared especially vibrant after getting a boost from a partnership with Farina Rossa, the onetime pop-up pizzeria from former Travail chef JohnMichael Lynch, who set up shop in the taproom.
But revenues continued to fall short, and Fair State’s debt loomed large. While the taproom will close, the Fair State brand could live on. The letter to members said Ranchers will have more information about the brand’s future, “which will continue to be available.”
