08/30/2024
… must come to an end. I’m sorry to say that the Napanee Beer Retail Store will be closing its doors for the last time on Friday, September 13th, 2024.
I’m so extremely proud of everything we’ve done at Napanee Beer over the last eight years. We’ve created a lineup of beers that people love to drink: BLACKLIST, MAYDAY, DEADLINE, EXTREMIST, and the new kid on the block, GOOD DAMAGE. We’ve sold our award-winning products Ontario-wide in LCBO, Beer Store, Loblaws, Sobey’s and Farm Boy stores — not to mention all of the incredible restaurants, pubs and bars that have served Napanee Beer. We were awarded “New Brewery of the Year” at the Ontario Brewing Awards, which in itself is a pretty prestigious thing.
But the thing I’m proudest of is the relationships we’ve built since 2016. I’ve made so many lifelong friends here at Napanee Beer, and I hope that those persist in a post-brewery world.
It’s funny to call it “Napanee Beer” here — I mean, I know that’s our name, but y’know how your parents only used your full name when you were in trouble? This is kind of the same thing. To me, and my entire family, Napanee Beer has always just been “the brewery.” I know that Ontario has, like, four hundred thousand breweries or something, but "the brewery" is Napanee Beer, for the Saunders family.
As some of you may know, I recently lost my father — one of what feels like an unfair number of losses my family has endured in the last year. I’ve said that we’ve “become experts at grief” in 2023 and 2024, which has been helpful in the weeks since we made the decision to close the brewery.
The brewery has been a part of my family for a very long time — since at least 2011, when I first decided that we would open a brewery, and began putting my heart and soul into making it happen. That means that it has been a part of our family for almost thirteen years, and giving it up has been as difficult as you imagine it would be.
I would have loved to see Napanee Beer producing the beers you love for a long time to come, but unfortunately, it is not to be. Our landlord has forced the decision.
There is a chance you haven’t seen the last of our recipes at least, so keep an eye out in the future for some more news on that front.
There’s beer left to sell in the cooler, so I would take it as a personal favour if you would stop by and stock up a final time; an empty cooler and a few last sales will make things just a little bit simpler for us at the end.
I hope that I’ll get to say goodbye to everyone in person between now and September 13th, but if I don’t see you, thank you for being a patron of Napanee Beer over these past eight years. It has been my absolute pleasure to brew for you.
Cheers,
Geordan
