09/18/2023
It is with a heavy heart and the utmost sadness that we must announce the closing of Circle Brewing Company. It is hard for us to believe that we have been at this for almost 15 years, although some of those years certainly went by faster than others. We embarked upon this journey back in 2008, when we started raising money two weeks into the financial crisis. As became a recurring motif for us, this was the first major example of our flawless business timing. With far too much optimism and not nearly enough money, we opened our doors with two draft beers (Blur Texas Hefe and Envy Amber) and barely a dozen draft accounts.
Back in our day (yeah, we said that), it really was a different place to run and operate a brewery. You could literally count the number of breweries in Austin on your fingers and not only did we know every brewer in town, but we used to get together monthly to share a pint or several with them. It was a great time to brew beer and wonderful to drink it with such a fascinating group of people who had come into brewing beer from seemingly every possible walk of life. In our first two years of operation, we were so broke that we couldn't even afford to buy yeast. But the Austin brewing community and the real spirit of camaraderie was such that we just had to drive out to Blanco and fill up a few corny kegs from our friends at Real Ale. In the coming years, we'd come to owe countless other members of the local brewing community thanks for all the advice, friendships, and assistance. But the years went by quickly and after 2.5 years we built the business up to hire our first employee and get an actual company van(although Jud's '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee beats out any company vehicle we've ever had).
It was certainly a different time for craft beer. Not sure if ya'll remember, but it was actually illegal to sell beer directly to the public for the first 4 years we were in business. Having an unairconditioned warehouse wasn't an issue until we had a taproom in there that was open to the public. But when we started in 2010, our model was actually 100% distribution. Opening a bar wasn't really anything we were interested in doing or staffing. But times, they do change. We evolved many times over the years, from branding to our change from bottling to canning. But the biggest change was the move away from distribution to a taproom focus.
We threw everything we had and then a lot more that we didn't into our move to Elgin. From inception to opening in May of this year, it was six years in the planning. In 2019, we bought 23 acres in downtown Elgin. Then Covid came along to ensure the buildout took forever and cost twice as much. Our grand vision was to grow the ingredients to use in the brewing process. Be the first brewery to be able to grow EVERYTHING that goes into our beer right there, on site. A fully sustainable beer grown on our farm, 100% Texan, from seed to glass. And we were on our way to starting to grow test plots of row crops this fall.
Our biggest regret is not having the time to see our vision through and fulfilling the enormous potential we know would have paid off enormously. It was a one-of-a-kind concept, a beautifully constructed facility, and located on a plot of land with limitless potential and a wonderfully supportive community. It was so close to becoming reality. We're sorry we didn't have the time to see it to the end.
It is unfortunate that we are closing and unable to reopen the doors at our original Braker Lane location. However, we will be attempting to stay open for at least another week at our Elgin facility. If you have not made it out yet, now is your chance. We will be having a FIRESALE on all remaining drafts(14 in total), six packs, and merchandise from 11am - 10pm Tuesday through Sunday this week.
As the oldest brewery in North Austin, we hope that during our time we had a positive impact on everyone around us and our community. Above all else, we wanted to thank everyone who supported us over the years. Our fans and regulars. All the wonderful charities, local businesses, brewers, and community groups. We hope that our eclectic events made our community a more fun place to be, we certainly enjoyed having them. Our beers were always our pride and joy and our sole guiding principle was to always make sure that the beer came first. Thank you all for enjoying our dream, one pint at a time.
Cheers,
Ben & Jud
