Pre-Christmas Beer Weekend, December 19-21

The end of the year is bringing a few more closures in Illinois: Generation Brewing in Freeport, off Highway 20, has announced that their last day will be January 31.

This follows on the news that Anheuser-Busch was closing three of its breweries, in Fairfield, CA, Newark, NJ, and Merrimack, NH. No specific reason was mentioned, besides the usual “efficiencies,” and the decline in sales from both large commercial brands and craft labels.

And Spirit Water in Cary quietly closed its doors. Some posters on Facebook noted that they were apparently moving to Long Grove. Spirit Water started out with brewer Tim Kovac in Wauconda, as Small Town Brewery. They practically kicked off the hard soda category in 2012 with Not Your Father’s Root Beer. In 2015, Small Town partnered with Pabst Brewing to take the brand national.

Header image: Guinness Chrismas ads.

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