Covid: The First Wave of Closures

When pubs shut overnight in March 2020, the on-trade — the pubs, bars, and restaurants that most small breweries depend on — simply disappeared. Beer sales dropped by 56% in 2020. By May of that year, 65% of pubs had suspended trading entirely. Breweries with beer in fermenters had nowhere to send it. Beer went down the drain. Revenue stopped. Costs didn't.

Some held on through furlough schemes and emergency loans. Many didn't.

Beatnikz Republic in Manchester tried to ride it out. They couldn't. Founder Paul Greetham was blunt: "We tried our best to make it through Covid, but the negative impact over the last two years has proven too much." A well-regarded small brewery, gone because the pubs it supplied were shut for the better part of two years.

Fallen Brewing in Stirling entered liquidation in April 2022. Before Covid, they'd been in talks with a major global brewing company about a partnership — the kind of deal that could have secured their future. When the pandemic hit, both parties walked away. The brewery never recovered to "a sufficiently profitable level" once restrictions eased. The opportunity was gone, and so was the business.

Bad Seed Brewery in Malton, North Yorkshire, closed in January 2023 after a decade of trading. The founders cited the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and "societal and market changes." Their summary was simple and damning: "The beer world is very different now to when we started in 2013."

Even heritage breweries weren't immune. Thwaites, established in 1807 — over two hundred years old — shut down brewing operations during lockdown, furloughed staff, and destroyed large quantities of beer. Their net debt increased by £6.4 million during 105 days of enforced closure. Two centuries of continuous brewing, interrupted by a virus.