Carol Stoudt to retire and close her brewery
USA | So sad. A legacy brewer bows out. Carol Stoudt, a 1980s pioneer in the craft brewing industry in Pennsylvania, will close her brewery in early spring, the firm from Adamstown said on 2 February 2020.
“This was a difficult decision to make,” founder Carol Stoudt said, “but we’re not moving enough volume to justify the expense of keeping the brewery open.”
“However, we’re not closing the doors to any business opportunities that could help the Stoudts brand live on.”
I first saw Ms Stoudt at a craft brewers conference in Portland, Oregon in the late 1990s. She was the keynote speaker, and you could only admire her for the courage and dedication she had shown when setting up her brewery. At the event she also took the audience by surprise when, during the mid-morning session, she opened a bottle of beer and commented that if Jim Koch of Boston Beer can drink beer early in the day, so can she.
Against the odds
She related then, how in 1987, with her husband Ed’s support, she added a 30- barrel brewhouse to an already sprawling business, which included an antiques mall, a restaurant, as well as a bier garden. An on-premise bakery and cheesemaking facility would follow. Adamstown, in rural Pennsylvania, is about a 90-minute drive away from Philadelphia.
Their first obstacle was Pennsylvania’ liquor-control laws, which prohibit the same firm from both manufacturing and selling alcohol. To comply with the law, the Stoudts had to split the businesses. Ms Stoudt became president of the brewing company, while her husband continued to run the restaurant, which he had founded in the 1970s. They carved out and subdivided the property where they built the brewery, although it shares a wall with the restaurant.
Under Ms Stoudt’s leadership, the brewery became synonymous with quality, and collected plenty of prizes for her German-style beers, which are brewed in the Reinheitsgebot tradition.
No successor
Lots of things have changed since. Not only are the Stoudts getting on in age – Mr Stoudt must be approaching 80 and Ms Stoudt cannot be far behind. Also, none of their five children have shown an interest in taking up brewing. Besides,
when Stoudts Brewery opened in the 1980s, it was the only craft brewery in Pennsylvania. By 2018, there were 354 craft breweries.
The increased competition has meant that Stoudts’ volumes have suffered. The brewery has a capacity to produce 15,000 barrels beer a year. The Brewers Association estimated that it only churned out 2,400 barrels (2,800 hl) in 2018.
Although Ms Stoudt is currently preparing the brewery for a sale, the other businesses at the Adamstown location will continue, the release said.
Speaking about her retirement, Ms Stoudt said: “I did my part. Now it is up to the new generation to continue the tradition of innovation that defines craft beer.”
