Rumor Mill: Biscayne Bay Brewing Sues Heineken / Ballast Point Chicago Brewpub Closes

American Craft Beer|October 16th, 2020|

(Ballast Point Rooftop Patio in Chicago)

Covid-19 Leads to the Indefinite Closure or Ballast Point’s Chicago Brewpub

The hits just keep coming for Ballast Point Brewing, once a craft beer major, which was purchased by Constellation Brands for $1 Billion at the height of the craft beer boom, only to see their investment dwindle over the years.

In 2019 Kings & Convicts Brewing, a privately-held company backed by a small group of investors purchased the brewery and its properties for an undisclosed sum, that was probably far less than the initial transaction. As part of the deal, Kings & Convicts acquired Ballast Point’s four brewpub locations in California, as well as its newest brewpub located in Chicago’s Fulton Market District.

But on Oct 14 the company took to twitter to announce that due to COVID-19, which has seriously impacted business in downtown Chicago, they would be shuttering that venue 0n Oct 24^th.

At that time, Ballast Point will be halting all on-site retail, brewery production, and taproom operations, a decision that will impact all of our Chicago employees. The brewery has stated that it hopes to reopen the venue in 2021.

Words To Drink By

“Don’t follow when you can lead.” – James Watt Co-founder BrewDog

Biscayne Bay Brewing Sues Heineken

On Oct 12, Biscayne Bay Brewing filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Cervecería La Tropical, a soon-to-open Miami brewery funded by Heineken, used “aggressive bully tactics” to get them to change the name of Biscayne’s Tropical Bay IPA beer.

According to the Miami Herald “the suit claims, La Tropical used Heineken’s weight as one of the largest brewers in the world and a sponsor of Major League Soccer club Inter Miami to get the team to cancel its deal making Biscayne Bay the team’s “official craft beer.”

Biscayne Bay is asking the court to rule on its trademark for Tropical Bay IPA, and to cancel all of La Tropic AL’s trademarks ahead of that brewery’s planned fall opening in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, home to J Wakefield and Wynwood Brewing as well as Dogfish Head Miami which will be opening later this year.