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Horseheads Brewing, a boutique Southern Tier craft brewery that twice won the title of ‘best brewery in the state’ will be closing its doors this week as its owners relocate to Florida.
Located just outside of Elmira, Horseheads was reportedly a two-time champion at the state’s largest craft brew fest, the annual TAP New York festival at Hunter Mountain in the Catskills where they were awarded the F.X. Matt Cup as the Best New York State Brewery in 2010 and 2015.
Founded by Ed and Brenda Samchisen who opened the brewery in 2007, Horsehead’s garnered a healthy portfolio of awards over the years that also includes the vaunted John Calen Award, a roster of regional wins and a Silver Medal in the 2016 World Beer Championship.
Horseheads Brewing is currently listed for sale as a $625,000 “turnkey” deal that includes the building, “state-of-the-art” brewing equipment, beer recipes. But if a sale isn’t locked down by the end of the week, Samchisen told American Craft Beer that they’d just sell off what they could and make their way to beach living in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Asked if he might get back into brewing biz upon landing in Florida, Samchisen, a master brewer with a graduate degree from the prestigious Siebel Institute in Chicago, said no. “There are already way too many great breweries down there and besides I’ll be spending my time on the golf course.”
Great breweries closing their doors are becoming more common of late for all kinds of reasons…
We recently reported that Richmond, Virginia-based Twisted Ales had shuttered its doors and that Baderbräu in Chicago and Caution Brewing in Denver were ending their run.
