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It’s a tale of two cities, Roadhouse is on the rise, just as its Wyoming neighbor, Melvin Brewing, once was.
Melvin Brewing’s story is unfortunately a sad one.
In 2015 when it was named the “Small Brewpub of the Year” at the Great American Beer Festival its growth possibilities seemed bright. Melvin’s trademark bus was all over Denver during festival week that year, (sometimes with marching bend, other times not).
In 2017 Melvin Brewing, which was born in the back of a Thai restaurant in 2009, won the prestigious Brewing Group of the Year at the GABF and went on to open outlets in San Diego, Denver and Bellingham, Washington and Eureka, Missouri.
At its peak the company was operating a full-scale 45 barrel brewing facility and pub in Alpine, WY. It had national distribution and international reach.
Then in April 2018, the shit hit the fan…
Melvin Brewing came under fire due to allegations of sexual misconduct after the company’s co-founder and head brewer was accused of inappropriately touching a waitress in a nearby brewpub by the since-shuttered Bellingham, WA location resulting in further accusations that the company had cultivated a “bro-culture” amongst its staff due to its “bad boy branding.”
According to Sandiegoville, even though“no charges were filed, these allegations resulted in backlash, with some establishments boycotting Melvin products.
The company went on to institute new sexual-harassment policy that included mandatory sexual-harassment training for all of its employees. But in the face of a growing “me too” movement in the craft beer community, Melvin Brewing was never able to complete escape the taint of those incidents.
In 2022, the bills from Melvin Brewing’s non-stop growth and expansion became due and the brewery announced that it was “exploring strategic alternatives to the company.
Then on November 11 Jackson, Wyoming-based Roadhouse Brewing announced a purchase agreement to acquire Melvin Brewing and its operations and just before Christmas the merger was completed.
Roadhouse will continue Melvin Brewing as a separate brand and there certainly is some regional symmetry.
As Buckrail has reported “the combination of both breweries, located 35 miles apart, will produce 50,000 barrels in 2023 and have the ability to grow to 80,000 barrels in the coming years with new investments that Roadhouse plans to make. Among those are a state-of-the-art rotary canning line and the expansion of the Melvin Tap Room in Alpine, WY.”
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