Mattawan Loses Local Favorite as Brewery Announces Closure

The hits to small businesses in Michigan just keep coming, and this one hits especially close to home.

The state’s once-booming craft beer industry is not immune to these challenges. Just in the last few weeks, we’ve seen a handful of breweries announce their impending closures, including:

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Stumblebum Brewing in Troy
Drifa Brewing in Marquette
Brewery Faison - Detroit
Four Circles Brewing - Brighton

Sadly, the newest brewery to add to that list is Mattawan's Murray Street Brewing Co.

This was not the news I wanted to wake up to on my Wednesday morning. I was doing my usual "coffee and scroll" when a long post from the brewery appeared in my feed; a lengthy post like that is never a good sign. It reads:

It is with heavy hearts that we announce Murray Street Brewing Co. will no longer be brewing beer...This was not an easy decision. Changes in our personal lives and the challenges of sustainably operating a brewery of our size in the current industry have led us to this point. -- Murray Street Brewingvia Facebook

I’ve definitely had my fair share of fun at Murray Street Brewing, so I’m extremely sad to hear this news. It was one of my favorite stops along the Tagabrew Trail, where you collect souvenir beer tags from breweries across the nation. Think of it as a brewery passport that lets you keep a little memento from the places you’ve visited-- and it was founded by a Gobles woman.

Sadly, there are fewer and fewer breweries to visit and collect these tags from as more begin to close. I’ve also seen posts from fellow Michigan craft beer lovers encouraging people to show some love to Gull Lake Distilling in Galesburg following the brief opening and subsequent closure of its Battle Creek taproom.

I’m not sure what’s happening with that one, but it’s another reminder of just how challenging things have become for Michigan’s craft beverage businesses, and small businesses in general.