Anheuser-Busch Closing Wynwood Brewing in Miami
January 25, 2024 – Miami-based Wynwood Brewing, which was the first brewery to open in the trendy Wynwood neighborhood in 2013, will be closing for good on February 4th, according to their owner Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The beer brand will continue to exist, however, and will be brewed at nearby Veza Sur, another AB InBev brand located just three blocks away. The beer will also be served on tap at Veza Sur’s taproom, though it will continue to have its own identity.
Wynwood was founded by Luis Brignoni and his father Luis “Pops” Brignoni Sr, who operated the brewery independently until 2016, when Craft Brew Alliance purchased a 24.5% stake in the business for $30 million. The move was designed to preserve the independent label, as the Brewer’s Association sets 25% as the bar for being owned by an external company. However, in 2018, CBA purchased the remaining stake in the business.
At the time, CBA was publicly traded, with a 32.2% stake owned by AB InBev. In 2019, however, the Belgian-based multinational paid $220 million to wholly acquire CBA, a deal which included Kona Brewing, Square Mile Cider, Redhook Beer, Appalachian Mountain Brewing, and more. Nearly all of those beers (with the exception of Kona and Cisco Brewing) have since been sold to Tilray Brands.
The closure represents a continued divestment of taprooms for Anheuser-Busch, which also recently closed the physical locations of Platform Beer. Also announced this week was the closure of the Golden Road Brewing taproom in Sacramento, a location that was met with widespread criticism when it opened in 2018.