USA, CA: Buffalo Bill’s Brewery closes after nearly 40 years of business

Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, a Hayward institution touted as being the first brewpub in America, closed at the end of May after nearly 40 years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on June 2.

Owner Geoff Harries announced the closure on the Buffalo Bill’s Facebook page.

“Sadly, Buffalo Bill’s Brewery is officially closed until the next passing of the mash paddle of this historic and special place,” wrote Harries, who started out as assistant brew master at Bill’s. “Thank you all so much for the support over the years. It has been an incredible and wonderful journey.” He did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Buffalo Bill’s was founded in 1983 by Bill Owens, a freelance news photographer who earned national fame with his book “Suburbia,” a send-up of newly-developed housing tracts in Livermore which has sold 50,000 copies since its publication in 1973. He also documented his coverage of the infamous and deadly Rolling Stones concert in “Altamont 1969,” published in 2019.

Owens opened Buffalo Bill’s at 1082 B Street, downtown, after being laid off from the Livermore Independent newspaper. He raised $92,000 through a limited partnership of 32 investors.

“I was a home brewer all of my life,’’ said Owens, 84, and a 30-year Hayward resident. “I heard California law was changing to allow beer that you brewed yourself to be sold commercially. The law passed in January, in 1983 and I opened in September.”

Owens, who was both brew master and bartender, served the beer directly from the tank, without first drawing it into kegs. It came directly from the source through a 62-foot line.

“I could pour 3,000 glasses without changing the tap.”

Owens claims to have been the first to brew pumpkin ale along with another specialty he called “Alimony Ale, because it was the bitterest beer in America.” He always had an amber, a lager and a porter on tap.

“People came from all over the country and from Europe to see what we were doing,” he said. “Now there are 9,000 microbreweries in the country,” a fact he knows as publisher of “American Brewer” and “Distiller” magazines, along with some 30 how-to books on beer making and distilling.

“Draft Beer in 10 Days” was his top seller. In 1997, he sold Buffalo Bill’s to Harries, for $92,000 — exactly what he paid for it. It was closed during the pandemic and re-opened with limited hours.

In 2017, Buffalo Bill’s was honored by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian for being “the most historic brewpub in America,” Harries noted in his posting. But Buffalo Bill’s was hit hard during the pandemic. It had finally re-opened but under limited hours before closing for good, Owens said.

“I came close to bankruptcy several times, digging out with credit cards, refinancing my home and risking everything,” Harries wrote. “But, I always found a way out and a way back on the path to success and preserving this very special place.”

Owens, meanwhile just finished work on a graphic novel about a pandemic that is set in a bar in Hayward. Called “The Delco Years,” it will be published in July and includes 14 characters Owens met at Buffalo Bill’s.

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