USA, WI: 1840 Brewing Company closes after just over a year in business

After just over a year, 1840 Brewing Company in West Bend closed its doors on June 14, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on June 16.

The taproom, which also has a location in Bay View that opened in 2017, cited financial reasons and operational delays that contributed to the closure.

The West Bend location opened in late April of 2024 in the bottom of The District apartments at 401 N. Main St.

1840 Brewing Company crafts "high quality ales, lagers, sours, and stouts with a focus on barrel aging and blending," according to its website.

There were several reasons that led 1840 Brewing Company to close its West Bend location, according to its Facebook post:

1840 Brewing Company opened 11 months later than originally planned and for seven of the months, the business paid rent when the business was not yet open.

The funds used to pay rent had been set aside for the kitchen and coffee shop. Therefore 1840 Brewing Company had to open as a taproom only and was without the two planned revenue streams of selling food from the kitchen or coffee.

Materials were not ordered in time, causing major delays, and several projects had to be done twice.

The business tried to renegotiate its debt, but were "not offered any realistic terms" from their private lender.

"We did our best to carry the whole space with just beer service. But it wasn�t long before we were needing to invest more cash into the business to keep it running," the company wrote on its Facebook page.

According to its Facebook page, 1840 Brewing Company is working on finding a replacement tenant for the space.