One of Durham’s best known breweries is shutting down after 10 years
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Durty Bull will close its Durham location at the end of September.
- Owner Matt Pennisi cited rising costs and reduced taproom traffic as reasons.
- Durty Bull opened in 2016 and is winding down after a decade in business.
The Triangle craft beer woes continue, as one of Durham’s oldest breweries will close down in September.
Durham brewery Durty Bull announced this week that it would wind down operations after a decade in business.
Durty Bull opened in 2016 near Durham’s Geer Street District, which has grown into one of the city’s busiest nightlife spots.
On Monday, July 13, Durty Bull owner Matt Pennisi announced on social media that he would close his brewery in a couple months, pointing changing consumer habits and rising costs.
“Like many other small businesses, we have struggled to keep up with rising costs,” Pennisi wrote on Durty Bull’s Instagram page. “Everything from rent to ingredients has drastically increased over the last few years. In this economy, people are simply not going out as much and this has led to less traffic in our Durham taproom. When we opened in 2016 we sought out to make wild sour ales and lagers in Durham, and we’ve had a blast doing so over the last 10 years.”
Known for crispy lagers and popular collaborations around Durham, like Queeny’s crushable grapefruit kolsch, Durty Bull kept an early craft beer vibe, with its taproom built alongside its warehouse brewery, with picnic tables filling a parking lot. The brewery hosted popular food trucks and trivia and eventually expanded to a second location in Gastonia.
“We’ve brewed so many batches of great beer, met so many awesome people, and were able to contribute a lot of money to charities,” Durty Bull posted on Instagram. “Unfortunately, we are unable to continue and we will be closing our doors in Durham at the end of September.”
North Carolina has enjoyed a prominent place in America’s craft beer boom, founding some of the country’s top breweries and attracting expansions from the likes of Sierra Nevada and New Belgium. But like the rest of the country, the state and Triangle have seen a shrinking in the industry, with several prominent breweries shutting down recently.
In the Triangle, we’ve seen beer-makers like Barrel Culture, Funguys and Vicious Fishes end operations in recent years.
