River North Loses Lease on Blake St Location – Closing In Oct

Earlier this year, we received some news. We had six months to vacate. Get out and make way for luxury apartments.

Watching this neighborhood grow up the past few years has been truly remarkable. RiNo has become a national destination, both for beer and small business as a whole, and we couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.

But man, did that growth make finding a new space hard.

We soon came to realize that – largely due to rapid redevelopment and skyrocketing real estate prices – we’d have to look outside RiNo if we were going to be able to grow and prosper. At this point, we still had time to also open a new taproom in the neighborhood. So the search for one spot became two.

But then our first option fell through. And the second. And the third, each costing precious weeks.

As the countdown clock ticked, we had to make a choice. We needed to get production locked down, to keep brewing beer for the fans and retailers that have supported us over the years.

Last week, we signed on a new space at 6021 Washington St – Unit A, for you sticklers out there – roughly one and eight tenths of a mile north of RiNo. Twice the size of our first home, it will serve as our production brewery. Once it’s up and running, we can refocus our efforts to return to RiNo with a destination taproom.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t come have a beer with us! 6021 Wash will have a spartan taproom where you can enjoy both our staple beers and specialty barrel-aged brews.

We expect to have the new spot fully open by the end of the year. In the meantime, we will continue to operate the taproom at 2401 Blake until late October, releasing more specialty beers than ever before and brewing our asses off before the move. The next two months will be rife with barrel releases and brewhouse parties, culminating in “Funk the Man,” a series of sour and bretted blends to coincide with our grand farewell to 2401 Blake.

The outreach and support we’ve received throughout this process has been incredible, not only from family and friends, but from the brewing community as a whole. We can’t express enough thanks.

As many of you are well aware, we’ve outgrown our current spot, both in terms of taproom and brewing operations. With its rich history of housing breweries, it will be a sad day when they knock down 2401 Blake. But it’s only the end of one chapter, and the beginning of a new journey.

We hope you’ll share in it with us, as we’ve enjoyed your company the past three and a half years. Those pints won’t be the last we raise together.

Cheers,

Matt, Jess, Patrick and the rest of the crew at RNB.