Bauhaus Brew Labs said Thursday it will cease operations in late June, ending an 11-year run that began in 2014 and helped shape the Twin Cities craft beer scene. The Minneapolis brewery, known for traditional German-style lagers, said its last weekend will run June 26-28, when it plans a big farewell bash.
The company said it had been working furiously to shift its business model, cut costs, raise revenue and find a path to stability, but that the financial headwinds proved too strong. Bauhaus Brew Labs said it had reached a very difficult and heartbreaking decision to close its doors after pulling every lever available to it.
That announcement lands just as the brewery prepares for its annual Liquid Zoo celebration this weekend, timed to Art-a-Whirl, a final public moment for a business that once stood out with a taproom adapted from a former iron works. Founded in 2014, Bauhaus Brew Labs built a following on lager production before expanding into hard seltzers and later Minnesota’s THC seltzer market.
The brewery said the pressures piled up over several years: rising supply chain costs, a decline in craft beer interest, a global pandemic and, most recently, a surge in federal immigration enforcement that it said directly targeted Minneapolis and hit hospitality businesses hard. Those forces left little room for a smaller brewer trying to keep pace with a changing market.
The closure also marks another loss for a Twin Cities craft beer scene that once seemed to be growing in every direction. Bauhaus Brew Labs had become one of the area’s better-known names by leaning into German-style brewing while trying to widen its appeal with ready-to-drink beverages, a shift that reflects how sharply the market has changed since the brewery opened.
For customers, the calendar is now set. Liquid Zoo comes first this weekend, then the final stretch from June 26-28. After that, the brewery that helped define a slice of Minneapolis beer culture will be gone, closing not with a quiet exit but with one last crowded sendoff.
