ILLINOIS — “We’re definitely on life support,” Ed Ranquist, owner of Ike & Oak Brewing in Woodridge, said. Ike & Oak had been open for only about a year when the coronavirus pandemic began, and as it continues Ranquist said he’s not sure how long the brewery can keep going.
“It’s now going on a month, and businesses are not going to be able to survive,” he said.
Ranquist isn’t alone in that assertion. As the coronavirus crisis threatens to overshadow the summer bar season and the governor-mandated non-essential business closure enters the middle of its second month, a common refrain is coming from more and more in the craft beer world:
We’re surviving. But maybe not for long.
The same stoic fatalism was echoed by Greg Fischer, owner of Wild Blossom Meadery on Chicago’s south side. Take-out sales and product movement at larger liquor stores like Binny’s is keeping Wild Blossom afloat for now, he said, but without an influx of new revenue the future is uncertain. Missing out on summer events will hit especially hard, he said.
“One of our biggest [sources of] income is events,” Fischer said. “Birthdays, baby showers, all that, and that’s all stopped. We’re way down on that.”
Unfortunately, this gloomy outlook is not just anecdotal. A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Brewer’s Association found that about 46 percent of responding craft breweries said they couldn’t last another three months of the new status quo. About 13 percent said they may have to close within one to four weeks.
So what is to be done?
On paper, small business assistance is available from the federal and state government — most famously in the form of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in March — but several brewers Patch spoke with expressed skepticism that any such aid would reach them. Ranquist at Ike & Oak was particularly contemptuous at what he saw as state and federal government abandonment of small businesses — even as some of the nation’s largest industries get billion-dollar bailouts.
“Being a small independent business owner, I have zero faith that I’ll be able to get any of that government support for the business … the small business owners that need the money in order to keep their doors open are going to be very unlikely to be able to touch any of that government aid through the CARES Act.” Ranquist said.
His skepticism isn’t entirely unfounded. A recent report by the Washington Post found that the release of some federal emergency funds for small businesses is running weeks behind. Even more concerning, national political journal Politico reported last week that the federal Small Business Administration — which helps oversee the release of emergency aid to small businesses – had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of loan requests coming in from around the country.
Still, Ranquist said, even if he were to get a loan, it would only be a finger stuck in a breaking dam. Without a large, sustainable source of new revenue, a state or federal loan might only delay the inevitable. Fischer echoed this sentiment, commenting that with all the expense involved in running the business, paying back a loan may just add to his troubles. Indeed, he said paying back a bank loan is already sucking up a large chunk of his income as it is.
“The biggest thing with me is I have a big bank loan… that just sucks up every dime I got,” Fischer said.
Amid all this worry, there are some breweries in Illinois that are, if not exactly flourishing, at least getting by. Cody Fryer, the assistant brewer at Lil Beaver Brewery in Bloomington, said that while times could be better, they could also be much worse.
“I mean, things are definitely not great, but we’re holding together,” Fryer said. “Our to-go sales are doing pretty well, so we’re happy about that.”
Likewise, Jason Janes, co-owner of Romeoville’s Metal Monkey Brewing, previously told Patch the brewery was getting by with to-go orders, though concern remains.
“We’ve been getting orders in … from a lot of our locals and a lot of our regulars and friends and family, which is helpful,” Janes said, “and we hope that is sustainable.”
Anecdotally, some of what seems to be keeping more fortunate breweries on their feet is a willingness to be Weird.
Metal Monkey, for example, has made use of special sales and eye-catching products to try and bring more customers in. For a time, Metal Monkey customers could order a ‘barrel of monkeys’ containing several cans of beer plus some extra goodies for about $50. Even more audacious, Rabid Brewing in Homewood said they took to delivering beer to customers in a T-Rex helmet.
“We have leaned in to one of the core tenets of our business, which is, we are purveyors of fun,” Rabid Brewing co-owner Raiye Rosado said. “We feel like we’ve made some real inroads by continuing to purvey fun … delivering beer in a T-Rex head and doing a daily Facebook Live Top Five full of silliness.”
Still, arguments that breweries just need to Be More Fun may land sour for those brewers who no doubt have already been trying everything they can to stay afloat. And to be sure, it’s not just the brewery owners themselves that are in trouble. As so many breweries are struggling, so too are the workers who ultimately create those breweries’ value.
Bartenders, servers and other hospitality workers are feeling the squeeze as much or perhaps even more so than their employers. It’s gotten to the point that many online ‘bartender aid’ efforts have been launched on local and national levels; trying to provide either jobs or direct financial aid to the legions of service industry professionals suddenly left without means to support themselves.
Alisha Jones, once a cheese monger with Marz Brewing in Chicago, said that the coronavirus crisis had been a major source of material and emotional concern. Marz had been proactive in helping its employees file for unemployment, she said, but the future is still uncertain.
“[Marz] has been really rad in telling everybody to file for unemployment as soon as they knew that we weren’t going to have a job … they’ve been very transparent with us about what’s going on,” Jones said, but added, “The only people that are working right now are friends at pizza places. That’s pretty much it.”
At the moment, Jones said Marz is working with a reduced staff, which mirrors the situation at several other brewing companies Patch spoke with. Ranquist with Ike & Oak said the brewery was operating with a smaller-than-normal crew, while Rosado at Rabid Brewing said it was pretty much only herself, her husband and a part-time brewer on the job right now. Janes at Metal Monkey previously told Patch he had been trying to get as many hours for employees as possible – the Metal Monkey website even has an online donation page for its bartenders.
Still, as Jones told Patch, the current situation for many hospitality workers is tenuous at best. Some have begun trying to start at-home businesses themselves, while others, Jones said, are still overwhelmed by the sudden loss of their jobs.
“A lot of restaurants might not make it, and seeing that anxiety on the [social media] feeds of my friends who were managers and chefs … I still don’t know if there’s going to be a livelihood for us,” Jones said.
To combat this downward spiral that many breweries and restaurants find themselves in, popular pressure has been building for the state government to lift the stay-at-home order, or for the federal government to ‘re-open’ America. These requests come against the explicit recommendations of many epidemiologists and doctors across the country, who assert that to re-open businesses before the pandemic has abated would only make a bad situation worse. Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert who has become the Trump administration’s Plague Tsar, has even gone on record saying that a May 1 target for a nation-wide re-opening would be “overly optimistic.”
That did not stop Ranquist from voicing his support for the end of the closure; he said even a limited re-opening of Ike & Oak’s taproom would be beneficial to the brewery.
“Even if we could get back to 50 percent occupancy [in the tap room] and keep some distance between guests … it would get some of our employees back and start making money and get off government assistance,” Ranquist said.
Short of ending the closure, though, it seems the only way many of these small breweries to stay afloat will be through the support of their local communities. There’s no shortage of beer. Only of the people who make and serve it.
“Our biggest strength is the support of our local communities. That has been overwhelming and wonderful,” Rosado said. “We feel like as communities are focused on supporting their small businesses, we’re going to be ok.”
To purchase any of the beers from any of the breweries mentioned in this article, please follow the links below. Each brewery differs in hours, and in how orders are processed.
Ike & Oak Brewing Company – 6315 Main St, Woodridge (331) 998-2907
Lil Beaver Brewery – 16 Currency Dr B, Bloomington (309) 808-2590
Marz Community Brewing Company – 3630 S Iron St, Chicago (773) 579-1935
Metal Monkey Brewing – 515 Anderson Dr #900, Romeoville (815) 524-3139
Rabid Brewing – 17759 Bretz Dr, Homewood (708) 960-3193
Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery – 9030 S Hermitage Ave, Chicago (773) 840-4642
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Other Breweries In The Chicago Suburbs:
Hailstorm Brewing Company – 8060 186th St, Tinley Park (630) 631-7173
Pollyanna Brewing Company – 431 Talcott Ave, Lemont (630) 914-5834
Arrowhead Ales Brewing Company – 2101 Calistoga Dr, New Lenox (815) 717-6068
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