Saratoga Brewing Company shuts down

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

A truck from Wachusett Brewing Company is seen Tuesday at the shuttered Saratoga Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Brewing Company has shut down.

A company official on site at the Saratoga Springs brewery said Tuesday that he could not discuss the situation until parent company Mendocino Brewing issues a statement, and he was not sure when that would be.

There was no answer at Mendocino’s headquarters in California on Tuesday morning, and the company’s voicemail box was unable to accept messages.

Saratoga Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs on Jan. 16, 2018. (Erica Miller)

Brooklyn-based Braven Brewing Co. described the situation in dire terms in an Instagram post saying Saratoga Brewing gave Braven 72 hours to remove its packaging materials, ingredients and finished beer from the Excelsior Avenue facility, where Braven’s beers were brewed under contract.

Braven said its employees drove up to the brewery to remove tens of thousands of dollars worth of kegs, caps, hops and beer from Saratoga Brewing. Braven indicated that Ipswich Ale Brewery in Massachusetts would be brewing Braven’s beer in the future.

On Tuesday, Wachusett Brewing Company had a tanker truck on site, apparently conducting a similar evacuation.

“It’s always a sad day when we see a business go out,” Saratoga Springs Mayor Meg Kelly said. “The economic impact will be felt. Hopefully we can work to get them either back in the building or get another brewery in there.”

Saratoga Brewing was formed in 1997 and grew to be one of the biggest independent breweries in New York state, and one of the busiest contract brewers.

Mendocino Brewing just last week closed its landmark taproom in Ukiah, California, without explanation, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. The newspaper’s report cast the move as the latest symptom of problems for a company that has been struggling financially for years.

Daily Gazette reporter Ann Friedman contributed to this report.