Pitchfork Ales, based at Hewish, near Weston-super-Mare, closed its doors for the last time yesterday evening, the owners have announced today.
The company rose from the ashes of RCH Brewery, which operated from the same site, and which closed in 2017. Pitchfork brewed a lot of RCH’s most popular beers, such as Old Slug Porter and East Street Cream, and also expanded into craft beers with its 3D Beers.
In a statement, Pitchfork said: “After nearly six years of brewing some of the highest quality cask ales, a combination of factors, such as skyrocketing energy and raw ingredient costs, lower volumes in pubs, and unsustainable, market decimating pricing practices by our competitors, mean we have had to put the company into voluntary liquidation.
“We did some awesome stuff with you, made fantastic beer, and had an amazing time along the way. World firsts, innovative thinking, utterly delicious beers, massive fun parties, and a positive attitude got us through previous tough times, and although we like to think ourselves as ‘beer super heroes’, we’re not immortal.
“A process of liquidating stock will take place between now and 17th March, with casks going to pubs for the final time and all cans and bottles being sold via BeerDriveThru.com.
“To all of you that have ever enjoyed any of our beers, and to our amazing team who have worked so hard, thank you — it’s truly been an honour sharing a pint and working with you. Go well, fellow beer lovers — may your glass be always full of good beer.”
