E-Malt.com News article: USA, MI: Old Hat Brewery in Lawton to close

One of the more unique bars and restaurants in Southwest Michigan will be closing its doors this weekend, Mlive.com reported on December, 13.

The Old Hat Brewery in Lawton, which opened in 1998, will be closing. Its last day will be Sunday. The brewery will be open from noon to 10 p.m.

"I'm sad, but it's out of my control," owner and brewmaster Tom Fuller said. "It's hard. There's not a lot I can say right now."

Fuller said business has been down for the last year-and-a-half and that's "part of it, but not all of it." Fuller said he did not want to discuss other details.

"I'm just numb about it," he said.

Fuller has been at Old Hat since it opened in 1998, replacing Duster's Microbrewery. Old Hat was owned by the then-Kalamazoo Brewing Co., now Bell's Brewery Inc. Fuller said he took over ownership in 2002.


16 December, 2011