Owl’s Orchard Brewery, Arizona’s smallest commercial brewery, has closed in Queen Creek. Owner and brewer Marty Gerhart announced the closure on Facebook:
Hello everyone, sorry to say I don’t have a picture of our beer and growler to share but rather I’m announcing our Closing of Owls Orchard Brewery. After 4 years of meeting wonderful people who visited from near and far who took a leap of faith to purchase a growler of our beer I can’t thank you enough. Cheers to life’s adventures!
No explanation why Gerhart decided to close the brewery. I reached out to Marty yesterday but haven’t heard back.
Gerhart secured all the licenses and paperwork – county, state, and federal –  to open Owls Orchard in the garage on his county-island home, surrounded by an orchard of 47 tangelo trees, in 2012.
A 10-gallon brewing system allowed him to have a rotating selection of two or three beers available for growler fills. He relied solely on social media and word of mouth for marketing.
Learn more about Gerhart and Owls Orchard in my 2014 feature here.
