News popped into the public yesterday that Two Sergeants Brewing has closed its doors permanently. They had previously announced in mid-September a temporary closure to “restructure”. This marks the second Alberta brewery closure in the past few weeks, following on the heels of Red Bison closing its doors.

That’s the news. The question is: why?

I will start by acknowledging I haven’t had a chance to speak with owner Kevin Moore, so this is more of a broader analysis rather than a specific breakdown of Two Sergeants’ situation.

As normal, there are a few factors. In various locations (like here), Moore has pointed to bureaucratic tie-ups and delays, with a compounding issue of the cold and rainy summer Edmonton had. But I also think there are some longer term issues as well.

First, I agree that weather had a big role to play. Every Alberta brewery I speak to these days laments how lousy the summer was for sales due to the cold and rainy conditions. It is an industry wide issue. However, if you are a brewery working with less room for error, a crappy summer can be very problematic. So, yes, the bad summer hurt Two Sergeants significantly, but other, underlying factors are more important.

Second, Two Sergeants has had cash flow issues for a long time. From the beginning they were under-capitalized – early on they had to rework their business plan to fit fiscal realities. After they opened in 2015 traffic at the Fort Saskatchewan taproom never met expectations. I think this is about being a bit too early into the market. Fort Saskatchewan was always destined to be a late adapter to the craft beer thing – much like many smaller towns across the province.

By saying that I don’t blame Moore in the least. It is his hometown. He wanted to create a local brewery for his community. I totally get it and the gamble was worth it. I just think it came a tad early.

Then there was the move to Edmonton. At first, I thought it was a great strategy. Cut your losses in the Fort and move to where there is more traffic and more acceptance of local breweries. Except for two things.

First, the move really put pressure on the company’s cash position. Months of lost income and extra costs due to the relocation. Already cash-strapped, this was likely a very destabilizing process for the brewery.

Second, their chosen location was problematic – I argue for two reasons. The first is what Moore talks about. He was literally feet outside the Brewery District (where there continues to be no actual brewery), which has special zoning for beer production. This is where things get a bit complicated.

First, Moore has a point. Seventeen feet seems like a fairly insignificant discrepancy, and it is not like his location was in the heart of a residential district. He had a cemetery across the street, for goodness sakes! The rigidity of city officials around relaxing zoning regulations is a bit hard to fathom in this case. The lost time and money were, I believe, fatal for Two Sergeants.

However, a businessperson does need to take responsibility for their decisions. Moore opted to move, not into the more expensive brewery district development itself, but across the fence, outside the development area, where rent was cheaper. Fair enough. Except that it did create the zoning question. I remember when I heard exactly where Two Sergeants was moving, I cringed, because I was immediately worried about zoning, without even having looked at a map.

Second, I think regardless of the zoning issues, the location was problematic. Yes, it was close to a popular retail destination. But there was little signage visible to patrons of the stores in the development. If you went to MEC or Staples or City Market, you had no idea Two Sergeants was a thirty second walk away. The front of the brewery faced on to a quiet side avenue with, as I mentioned, a cemetery across the street. Even if you knew it was there you weren’t allowed to park in the district to get a beer at Two Sergeants without risk of getting a ticket (although some of us did it anyway).

In a way Two Sergeants got all the disadvantages of moving near the brewery district without any of the advantages. And that decision, ultimately, rests with the brewery owners. I say that not to slag, but simply recognize that decisions have consequences.

Another factor, I believe, was branding. While Two Sergeants story was a good one, I think they never fully capitalized on its potential. They never successfully leveraged either their link to the military or their local roots. To the end, I think Two Sergeants was a bit of a mystery to most Edmonton-area beer consumers.

I argue this was an issue of not enough capital and the owners doing too much. Kevin and his partners did everything from mopping the floor to making the beer to making sales calls. In today’s industry, you can’t do everything. You need people focused exclusively on branding and marketing and sales to give your product the push it needs. There were flashes at times – like when they did the beer in honour of the policeman killed in the line of duty. I appreciated the beer Kevin and I collaborated on – a Dampfbier – for one of my Edmonton Beer History Tours. But overall, I think Two Sergeants needed more boost for their brand.

Finally, I think Two Sergeants was also victim to a rapidly growing industry. Within a couple years of their opening, they had almost 100 new competitors. And at the end of the day, Two Sergeants’ beer didn’t stand out enough. Not because it wasn’t good but because it was neither new nor told an interesting enough story for fickle craft beer fans.

It is always a shame when a local brewery closes. Today I find myself feeling like this one is particularly tragic. There was potential in Two Sergeants. It is just really too bad.

RIP Two Sergeants.