West Berkeley’s Pyramid Alehouse has closed after 18 years in the city. We received a tip from a well-informed source that all the brewery employees were told today of the closure, and a pre-recorded message on the brewery’s answering machine confirmed the permanent closure.
“The Pyramid Berkeley Alehouse is now closed,” the message said. “Thank you for your support and patronage over the years. We also want like to thank our employees for their dedicated service. Our other locations remain open and available to provide great beers and a wonderful experience. We hope to see you there.” The same message is posted on the brewery’s website.
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Kris Sirchio, CEO of North American Breweries, the parent company of Pyramid, says the company closed its Berkeley location in order to “focus” on its Portland and Seattle locations.
“By investing in Portland and Seattle, we are better positioned to accelerate innovation, increase capacity, and improve packaging capabilities while creating cost efficiencies,” Sirchio said in a prepared statement. “We believe this will help us to better serve our customers and become more competitive in the marketplace.”
Along with Trumer Brauerei, Pyramid Alehouse was one of the anchor beer destinations in West Berkeley. The area has seen a rapidly growing brewery scene of late. In the past two years alone, the neighborhood has seen the opening of The Rare Barrel and Fieldwork Brewing, plus a tap-house pouring Chico-based Sierra Nevada beers. Another brewery, Anvil Brewing, is slated to open nearby next spring.
Pyramid Brewery opened in Berkeley in 1997 in a former warehouse on Gilman Street. The company had been renamed Pyramid the previous year, having been known before that as Hart Brewing. Hart was founded in 1984 on the banks of the Columbia River in Kalama, Washington, with its flagship brand of Pyramid ales. The brewery’s inaugural Pyramid beer, Pale Ale, was one of the first American microbrews.
The Pyramid property, at 901 Gilman St., is currently in escrow and is being sold to a Berkeley-based family, according to our source.
Pyramid Brewing‘s Walnut Creek location remains open.
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