FILE: Trumer Pils is one of the most critically acclaimed lagers made in America.
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Trumer Pils is one of the greatest beer success stories in the Bay Area. It’s the rare example of a finely balanced craft lager, and it’s been made in Berkeley for the past 22 years, giving locals unprecedented access to fresh pilsner.
But a new twist has been added to Trumer’s success story. The brewery’s Texas-headquartered owner Gambrinus Company announced last week that it sold the brand to Firestone Walker and will shutter the Berkeley brewery. The Paso Robles company plans to move production to its Central Coast facility.
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Trumer’s sale comes during a rough time for the entire beer industry, including in the Bay Area. Anheuser Busch closed its Fairfield brewery this winter. San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery shut down last year, and Anchor Steam closed in 2024 with no word when it will reopen. And a wave of smaller breweries have also shuttered.
FILE: Trumer’s Berkeley taproom is covered in awards for its namesake lager beer.
Lester Black/SFGATE
Trumer’s new owners are adamant that quality won’t diminish. Firestone Walker CEO Nick Firestone told SFGATE Monday that he spent years as a Trumer Pils drinker while going to school in Berkeley and would fight hard to maintain quality and freshness.
“Fundamentally, I’m a Trumer drinker,” Firestone said. “If this brewery had sold to somebody else, I would be the guy in the comments saying, ‘You better not change the recipe, you better keep it the same!’”
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FILE: Trumer Berkeley’s production facility will no longer produce the critically acclaimed lager.
Lester Black/SFGATE
Firestone said the company is already working closely with Trumer brewmaster Lars Larson to adapt the recipe to its facility and plans to start production batches this summer. He said customers won’t notice a disruption in supply — and promised they wouldn’t notice a change in flavor. John Brozovich, president and CEO of Gambrinus, said brewing operations are already winding down at Trumer, but they don’t have a closing date for the taproom.
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“We are in the process of planning next steps for the taproom and do not currently have a confirmed closing date. Our immediate priority is ensuring a smooth transition for our team,” Brozovich said in an email to SFGATE.
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Trumer has always been a unique creation in the craft beer world. The original brewery started over 400 years ago in Austria and was just an obscure local brewery for its first four centuries. But the crisp and balanced Trumer Pils caught the eye of Australian brewer Phil Sexton and Texas businessman Carlos Alvarez, who was looking for a new European beer to import to the United States. Sexton and Alvarez decided that instead of shipping the Austrian beer, they should just brew it entirely stateside, so they struck an agreement with the Austrians and opened the Berkeley brewery in 2003.
FILE: Trumer Berkeley brewmaster Lars Larson pictured in 2025. He moved to Berkeley to launch the classic pilsner in California.
Lester Black/SFGATE
Berkeley’s Trumer Pils has gone on to win dozens of awards — claiming the self-described title of most-awarded pilsner in the world — and its glowing green bottles have become a fixture at Bay Area bars and grocery stores.
Buyouts have killed or damaged some of craft beer’s most beloved beers, but as far as brewery closures go, Trumer’s buyout has a decidedly more optimistic tone to it. Craft beer blog Beer Crunchers said Trumer Pils was landing in “good hands” with the sale to Firestone Walker, which was founded in 1996 by brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker.
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The Paso Robles company merged with Belgian beer company Duvel in 2015. Nick Firestone said that Duvel is still owned by a single family. For craft beer die-hards, keeping Trumer in a family-owned company, and not part of a stock market-traded conglomerate, is important. Firestone said the family ownership was also a consideration for Gambrinus, which he said approached Firestone directly for the acquisition.
“We see eye to eye on a lot of things, but most importantly, we see eye to eye on Trumer Pils,” Firestone said.
Firestone is also already an established name in the lager game. Beyond its blockbuster 805 Blonde Ale and critically acclaimed barrel-aged stout Parabola, Firestone has gained attention for its hoppy lager Pivo Pils, including winning three gold medals for pilsner in a row at the Great American Beer Festival between 2013 and 2015.
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Trumer Pils has roots that stretch back 400 years to Austria.
Kathleen Nyberg
Walker said that he wasn’t sure if any of Trumer’s seasonal beers or its new lager Doppelganger will still be produced, and he didn’t know if they would start selling Trumer to more states now that it has a bigger distribution footprint. He said their primary focus is on maintaining the beer’s freshness and quality for its current drinkers.
“We’ve seen other breweries close and the brand dies, and I just absolutely love this beer. I would never want to see that happen,” Firestone said. “We’re going to do everything in our power to keep the history and the legacy.”