After 11 years serving gluten-removed IPAs, Mexican lagers and Belgian blonde ales, San Francisco’s Black Hammer Brewing Company has permanently closed.
The popular SoMa neighborhood brewery shuttered on Saturday, ending its tenure in the city with $5 pints and discounted Black Hammer Brewing merchandise. Many customers learned of the upcoming closure through social media, with one calling it the “end of an era.”
“This is sad to hear,” Brian Posivak wrote on Facebook. “We spent part of our honeymoon in San Fran (2017) and this was the first brewery stop for us! We loved everything about it and couldn’t wait to comeback!”
Black Hammer’s closure comes less than two years after founder and co-owner Jim Furman and co-owner Kevin Jackey raised more than $160,000 in a crowdfunding campaign that valued the brewery at $11.2 million, according to the platform StartEngine.
Furman closed the company’s second outpost, Willkommen, 14 months after raising the funds and then closed their main brewery seven months after the Willkommen closure. While Furman was not available for an interview, Black Hammer Brewing spokesperson Oliver Gray told SFGATE that the closure was a result of financial struggles at the company.
“I know the news of the closure may have come as a bit of a surprise given 2024’s fundraising efforts, but a steady downturn in business over the past 18 months created an untenable financial situation,” Gray told SFGATE by email. Furman shared a news release with SFGATE that said all of the company’s equipment would be liquidated.
“If Black Hammer has stood for anything, it’s kindness, inclusivity, and love,” Furman said in the news release. “We hope our beer helped spark connection and peace wherever it was poured.”
Some of Black Hammer’s investors may not have been given bonuses that were promised in the investment campaign, including a craft beer tasting on a 41-foot sailboat.
“What happened to all the perks?” wrote Gurpreet Singh. “If there’s no plan on fulfilling those, can we get our money back?”
Gray said that investors were informed about the “business realities” but did not say whether they were given their promised incentives prior to the closure.
Furman launched Black Hammer Brewing in 2015 after hiring head brewer Bryan Hermannsson, who had gained attention for giving away his homebrewed beer for free out of his SoMa garage. In Black Hammer’s early days, locals and office workers enjoyed $20 pitchers or $6 pints from a selection of English ales, Berliner Weisse sours and more. Two years later, Black Hammer Brewing debuted California’s first commercially released cannabis beer: Toke Back Mountain. The special IPA was prepared with hops and “hemp-derived cannabidiol and distillate of Red Hindu Kush, and indica-dominant cannabis strain,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time. Black Hammer Brewing also accepted numerous awards over the years. In 2023, the Cuddle Puddle, a hazy IPA, took home a gold medal in the U.S. Open Beer Championship.