Full Pint Brewing Co., a brewer-owned brewery and taproom on the border of North Versailles and North Huntingdon, is selling the last of its beer and closing on Friday. It opened for business in the spring of 2010.
“One month shy of 10 years,” noted Barrett Goddard, one of several partners who started the brewery with equipment from the John Harvard Brew House in Wilkins after it closed in 2008. Posting black-and-white photos of that brewhouse on Instagram last week, he wrote, “I would be lying if I was to say that I am not tearing up as I type this caption. I am the guy on the White Lightning label, I have done everything in my power to keep Full Pint alive these past few years but even the ‘God’ of White Lightning ... has his limitations. Thank you to all of you for supporting us these past 9 years.”
It was a journey that included being denied a zoning variance to open, then robust growth that made Full Pint beers widely available, including in bottles and, more recently, cans. The brewery added its own small kitchen in 2013 and in 2015 opened the Full Pint Wild Side Pub in Lawrenceville. But the Lawrenceville pub struggled with noise issues and closed earlier this year as the business in fall 2019 filed for bankruptcy to reorganize. Mr. Goddard said they weren’t able to make that work.
“Our business model is kind of outdated,” he said, describing how its wholesale growth plateaued as more and more breweries crowded the marketplace and focused on retail sales. “Our brewery is too big for the amount of beer we’re selling.”
The business could be bought in its last days for $750,000. He expects that the remaining assets will be auctioned, but he doesn’t rule out that the brand might continue and that he even could continue to be involved.
He has a lot to be proud of. The brewery won two medals at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver: A 2017 bronze for its Night of the Living Stout (in the American-Style Stout category) and a 2012 bronze for White Lightning (in Belgian-Style Witbier). Its dozen flagships started with All In Amber and included Chinookie IPA and Festivus, a brown ale popular during the winter holidays.
Diehard fans are saddened at the prospect of no longer being able to buy those beers.
“This hurts my heart,” noted one of the 250 commenters on Mr. Goddard’s Facebook post this past weekend. The beer was some of Pgh’s best and most consistent,” wrote one. Wrote another, “Can you please keep brewing [N]ight of the [L]iving [S]tout and [R]ye [Re]bellion in small batches in your garage. I'LL BUY IT ALL”
Mr. Goddard came to Full Pint via John Harvard’s along with partners including Sean Hallisey and Sean McIntyre (once also at North Country Brewing Co. in Slippery Rock), who teamed up with Jake Kristopel and Mark Kegg on this new venture. They also initially helped Andrew Maxwell, also from John Harvard’s, to grow the Rivertowne chain and brand now owned by Helltown Brewing in Export. But now, while some of the original partners still own shares, Full Pint has been run by Mr. Kegg and mostly, Mr. Goddard, who’s disappointed to be letting down the staff.
Looking back from the brewery on Monday afternoon, Mr. Goddard joked that he and his colleagues deserved a medal for having run 30,000 cases of bottles in one year on a temperamental, six-head Meheen bottling line.
He said, “I like to think that were were one of the first breweries in Pittsburgh that made a significant impact in terms of volume,” as well as in terms of teaching and inspiring other brewers who interned and worked there. “Hopefully, we contributed to the culture.”
Definitely, says Matt Katase of Brew Gentlemen in Braddock. Before he and his partner, Asa Foster, opened their brewery, Mr. Katase sought internships with breweries locally and nationally. Only Full Pint called back and told him to be there the next morning. Mr. Katase was a week away from turning 21 and had an epic summer of learning all the ropes. He cited the partners’ “graciousness,” which continued as Brew Gentlemen got up and running, and said, “They were our big brother and our foot in the door in the industry.”
The decision to close Full Pint came before the COVID-19 crisis made business that much more difficult. Timing-wise, “definitely we made the right call,” said Mr. Goddard, laughing that one of the beers they are selling at the end is a sour grapefruit session IPA named Anti-Social. Packaged products are going fast, but they’re filling growlers of draft of most of the beers.
The hours for the last days of to-go sales only are 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Full Pint brewery is located at 1963 Lincoln Highway in North Versailles (15137). The adjacent pub is located just over the line in Westmoreland County. The website is http://fullpintbrewing.com.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
First Published: March 31, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
