24-03-2025
MobCraft Walker's Point taproom to reopen under new owners with some of its flagship beers
MobCraft Beer will reopen with new owners, bringing back the Walker's Point brewery about five months after it closed in November.
The new owners are Sarah Halstead, who worked at MobCraft for four years, and her husband, Michael.
They purchased the brewery for $160,000.
"We thought it would be a neat opportunity," Halstead said.
They plan to bring back flagship beers like BatSh!t Crazy and Out Of Office. The also plan to serve appetizers, sandwiches and pizzas, including MobCraft's Whitewater mac and cheese pizza.
What else might change or stay the same at the taproom at 505 S. Fifth St. is still being decided, Halstead said.
They do plan to bring back some festivals, but Halstead wasn't sure which ones. MobCraft was popular for its Stout Fest, Sour Fest and Weird Fest.
The Halsteads are only reopening the Milwaukee taproom. When MobCraft closed, it also had a location in Woodstock, Illinois.
The couple is waiting for license and health department approvals and is hoping to reopen the brewery in May.
MobCraft Beer announced in October that it would be closing after eight years.
MobCraft CEO Henry Schwartz said in a news release that the brewery "reached a point where we could no longer operate as a stand-alone operation."
MobCraft Beer was founded in Madison in 2013 by Henry Schwartz, Andrew Gierczak and Giotto Troia, who met at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and launched their business in Madison.
In 2016 MobCraft moved its business from Madison to Milwaukee when it opened the Walker's Point taproom.
In 2021, MobCraft announced it would open three additional taprooms: in Waterford; Woodstock, Illinois; and Denver. MobCraft was looking to raise up to $2.25 million in an equity crowdfunding campaign to fund the ventures. Its investment platform, wefunder, shows it closed fundraising in April 2022 after it raised $845,000 from 488 investors.
MobCraft Denver was open from September 2022 until it closed in April 2023.
The Waterford location never opened, which the village sued MobCraft for.
MobCraft opened the Woodstock location in November 2023 and closed it along with the Milwaukee taproom this past November.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee brewery MobCraft Beer to reopen under new owners
