Fullsteam Brewery will close its flagship location on Rigsbee Avenue in Durham this fall and shift the space into a production facility.
Sean Lilly Wilson opened the brewery at 726 Rigsbee Ave. in 2011. The last day of operation at that location will be Halloween, Thursday, Oct. 31. There will be Halloween-themed trivia and a party.
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In a social media post over the weekend, Wilson announced the brewery's eventual relocation, noting that the business' "production and distribution is growing and we need more space, but we're effectively out of room at the brewery."
The post mentioned but did not go into specifics about an "exciting opportunity for a new Durham taproom" that would resolve issues the brewery is currently experiencing at Rigsbee Avenue, including "HVAC, parking, kitchen, private party space and outdoor seating."
"Our current landlord has proposed a rent increase that is untenable for a manufacturing facility," Wilson wrote. "It's increasingly clear that, for us to be sustainable, we need to reach well beyond 726 Rigsbee, and we need to start planning for these transitions now."
On July 31, Fullsteam will close the kitchen at the Rigsbee location. Wilson noted that the business is "extending pay to our tenured kitchen staff well beyond their last day of work."
From November until Fullsteam's lease ends in June 2025, Wilson wrote that the Rigsbee space would be used as a "production-only space as we finalize our plans to grow our production footprint beyond our current footprint."
"We are working with our landlord to see if there's a future for us at 726 Rigsbee in any capacity, but their initial proposal was extraordinarily expensive. At this point, we don't know," Wilson wrote.
Fullsteam also has a taproom at Boxyard RTP in Durham. That location will remain open.