Penrose Brewing Sees Drastic Drop In Sales

GENEVA, IL — Sales at Geneva's popular Penrose Brewery have dropped dramatically and owners were forced to lay off most of its staff in recent weeks amid the state-mandated shutdown of bars and restaurants. The brewery, like many others throughout the suburbs, does not sell food on site and depends on its taproom and sales from other bars and restaurants in the Fox Valley to keep it afloat.

"It's a hard thing to overcome for a brewery," brewery co-founder Tom Korder said regarding the required closure of drink-in service. "Sales and production generally begin ramping up in the spring for summer so we're missing a lot of those sales. Many of our best accounts are bars and restaurants here in the Fox Valley area and without those, our sales numbers are drastically down."

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In regards to layoffs, Korder says he hopes to "bring them back once operations resume as normal," Korder said.

Penrose, at 509 Stevens Street in Geneva, is offering pre-order services of cans and kegs, no growlers, at the brewery. Those interested can pre-order their beer online or order it when they arrive at the downtown Geneva location. Current hours of operation are 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday and 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

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All beers that are currently packaged are available to order. And the brewery plans to have some special releases of new beers coming soon, Korder told Patch in an e-mail response. But as its taproom and restaurants that serve up Penrose beer remain closed, much of kegs of beer, which have a shelf life, will go bad, further weakening profit for the local business, Korder said.

"We hope to be able to keep brewing and packaging beer throughout these unprecedented times, but with no draft through our taproom or bars and restaurants, a lot of the beer in our tanks will end up going down the drain," Korder said.

Regardless, Korder believes breweries and restaurants will continue to evolve in the coming weeks. He foresees area breweries coming up with creative ways to order and receive beer.

"...I foresee that continuing over the next month or so," he said.

Penrose Brewing

Address: 509 Stevens Street, Geneva

Phone number: 630-232-2115

Website: http://penrosebrewing.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PenroseBrewing/