Amid industry struggles, Chicago's Half Acre, Maplewood breweries merging

Two of Chicago’s largest craft breweries are merging to create a new, “yet-to-be-named” beverage company, the businesses announced Tuesday.

Half Acre Beer Company and Maplewood Brewery & Distillery said in a joint statement that the two companies “share similar visions for the future of our industry and city.”

The craft brewing i ndustry has become oversaturated after a proliferation of new breweries in the last decade. That has forced several breweries to shut down across Chicago in recent years, including at least five Chicago breweries who have closed or announced they're closing in just the last six weeks.

Acknowledging having felt some of the effects of the beer industry’s downturn, Half Acre President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin McGillen said the decision to combine companies wasn’t necessarily a sign that they were struggling.

“You read about these collectives or consolidation with craft breweries across the country and we feel that this is different, that this is not out of desperation but this is an opportunity to take advantage of a marketplace that is a bit tumultuous,” said McGillen, who will become the new company’s CEO.

Under the new company, both brands will continue to operate independently — Half Acre at its location in Lincoln Square and Maplewood in Logan Square and its soon-to-be-opened brewpub in Glen Ellyn.

Half Acre and Maplewood, both of which feature popular taprooms, said the two businesses have strong complementary qualities that they said will form a “premier Chicago beverage company.” Half Acre specializes in craft beers, which Maplewood also brews in addition to producing spirits and nonalcoholic drinks.

“It certainly just offers us this whole toolbox that we wouldn’t have otherwise,” Gabriel Magliaro, founder of Half Acre, said. “The beer market is not for the faint of heart these days, so getting a whole new set of resources and access to the tools and toys they have, which they do a bunch of stuff that we don’t do and vice versa, this is fun.”

The companies said the merger has yet to be finalized but is expected to be official “in the coming weeks.”

Half Acre was founded in 2007 by Magliaro. Maplewood opened in 2014 by Adam Cieslak and brothers Paul Megalis and Ari Megalis.