Dover’s only brewery looks to be closing after 20 years in business.
Situated discreetly on farmland near the Dover Air Force Base, Fordham and Dominion Brewing is one of the oldest and largest breweries in Delaware — known for its award-winning Belgian tripel, a flagship amber ale, cult-beloved Dominion Root Beer and a Cat 5 Key Lime lager that’s popular in Florida.
Or at least, Fordham was a brewery as of July 25. That’s the day brewpub manager Chris Kellar got word that Fordham and Dominion’s out-of-state owners were shutting the place down.
“Some of us either walked in and then found out that we were getting cut,” Kellar said, “or we got phone calls and found out: ‘Don’t come back to work, the business is closing.'”More than half the staff is already gone including almost all of the brewers, said Kellar, and the beer is no longer brewing. Kellar and other taproom staff are selling the remaining beer until it runs out.
When it’s gone, it’s gone — they think. But they don’t know when that will be.
The brewery’s out-of-state management hasn’t told them any details, barstaff say. Not why the brewery is closing, nor what will happen to the beer recipes and the brewing equipment. Relatively few Delaware craft breweries have closed since the industry began its rise with the founding of Dogfish Head Brewery in 1995.
Bar staff don’t know when the tasting room will finally close, and the last remaining employees will lose their jobs.
Maybe end of August. Maybe October.
Bill Muehlhauser, the managing partner listed on recent corporate documents, moved to Florida a decade back and has not responded to calls and emails from USA TODAY Network. The company also has not made a public announcement on social media. The brewery’s Aug. 4 Instagram post cheerfully announces a beer release party for a blood orange lager.
When the axe fell, Kellar said, it was Bingo Night. A packed house. He had to pretend like nothing was wrong, because he couldn’t tell customers before all staff knew they would lose their jobs.
“It’s just been heartbreaking news for all of us,” Kellar said.
Previous Delaware brewery closures:Two craft beer breweries close within months. Why?
New Brews:There are 9 new breweries being planned for Delaware. This is where they will be
Fordham and Dominion Brewing goes back decades in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia
It appears to be a deflating end for a brewery with decades of history in multiple states.
In Virginia, Old Dominion Brewing was broadly credited with helping kick off that state’s craft beer renaissance after opening in Ashburn in 1989. Former Old Dominion brewers went on to found Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania, and run the tanks at Bell’s Brewery in Michigan.
Fordham Brewing began a few years later, in 1995. That’s the year Muehlhauser and a partner dropped a brewery onto the roof of Annapolis’s Rams Head Tavern. The brewing facility moved to its current space in Dover, Delaware, in 2003.
In 2007, Muehlhauser and partners added Virginia’s Old Dominion Brewing to the portfolio, taking on Anheuser-Busch as minority owners. They then closed the Virginia brewery and taproom, moving Old Dominion’s beer production to Dover as well.
There, the unified Fordham and Dominion brewery grew into a popular tasting room for Delaware locals. Meanwhile, its 20-barrel production brewery sent cherry blossom lager and bracingly piney IPAs to Rams Head locations from Maryland to Key West, Florida.
The news they were closing took Kellar by surprise: Business at the taproom had been growing, he said. Last Friday, they took in thousands at a music festival.
On Aug. 6, a steady stream of customers came in to pay their respects, and to load up with six-packs and cases of to-go beer while it lasts.
So much equipment was already gone that bartender Novalee Roy had to use an office chair as an improvised beer cart — loading cases and kegs onto the seat, then rolling the chair into the bar from the warehouse.
“They even took the handtruck,” she said, wearily. “I’m too small to lift them.”
One customer, leaving with two cases of Dominion Root Beer, had harsh words for the people who would close her beloved Delaware taproom.”I hope God smites them,” she said, hefting a box of bottles. “I really do.”
As for Kellar, he just hopes someone will step in to take over the space and the brewery, and help keep alive the community they’ve built over the years. If he had the number for restaurateur and Bar Rescue TV show host Jon Taffer, he’d call him. Anything to keep alive this place he’s poured his life into for the past half-decade.
“I just want somebody, or some kind of investor, to help figure this out and turn this around and get us all our jobs back,” Kellar said. “It’s just been a whole whirlwind. Everybody got completely blindsided.”
Matthew Korfhage is a Philadelphia-based reporter for USA TODAY Network. Reach him at mkorfhage@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter/X at @matthewkorfhage.com.
