Calicraft Brewing Acquires Heretic Brewing & Distilling
August 6, 2024 – Calicraft Brewing has made its first acquisition, as it announced today that it has purchased Heretic Brewing & Distilling. The deal closed yesterday, and was publicly revealed today in a post on the companies’ Instagram accounts.
Heretic Brewing, based out of Fairfield, California, was founded in 2011 by Jamil and Liz Zainasheff. It was originally based out of Pittsburg, California, before moving to a newer facility in Fairfield in 2013. In 2021, the Zainasheffs sold the brewery to Craft Beverage Cooperative, which is owned by private equity company Montage Partners. That company also owns Moab Brewery in Utah.
Initially, Jamil Zainasheff was kept on as a consultant, but in 2022 he announced on Twitter “The new owners of@HereticBrew have terminated my employment to “save money.” I no longer have any involvement with what they produce or how the business is run.”
“When the opportunity to acquire Heretic was brought to our attention,” reads the announcement, “we knew we had found a great partnership.” Calicraft was founded a year after Heretic in nearby Walnut Creek, California, and is still run by its founder Blaine Landberg.
The full statement is below
Calicraft is growing! We are pleased to announce that Calicraft has acquired the Heretic Brewery, Distillery and Taproom in Fairfield, CA!
We have been friends with the amazing folks at Heretic for 10+ years, and have been brewing some of our beer in their facility for the past few years. They have been great brewing partners and have always operated with the utmost professionalism and share our values of craft and community.
We have been looking for a way to expand both our brewery capacity and taproom community. When the opportunity to acquire Heretic was brought to our attention – we knew we had found a great partnership. We are excited to continue the Heretic legacy while we take our next steps on the Calicraft journey!
We have purchased all operating assets of Heretic Brewing and Distilling and will continue to provide services and products previously offered by Heretic. We welcome the Heretic Fairfield brewery, distillery, and taproom teams into the Calicraft family!
We sincerely appreciate the support of all of our community which has allowed us to get to this point as a company! Thank you for joining us on this journey and we look forward to serving all of the amazing people of Fairfield (and beyond)!