Crowns & Hops Pulls Out of Circle of Crowns Beverage Group, Walks Away From Taproom Buildout

October 6, 2024 – Only months after announcing a partnership with Full Circle Brewing Company to become the largest Black-owned brewery group in the country, Crowns & Hops Brewing has decided to pull out of the arrangement, according to a video announcement on the company’s Instagram account.

“We’ve decided to go our independent path again,” said Beny Ashburn, CEO & co-founder of Crowns & Hops, “We’re going to be stepping away from the Circle of Crowns Beverage Group concept, and we’re really going to refocus our efforts on Crowns & Hops. We believe that that focus is really going to allow us to stay as true to mission as we always wanted to.”

Ashburn and her co-founder Teo Hunter announced the deal with Arthur Moye, Full Circle’s CEO, in April of this year. As part of the deal, each side retained their equity in the respective ventures, and Crowns & Hops would be brewed at Full Circle’s production facility in Fresno, California. The deal also included Moye’s other brands, Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, and Sonoma Cider. The companies had intended to share a sales team and distribution resources as part of the partnership.

Crowns & Hops’ co-founders also announced that plans to build out a 14,000 square foot restaurant and tasting room in Inglewood had been scrapped. According to Ashburn, “the delays in permitting and the growth of our product in distribution resulted in financial challenges that unfortunately made it hard for us to achieve our goal of opening Crowns Inglewood, so we had to walk away.”

The taproom, which was set to be located just half a mile away from the Los Angeles Rams’ So-Fi Stadium in the south Los Angeles city of Inglewood, was announced in 2021. It was originally slated to open in early 2023.

Ashburn also teased a pivot towards a new location, stating, “But in true Beny and Teo form, you know we got a plan, so stay tuned because there will be way more to come with that in 2025.”

The company’s full video can be found on their Instagram page.