Lawrence, Ind. — Triton Brewing was as loud and laughter-filled as any night on Saturday, but this one was different.
For co-founders David Waldman and Jon Lang, Saturday marked their final evening slinging brews and sharing smiles with their regulars.
”It’s very bittersweet,” Waldman said Saturday night.
In an interview with FOX59 and CBS4, Waldman said Triton was Lawrence’s first brewery. It opened in 2011, years before many of the buildings that now surround it were built.
”We’ve watched Lawrence grow up around us,” Waldman said. “And we’ve watched many of these families grow up around us, so it’s tough.”
Waldman and Lang made the difficult decision to close after watching the craft beer industry change over the last several years.
”You’ve got the craft cocktails coming out now, you got the CBD seltzers coming out now,” Lang said. “It’s taken away from the craft beer market.”
Lang said it’s great to see the options expand, but it’s had an impact on what people drink, and who is drinking.
”Millennials are not consuming beer at the quantities that older generations are,” Waldman said.
The industry is also five times the size it was when the pair started Triton in 2011. Then, they were the 37th brewery in the state. The Indiana Brewers Guild now reports there are more than 200.
These trends aren’t just here in Indiana. Across the country, the craft beer industry has gone stagnant.
”This trend has kind of been going for a couple years now, ” said Julia Whitson, the Executive Director of the Indiana Brewers Guild. “We constantly are going to see a handful of closures each year, but in addition to that, we’re going to see a handful of openings each year.”
Nationally, the Brewer’s Association tracked 335 new breweries but 399 that closed in 2024.
Triton joins other brewers in Indianapolis and across the state to have closed in recent years. Scarlet Lane in Irvington shut it’s doors after a year of business earlier in 2024.
”I don’t know if there is a term that has been coined, but I’m calling it ‘brew-pocalypse,’” Waldman said.
As the kegs started to run dry Saturday night, Waldman and Lang hugged, laughed and talked with so many customers who had become family.
”We’ve done a great job trying to give back to the community, and the community has given back to us,” Lang said.
The co-founders said their consolation prize to closing their doors is feeling like they left their community better than they found it — a community they’re so grateful for.
”Thank you, and be kind to each other,” Waldman said.
