Nearly a decade after it first opened its doors in Middletown, FigLeaf Brewing Co. is calling last call. The brewery announced Friday that it will shut down its taproom operations, with the final day of service set for this Sunday, August 9.
FigLeaf has been pouring beer at 3387 Cincinnati-Dayton Road for close to ten years, and the taproom itself is now listed for sale, according to Local 12 News. The station reports that co-founder Andrew Allgeyer was recently seen pouring a beer inside the Middletown taproom as the brewery prepared for its closing weekend. All FigLeaf staff members have reportedly received offers to either continue their employment elsewhere within the company or accept severance packages.
FigLeaf's parent company, March First Brands, plans to relocate FigLeaf's brewing operations and equipment to a facility closer to its existing hubs in Sycamore Township and Milford, the outlet's report notes. That move would centralize brewing hardware nearer to the company's core suburban operations rather than shutting FigLeaf down entirely.
A Decade of Middletown Brewing
FigLeaf Brewing Co. officially opened its Middletown brewery and taproom on October 8, 2016, co-founded by Brian Yavorsky and former Warped Wing head brewer Jeff Fortney, according to WHIO. At the time of its opening, the Middletown property encompassed an 8,400-square-foot brewing building featuring a 1,900-square-foot taproom and a 1,400-square-foot outdoor patio, per the same report.
The brewery built a reputation beyond the taproom's walls early on. FigLeaf's Ponderous Porter won a silver medal at the 2017 U.S. Open Beer Championship, and its BBA Black Solstice took first place at the 2017 King of Ohio competition, according to entity background compiled by MMAMcKinney.com.
March First Brewing acquired FigLeaf in September 2019, folding the brewery's lineup — including its Basmati Cream Ale and Blackberry Fizz — into its portfolio while keeping FigLeaf co-founders Brian Yavorsky and Andy Allgeyer on staff, as Cincinnati CityBeat reported at the time.
Part of a Wider Contraction
The Middletown closure fits a pattern that has played out across March First's holdings over the past year. CityBeat's coverage details how the company temporarily closed its Woodburn Brewing taproom in East Walnut Hills in April 2025 before putting that brewery, taproom, and brand assets up for sale two months later. In July 2025, March First also abruptly closed its downtown Cincinnati footprint on Fountain Square, shutting down both its March First taproom and its adjacent restaurant, Laveau.
Those closures have accompanied a broader strategic pivot toward spirits. March First has been expanding retail bottle shops for its Cincinnati Distilling brand at locations including Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe, Kenwood Towne Center, and Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, the outlet's reporting shows. The company had already deepened its distilling footprint in November 2022 by opening a dedicated Cincinnati Distilling location at the historic Old Millcroft Inn in Milford.
March First Brewing was founded in 2017 in Sycamore Township, choosing its name as a direct homage to March 1, 1803, the date Ohio was officially established as a U.S. state, according to the company's own account on its website.
Cincinnati's Craft Beer Squeeze
FigLeaf's taproom shutdown lands amid a rougher stretch for Greater Cincinnati's craft beer scene overall. Cincinnati's historic Listermann Brewing Company shut down all of its operations in August 2025, a closure reported by WCPO that underscores the pressures facing independent and formerly independent breweries across the region.
For now, FigLeaf's Middletown chapter closes this Sunday, but the brand itself isn't disappearing — its beer and equipment are simply headed closer to March First's remaining hubs. What becomes of the Cincinnati-Dayton Road property once it sells, and whether FigLeaf's beers reappear under a different roof, remains to be seen.
