Triple Rock Brewery & Taphouse, which opened at 1920 Shattuck Ave. in 1986, is approaching the end of its 40-year run. The Berkeley brewpub was founded by brothers John and Reid Martin and is known as the oldest U.S. brewpub still owned and operated by its original owners.
The planned closure was reported by SFGATE, which attributed the decision to the Martins' age and a broader decline in alcohol sales. John Martin told the outlet that he and his brother, who opened Triple Rock at ages 25 and 28, are ready to step back from day-to-day operations.
Martin told SFGATE that the brothers want to spend less time managing daily operations and more time pursuing activities they had postponed. Dave Rowe is the brewpub's director of retail operations.
The Dime Beer Deal and a Daily Bell
Every day at Triple Rock, a bell rings at 5:10 p.m. to kick off a 10-minute window in which customers can buy a half-pint of draft beer for a single dime — and Rowe has said customers must pay with an actual dime, since no other coin combination is accepted. The brewpub has held onto that daily ritual even as it built a menu anchored by house brews like Pinnacle Pale Ale and Black Rock Porter. Triple Rock has also created a virtual memory wall inviting patrons to submit stories and photos before the taphouse closes for good.
Triple Rock opened after California changed its rules for brewpubs in the early 1980s. Before 1983, brewers could not sell beer directly to consumers; Assembly Bill 3610, authored by former Berkeley Mayor and Assemblymember Tom Bates, allowed brewers to make and serve beer where food was served, according to Berkeleyside. The Martins' family-owned building at 1920 Shattuck was converted for brewing and opened as Triple Rock in 1986.
A Pioneer's Place in Craft Beer History
Triple Rock opened in March 1986 as the fifth post-Prohibition brewpub in the United States, according to a June 2026 California State Assembly legislative resolution. Its longer significance is local as well as national: the brewpub became an early training ground for Northern California's craft-beer industry, with several former brewers later starting breweries of their own.
Pioneering brewer Teri Fahrendorf served as head brewer at Triple Rock in the late 1980s and later founded the international Pink Boots Society in 2007, according to archival records published by Oregon State University Archives. The Pink Boots Society was created to educate and support women working across the global beer industry. Triple Rock later doubled its footprint for its 30th anniversary, expanding in August 2016 into an adjacent 3,080-square-foot building at 1908 Shattuck Avenue that added a larger kitchen, expanded bar seating, and base-isolation seismic engineering, Berkeleyside reported at the time.
Closing Amid an Industry-Wide Slump
Triple Rock's planned closure comes during a difficult period for American craft brewing. According to the Brewers Association, 300 new U.S. breweries opened and 481 closed in 2025, contributing to a 2.9% net decline in operating craft breweries nationwide.
What the broader trends show
The Brewers Association figures provide national industry context, but they are not a direct like-for-like comparison with one long-running Berkeley brewpub: the national data track brewery openings, closures and the number of operating craft breweries, while Triple Rock's planned departure involves a single business and its owners' decision to step back. Separately, the San Francisco Chronicle reported a cluster of East Bay restaurant, bar and brewery closures at the end of 2025, while emphasizing that owners cited varied challenges rather than one universal cause. The surrounding commercial context is also evolving. A 2026 Berkeley City Council staff report said a proposed Downtown Berkeley business-improvement district would focus on the Shattuck and University Avenue corridors, with cleaning, safety, beautification and economic-vitality programs. The report describes broader corridor efforts; it does not identify a specific redevelopment project or explain Triple Rock's closure.
California's craft-beer scene is part of the broader American industry. Triple Rock has stood as a founding pillar of that scene since before most of today's breweries existed.
Jupiter is another Berkeley brewpub and pizzeria on Shattuck Avenue, a venue Hoodline has previously highlighted as a top Berkeley craft beer and pizza spot, known for its in-house specialty beers and wood-fired pizzas, per a 2020 Medium feature. Cornerstone is another Berkeley craft beer venue in the neighborhood. Whether Jupiter will remain operational under the family umbrella, and what becomes of the 1920 Shattuck building once Triple Rock departs, remain open questions as the brewpub heads toward its likely December closing.
