Outerbelt Brewing, the craft brewery and taproom that has poured beer, cider and seltzer in Carroll since 2019, plans to close its doors on Oct. 5, 2026. The Fairfield County business, started by two brothers, sits about 25 miles southeast of Columbus and has built a following with everything from lagers to IPAs.
The closure was confirmed by The Columbus Dispatch, which reported that Outerbelt Brewing plans to shut down its brewery and taproom next month. Owners David and Robert Landis opened the business in June 2019, according to Outerbelt Brewing's own account of its history, and over the years they added a kitchen, games and a turf patio, and even hosted weddings and elopements at the Dolson Court location.
Outerbelt's owners announced the planned closure via Facebook, telling customers they will miss them more than words can say. Thank you for your support, your laughter and your friendship, the owners wrote, according to the same Facebook announcement. The brewery is expected to keep its normal Wednesday-through-Sunday hours until the Oct. 5 closing date.
A Village Brewery on the Edge of Columbus
Outerbelt operates at 3560 Dolson Court in Carroll, a village on U.S. 33 between Canal Winchester and Lancaster. The address was previously documented by Columbus Monthly in a 2019 roundup of taprooms outside the Outerbelt loop, when the brewery was still a newcomer to the central Ohio scene.
News of the closing follows a similar announcement out of Licking County last September, when Granville Brewing Company said it would shut down on Sept. 27 after 14 years in business. Founders Jay Parsons and Ross Kirk announced that closure on social media as well, according to NBC4 WCMH, after the pair had put the brewery up for sale without finding a buyer.
Ohio's Craft Beer Slump
Outerbelt's closing adds to a broader pattern of contraction across Ohio's craft beer industry. The state saw 25 brewery openings and 34 closures in 2024, and 2025 marked the first year that closings outpaced openings statewide, a trend the Ohio Craft Brewers Association has said will likely continue into 2026, per the organization's own report. Craft beer production volume in Ohio fell 5.1% year over year in 2025, the same report found.
Spectrum News 1 reported that Ohio had recorded 12 openings and 10 closures so far this year, including two shuttered BrewDog taprooms in Columbus. That outlet also noted that many of the breweries closing statewide were small operations that made beer primarily for their own taprooms, leaving them exposed to shifts in customer traffic and local competition, according to Spectrum News 1. The same reporting found that input costs for beer production have risen roughly 50% over the past five years.
The squeeze extends well beyond Ohio's borders. U.S. craft beer production fell 4% in 2025 to 22,034,000 barrels, with 60% of breweries reporting declines, according to the Brewers Association. The number of operating U.S. craft breweries dropped 2.9% last year to 9,578, and new brewery openings nationwide fell sharply to 300 in 2025 from 518 the year before, even as closures also eased somewhat, to 481 from 591, per the same Brewers Association analysis.
Ohio's brewery count has grown enormously over the past decade even amid the recent slowdown. The Ohio Craft Brewers Association tracks 433 total craft breweries operating in the state today, up from fewer than 50 in 2013, while News 5 Cleveland has separately reported a count of 440 breweries as of 2024. Against that backdrop, Outerbelt's Oct. 5 closing marks another local chapter in a statewide story of an industry still finding its footing after years of rapid growth.
On Reddit's r/ColumbusBeer forum, one user confirmed the timeline circulating among regulars, writing simply, “Confirmed. October 5th is their last day open.”
