The former Istrouma at Sugar Farms is being offered as four auction parcels that bidders may pursue separately or combine, according to Gilmore Auction & Realty. The Red Barn business parcel, about 5.7 acres and including the former brewery and restaurant, is listed for $475,000, The Advocate reports.
The roughly 6,000-square-foot building has indoor and outdoor spaces, a kitchen, walk-in cooler, tasting and serving areas, restrooms and storage; its courtyard seats 150, according to The Advocate and the auction listing. The other offerings are an estate home on about three acres and two Bayou Paul Road homesites of three acres and 2.302 acres. A separate estate sale is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday in St. Gabriel, with decor, tractors, antique sugar kettles, food trucks, trailers, brewery equipment and other items, The Advocate reports.
A property’s next use is a separate question
The listing describes the Red Barn’s former restaurant, brewery and event uses. For buyers weighing a new operation, St. Gabriel’s zoning commission holds public hearings on land-use applications and recommends decisions to the City Council on matters including rezoning, variances and special or conditional uses, according to the city. A business serving alcoholic beverages must also obtain a permit from the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.
The site’s history reaches beyond the brewery: Country Roads Magazine described Sugar Farms as a complex that included Istrouma Brewing, the Feed & Seed eatery and the Cattle Drive-In Moovie Theatre. Istrouma at Sugar Farms opened in 2020 and has since closed. The Haynes family is preparing to move to Nashville, The Advocate reports; the family hopes to find a suitable property in Baton Rouge for another restaurant and brewery.
Brewery changes take different forms
National industry figures offer context, but do not explain this sale: the Brewers Association reported 300 U.S. brewery openings and 481 closures in 2025, compared with 518 openings and 591 closures in 2024. In a different kind of local change, Axios reported in October 2024 that Abita Brewing planned to open a second brewery in New Orleans’ Irish Channel. That was an expansion plan, not a reported sale of Abita’s existing property.
