USA, DE: Midnight Oil Brewing Co. to shutter for good later this month

After seven years, it's last call for good at Midnight Oil Brewing Co., Delaware Online reported on April 9.

The Glasgow craft brewery has announced it will pour its final brew later this month, joining a string of First State breweries that have shuttered in recent years.

Midnight Oil's last day will be Saturday, April 19, and beer will be discounted until then as they attempt to sell every last drop of the good stuff.

"Today, as we prepare to close this chapter, we do so with full hearts. MOBC has been more than just a brewery – it has been a community, a family," the brewery posted last month on Facebook. "And while it’s time for us to say goodbye, we hope the friendships and memories we’ve built together will last long beyond our doors."

When Midnight Oil opened Feb. 3, 2018, at 674 Pencader Drive, it was the only brewery in Glasgow, cannonballing into an underserved craft beer market.

It was a location where craft geeks had options limited to brewpubs that made their own beer, such as the veteran beer hub Stewart's Brewing Co. in Bear or Newark's Iron Hill Brewing and Two Stones Pub.

It was a year after Midnight Oil opened when another craft brewery joined them in Glasgow with the smaller Autumn Arch Beer Project launching just a few feet down the road.

In the years since, the state's craft brewing world has grown, now boasting about 40 breweries.

But in an interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal, managing partner and brewer Mike Dunlap said Midnight Oil's model with a small tasting room and a 15,000-square-foot production brewery – one of the biggest brew houses in the state – just didn't work in the long run.

"It wasn't a friendly environment here in Delaware in terms of welcoming a new distribution brewery," said Dunlap, pointing to the state's limited number of distribution partners. "It was tough getting that moving. We always found ourselves producing more beer than our distributor could or would sell."

Dunlap, whose Midnight Oil co-managing partners included T.J. McGrath and Joe Stickel, also pointed to his brewery's marketing efforts as a contributing factor to its demise.

"We understated the value and importance of that. We really concentrated hard on the quality of the product. All of our money went into that. We brewed some of the best beer in the state, but unfortunately, nobody knew about it," he said of Midnight Oil, which is tucked away in an industrial park off U.S. 40.

The impact of the pandemic also weighed heavily on the brewery, which maintained support from its dedicated patrons, but "never quite got back to speed," Dunlap said.

For those who did know about Midnight Oil, it became a second home.

And not only for its craft beers, hard iced teas and homemade root beer.

Customers bonded with the small staff at the retro-themed tasting room, which hosted many community events along with live music, poker nights, dance parties, 5k races, painting parties and karaoke.

It has a unique nostalgic '80s/'90s vibe with a VHS wall, cartoon collage, vintage arcade games, classic tunes playing on their speakers and framed art from old movies on the walls. As they liked to say, "It's where 'Jaws' meets Atari meets Beastie Boys."

So expect quite a farewell on April 19. Doors will open at 11 a.m. and they will close for the final time at 11 p.m.

Kris V and Richie D will be performing at 6 p.m. with the Claymont Steak Shop food truck selling cheesesteaks and other goodies.

"We're hoping to pack the place and kick the kegs," said Dunlap, whose brewery is selling discounted $5 pints and $10 six-packs until they close.

Delaware beer historian John Medkeff Jr. lamented their closure.

"They were one of the stalwarts in what they did over those seven years," said Medkeff, author of 2015's "Brewing in Delaware" ($21.99, Arcadia Publishing). "Their run was pretty solid. It's nothing to sneeze at."

He agreed with Dunlap that Midnight Oil's 15-barrel brew house became a liability as competition increased for shelf space at retailers as the craft beer industry grew.

"Most breweries these days aren't surviving on distribution. It's their tap rooms and the bigger profit margins that come with selling directly to your customers. And Midnight Oil has a humble tasting room," he added. "The brewing world has changed in the past seven years and in that industry, it can be deadly if you can't adapt quickly."

In addition to Midnight Oil, the list of breweries that have closed in Delaware in recent years include Stitch House Brewing (Wilmington), Blue Earl Brewing Co. (Smyrna), Hangman Brewing (Claymont) and Fordham & Dominion (Dover).

The causes are many. Some point to the effects of inflation that brought rising costs and supply chain issues to the craft alcohol world, meaning shrinking profit margins. Other forces include increased competition thanks to newer trends such as THC drinks, seltzers, ready-to-drink cocktails, nonalcoholic beverages and legalized marijuana.

Even so, Medkeff does not believe there is cause for alarm when it comes to Delaware's constellation of craft breweries.

"The industry is stagnant," he said, "but I don't see any indication of mass closures or anything like that."

Midnight Oil was years in the planning when it first opened, growing from Dunlap's love of home brewing.

Now the network engineer, a married father of two who worked about 80 hours a week between his two jobs, is about to have a lot more free time after burning the midnight oil for years ― the reason why the brewery had its name.

"I have a lot of catching up to do and I'll be playing Dad for a while," he said. "But I also kept my homebrew rig, so I'm going to wheel that back out, put it in the garage and go back to the old propane burners for a while."

10 April, 2025