Normally, companies like to dump their bad news on Fridays. It was pretty much the opposite, however, for Marble Brewery, which announced its new, locally-based owners.

Bert Boyce and Jarrett Babincsak, the former brewmaster and VP of sales of marketing, respectively, of Santa Fe Brewing have led a group to purchase Marble. The announcement came via social media posting just before noon on Friday.

The group finalized the purchase after securing funding. Next up, the new owners will have to wait for their state liquor licenses from Alcohol Beverage Control for the sale to become final. In the meantime, to keep the drinks flowing, the outgoing owners will remain in place so their licenses are still in effect. The new licenses will take approximately 90 days to be issued, per the brewery’s release.

Basically, that means all three Marble locations will continue to do business, and the staff members will not be furloughed. The two groups, new and outgoing, have an agreement in place to handle this situation.

The Crew has known Boyce for many years now from his time at Santa Fe Brewing. He originally came to SFBC from the Boston Beer Co. (Samuel Adams), where he worked in research and development. Boyce has been one of the good guys in the industry, and someone we’ve enjoyed working with in the past. We can only hope that continues.

The social media post included this quote from Boyce: “Marble’s roots run deep in this community. With a long history of high quality and creative brewing, Marble was not only on the cutting edge of our beer scene but has really provided a home for culture, music, and the arts. The recent outpouring of support has shown us how much love our town has for Marble, and we are honored to guide this organization into a bright future. We are committed to bringing the team the resources, energy, and leadership that they need to be successful, and we’re excited to pull our boots on and get to work.”

With luck, the Crew will be able to sit down with Boyce, Babincsak, and others from Marble to discuss the details of the sale and their future plans. We expect that will be after the sale is finalized with the new liquor licenses, so until then, be patient.

We are just glad that Marble ownership is staying local.

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister