Broken Trail owner opens up on his decision to close brewery/distillery

Last week, I wrote on the many challenges all of us in the Crew face when trying to write about a brewery when it closes. Among the people who read that story was Matt Simonds, the owner of Broken Trail, which closed late last year, and he made the decision to share everything that went into the tough decision he made to permanently shut down his business.

“I get why people wouldn’t exactly want to talk about it,” Simonds said. “I think we’re in a unique position where I don’t really care anymore (so now I will).”

Our phone interview was brief, candid, and enlightening.

“For Broken Trail specifically, it was a number of factors, the first of which was we weren’t really set up well to survive the distribution game,” Simonds said. “And so, we weren’t goin

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