St. Paul’s Summit Brewing has laid off employees for the first time in its 32 years in business.

Founder Mark Stutrud said a changing and crowded craft-beer industry was partially to blame for Wednesday’s layoffs, which amount to about 10 percent of the brewery’s formerly 100-person workforce.

“In many ways we’re being very proactive, keeping ahead of the curve and making some adjustments,” Stutrud said. “The tough thing about it is that everyone who has left our organization, they’re really great people. We simply assembled a team to make much more beer than we’re making now.”

The brewery announced earlier this year that it would cease distribution to six states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Michigan.

Stutrud said the craft brewery, which is the oldest such business in the state, is making some other changes to help it compete in the marketplace, which has expanded exponentially since a law was passed in 2011 to allow breweries to have taprooms.

As of 2016, the Brewer’s Association listed 112 breweries in Minnesota. When Stutrud founded Summit in 1986, there were just a handful, and only a few making beer that wasn’t a watered-down American pilsner.

The brewery is in the midst of updating its taproom, which had been a community room, or rathskeller, that Stutrud said wasn’t particularly inviting for patrons.

The brewery quickly converted it to a taproom when the law changed, but didn’t update it much. Summit isn’t releasing many details about what the new taproom will look like, but changes to its patio are included.

Additionally, Summit is coming out with some new beers in the near future, and Stutrud is bullish on the brewery’s ability to market and sell those to the craft-beer-loving crowd.

“We’re pretty well-seasoned veterans,” Stutrud said. “In this crazy, diluted, confused market, Summit is that classic beer, that standard. I love hearing from people, ‘It’s my go-to beer.’ ”

Stutrud said the brewery has been ahead of the curve through all the recent changes in the industry, and these layoffs are an unfortunate part of that.

“We’re doing fine,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere.”