With just a week to go before Christmas, Six Pints Specialty Beer Company (owned by Molson) will be shutting down Beer Academy. While many companies would usually opt to retrain the employees they have, Six Pints has opted to fire basically all of them and hire completely new staff (this according to Ben Johnson over at BlogTO)

The location of Beer Academy is almost cursed with several brewpubs (including Duggan’s) opening and closing in a very short amount of time. It’s a bit of a shock that a Molson owned company couldn’t even make it profitable.

Molson has been really pushing the Creemore brand as of late and a Brewpub is a logical next step. This would give it more of a ‘craft’ feel. The only other brand they could have used would have been the Mad and Noisy brand they created (which is best known for their Hops and Bolts offering.)

Edit: Here is a tweet they just made:

Exciting News! Beer Academy is being renovated! We’re closing Dec 31 and will reopen to our thirsty friends fall 2015 http://t.co/Jioj6Cz5mg — Beer Academy (@beeracademyTO) December 16, 2014

Edit 2: I was contacted by someone representing Molson. They sent these answers from Jennifer Davidson, GM of Six Pints:

Molson will be Closing Beer Academy, Firing Most of the Employees and Putting in a Creemore Brewpub Six Pints is actually renovating the space to enhance the beer experience. We'll be re-opening in fall 2015, with a a unique experience. We're exploring new concepts and designs with our team and will share updates as we progress. I want to share that the Beer Academy staff was given lots of notice about the upcoming renovation. Our employees are really important to us, and we want to thank them for all of their passion for beer and dedication. With just a week to go before Christmas, Six Pints Specialty Beer Company (owned by Molson) will be shutting down Beer Academy. While many companies would usually opt to retrain the employees they have, Six Pints has opted to fire basically all of them and hire completely new staff (this according to Ben Johnson over at BlogTO) We're undertaking a pretty big renovation, so we needed to close the Beer Academy. We would like to thank the Beer Academy staff for their all their passion. We worked hard to provide as much notice about the upcoming closure for renovations, out of respect for their dedication over the last two years. It’s a bit of a shock that a Molson owned company couldn’t even make it profitable. We couldn’t be prouder of the Beer Academy’s success. It has given us great insight into the beer experience – and now we’re using this to build a really exciting new experience.