Baderbrau Brewing, which resurrected a long-dormant Chicago craft beer brand three years ago amid a wave of brewery openings, has stopped making beer and has put its South Loop operation up for sale, according to multiple sources.

However, the brand and its pub may endure, depending on the outcome of various discussions, sources said.

The Baderbrau taproom and kitchen, which are attached to the brewery at 2515 S. Wabash Ave., remain open, and cans of Baderbrau beer are still in the market. As those cans are sold, they are unlikely to reappear. (Update: Baderbrau closed its doors shortly after this article was posted.)

Baderbrau founder Rob Sama did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Baderbrau Brewing launched in 2012 as a sequel to a once-popular craft brand that was founded in 1989. The original Baderbrau was a beer — a Czech-style Pilsner and the flagship brand for Pavichevich Brewing Co., in Elmhurst. At the time, the U.S. was home to about 250 breweries, and sales were dominated by a handful of large companies.

The late beer historian Michael Jackson called the original Baderbrau "the best Pilsner I've ever tasted in America," and the staff of President George H.W. Bush requested a case for the president’s downtown hotel suite during a visit to Chicago in summer 1990.

After Pavichevich Brewing went bankrupt in 1997, the Baderbrau brand was snatched up by Goose Island, which continued to make the beer and won a silver medal with it at the Great American Beer Festival in 1998. Goose Island soon afterward phased out Baderbrau, and the brand was seemingly left for the city's historical dustbin.

However, Sama, a fan of the beer while a University of Chicago undergrad in the 1990s, pounced on the Baderbrau name after discovering its trademark had lapsed. In 2012 he began to make Baderbrau again under contract in Wisconsin, including the flagship Pilsner — which he claimed was a near-copy of the original — as well as a black lager and a hop-forward lager.

In 2015, Baderbrau opened a 25,000-square-foot brewery — an ambitious project for a brand still forging a connection with its local audience. As time went on, competition became ever more fierce, and more breweries opened — for a total now of about 225 in Illinois alone.

Baderbrau made a solid array of beers but, in recent months, had turned to a pair of notable marketing deals to expand its reach — with Billy Goat restaurants and the ride-share company Lyft.

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @hopnotes

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