For more than a decade, Brew Lab has been a downtown Overland Park mainstay.
At the brewery and restaurant, people have celebrated many occasions; engagements, weddings, birthdays, baby showers. At the center of many of those celebrations, of course, has been beer: either glasses clinking over meals or home brewers learning to make their own batches of beer on site.
Now, one key element is changing. Recently, Brew Lab quietly brewed its final batch, turning the page on brewing operations. But its owners say the end of brewing doesn’t mean the end of Brew Lab altogether.
The brewing process faced multiple challenges
Brew Lab initially got its start as a “brew on premise” facility, supplying grains and hops to home brewers and offering classes on site.
“A lot of the breweries around town had some of their early days with us,” said owner Clay Johnston. “We saw breweries open up with people that had been brewing with us before. It was really cool to watch that take off and flourish.”
Ultimately, Johnston said Brew Lab’s pivot away from brewing was the result of converging pressures.
Most notably, he said, Brew Lab has continued to feel the impacts of nearby construction on downtown Overland Park’s new farmers market pavilion over the past year. The ongoing project walled off Marty Street, choking off foot traffic to Brew Lab.
“When your foot traffic — and general traffic — decreases by about 100%, people have to really want to find you,” Johnston said. ““That really kind of forced us to examine a lot of our internal operations.”
Beyond what’s happening in downtown Overland Park, though, Johnston said Brew Lab’s struggles ultimately aren’t unique to just their brewery. To a certain extent, they’re reverberating throughout the beer industry.
Some local breweries like Shawnee-based Pathlight Brewing have closed their doors, while others have stopped brewing on site and begun outsourcing production to larger facilities.
“Craft beer is on a decline,” he said. “People’s preferences are changing, and people are just drinking less in general. All of those trends were going to come home to a lot of businesses sooner or later.”
Brew Lab will not close or stop selling beer
Brew Lab has begun selling off its brewing equipment to other breweries around the region and preparing to repurpose the production space.
However, Johnston said, the end of brewing operations does not mean the end of serving beer at Brew Lab — or the end of Brew Lab altogether.
“Closing down brewing operations does not mean closing down business,” he said. “We are devoted to the neighborhood.”
Though Brew Lab’s owners are still in the process of reimagining their selection, Johnston said customers will still find a vast lineup of local and craft beers on tap. Those beers will just be brewed elsewhere.
Some of the other local breweries on Brew Lab’s menu include Lawrence-based Free State Brewing Co. and Strange Days Brewing Co. and KC Bier Co., both of Kansas City, Missouri.
“We are definitely committed to great local and craft beers, without a doubt,” he said. “We’ve been serving guest taps and stuff like that as well for the last several years, and that’s something we’ve really enjoyed.”
Other changes are on the horizon for Brew Lab
Brew Lab is also in the process of rebranding in more ways than one.
In addition to beer, customers can also expect some minor (but “game-changing“) changes to the restaurant’s food offerings.
Johnston said the rebrand, which he hopes to launch around the same time the Overland Park Farmers’ Market reopens for the season, will prioritize quality, value and a family-friendly environment.
“We’re still devoted to being a family-friendly option, someplace where people want to kind of make their regular stay,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that (the menu) is going to change dramatically, but I think it’s probably going to be slightly smaller and more focused on a few of the things that we do well.”
Even with notable changes coming to Brew Lab, Johnston said it’s been clear that the restaurant and bar’s longtime customers have been eager to support it in its next chapter. In fact, he said some of them have even asked for recipes of their favorite brews that they won’t find at Brew Lab anymore.
“We’ve been kind of blown away by some great shows of support,” he said. “Downtown Overland Park is a pretty unique spot. We want to really give them something that we think the neighborhood is going to really enjoy.”
Want more food and drink news? Nebraska pizzeria Valentino’s now open in Overland Park
