Beer maker leaves Fresno’s Brewery District, consolidates into original Chinatown spot

Fresno’s Brewery District is soon to be down one brewery.

Full Circle Brewing Company announced Friday it will be closing its location on Fulton Street at Mono Street and “integrating its headquarters, production facility, taproom and entertainment venue” into its original spot, less than two miles away in Chinatown.

The closure will happen at the end of December, with a reopening at the location on F Street near Cesar Chavez Boulevard expected sometime in January.

The consolidation is part of an expansion process for the company, which merged with San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales and Lagers last year to become the largest Black-owned craft brewery in the country.

Earlier this year, it announced a strategic alliance with Inglewood’s Crowns & Hops Brewing Co. to share centralized production, sales and marketing. This allows its craft beers and cider brands access to big name accounts such as the Save Mart Center, Disney’s California Adventure and Oracle Park.

“We are producing and selling a lot of beer,” says CEO Arthur Moye, who talked to The Bee about his plans after the announcement.

The move won’t necessarily allow for more capacity or tank space, but it will make for efficiencies in workflow.

“It’s merging culture,” he said.

“By combining locations, we can work together as one team and culture to respond faster to the growing demand for our craft beer and cider across California and other states.”

Fresno’s longest-running craft brewery

Full Circle Brewing Company was the first of Fresno’s contemporary craft breweries.

It opened in 2000 in an 8,700-square-foot warehouse at the south end of F street and became popular for hosting an eclectic mix of cultural and artistic events. It was home to the Rogue Festival and Fresno’s Beard and Mustache Club. There were roller derby bouts, poetry slam competitions and a dozen years of fundraising concerts for Food Not Bombs.

Moye took over the company when the owners were set to retire in 2016.

While the Chinatown location remained the base of production and operations, Full Circle worked to expand into other parts of Fresno. In 2018, it opened Full Circle Olympic on Olive Avenue, taking over what had for decades been an iconic Tower District nightclub.

It operated for a year and half until it was closed by the pandemic.

Full Circle moved into downtown Fresno’s Brewery District in 2021, taking over the former Zack’s Brewing Co. space: a 100-year-old-plus warehouse across the street from Modernist cocktail bar.

Full Circle Brewery District operates as taproom/music venue, hosting a full calendar of performances both indoors and outside on its 7,500-square foot fenced patio space.

The F street location will continue to have space for performances, Moye says.

“It’s the experiences that drive people to the brewery. We still want to put on those events, like we did in the past.”

The taproom will also reopen to the public.

A hole in the Brewery District landscape

The departure of Full Circle leaves a hole in a large piece of the Brewery District’s commercial landscape.

But it could get filled quickly, says Nora Monaco, who owns the building and several others in the area. She’s already fielding calls from people interested in the spot.

It’s one of the few available spaces in the district — along with the Pep Boys building around the corner, which she also owns. It has the advantage of being a built-out space; one that is almost turnkey.

What she would like to see there? It could another tap room or a bar, she says, “but, also food.” There is still a shortage of food options in the area, even as places like Smokin Woods BBQ expand.

“There’s opportunity,” Monaco says.

“I’m sorry to see Full Circle exit the Brewery District,” she says, “but I’m looking at the positive end of that.”