Another Fresno-area brewery closes. ‘I’m just sitting there by myself for hours’
Incinerati Brewing Co. is closing.
The Clovis taproom and craft brewery is shutting down; its founder headed for a job as a brewer in South Dakota.
Incinerati joins a small handful of craft breweries in the central San Joaquin Valley that have closed recently, as closures of small beer makers nationally outpace openings.
Incinerati has a little taproom on Tollhouse Road, a few tenths of a mile from the intersection with Sunnyside Avenue. It’s still open. It will close Sunday, April 26 — or when the beer runs out. Whichever comes first.
Mike Sumaya, who owns the business with his wife, Natalie, and a partner, is selling off the last of his beer and merchandise, including Incinerati glasses.
The business and its equipment is also for sale.
“Get in there and get it before it’s gone forever,” he said.
The business started about eight years ago, brewing inside a downtown Fresno incubator run by 411 Broadway Ales & Spirits. About six years ago, it moved to the Clovis spot.
Why is Incinerati closing?
Sumaya worked a day job on top of running the taproom. He was the head brewer at Full Circle Brewing Co.
And prior to that, he was the head brewer at Riley’s Brewing Co. before a massive fire destroyed its brewing operation in Madera. (Riley’s has since resumed brewing and has a taproom in Selma.)
Sumaya brewed beer at Incinerati, delivered kegs to bars and cans to local stores all after his day job.
“I’ve been burning the candle at both ends now and finally had enough,” he said. “The taproom has been fun as a nights-and-weekends side gig, but it has never gotten to the point where I could quit my day job.”
The location was also limiting.
“It’s far enough off the beaten path; it’s hard to get people to know it’s there,” he said.
There were some nights people just didn’t come out.
“There was a lot of times, especially on a Thursday, or even on Friday nights, I’m just sitting there by myself for hours,” he said.
Challenges facing craft breweries
Incinerati is not alone.
Craft beer production fell in 2025, according to The Brewers Association. Openings of breweries slowed.
So far this year, Hop Forged Brewing Co. in Hanford announced it was closing. Lake Bottom Brewery & Distilling closed its Visalia and Corcoran locations, including the restaurant, citing economic challenges.
In early 2025, Sequoia Brewing Co., the restaurant and microbrewery, closed its Tower District and north Fresno locations. Both have since reopened under new ownership.
In 2024, Full Circle announced it would close its taproom and music venue on Fulton Street. The brewery is still alive and well, having consolidated operations into its original F Street brewery and expanding with a merger to become the largest Black-owned craft brewery in the country.
“There’s a bit of a challenge right now in that whole industry,” said Jason Hatwig, an owner/partner and one of the brewers in Summer Fox Brewing Co., which has three locations in Fresno.
The cost of a pint of beer has gone up, due in part to the rising prices of hops, grains, rent, fuel and more, he said.
People are drinking less.
All of that is hard on craft breweries.
“There’s the challenge of being too small. There’s the challenge of being too large,” he said. ‘’Everybody’s trying to get to this middle spot that seems to be working for people.”
Sumaya said many breweries have found they need to be something else in addition to the beer side of things — a music venue, or a restaurant, for example.
“I was thinking it would be a good thing to have a quiet little spot,” he said of his location. “It just wasn’t enough of a draw for a people.”
So with the lease expiring and a new job available in Rapid City, he decided to make a change.
“I’m fine with knowing I’m really good at ... making beer,” he said.
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