Intuition Ale Works will close April 24 after an attempt to sell the business failed. | Intuition Ale Works
Published on January 28, 2026 at 1:20 pm
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Intuition Ale Works will close all operations April 24, almost exactly a year after it announced it was trying to sell the brewery, beer hall and concert venue.
The closure comes 15 years after the microbrewery started in an old commercial building on King Street, then moved to Jacksonville’s Sports and Entertainment District a decade ago.
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Owner Ben Davis posted a lengthy farewell message on the Intuition Ale Works Facebook site just before noon Wednesday, saying that “fifteen years have flown by.”
“Last April, I announced that we were exploring the sale of Intuition. For nine months, I examined every realistic path forward, hoping the right buyer would emerge with the resources and conviction to carry the brand into its next chapter,” Davis wrote. “The right buyer never came.”
Intuition Ale Works was established in 2010 on King Street in Riverside, then became the first craft brewery in Florida to can its beers in 2012, company officials said. It moved to its current site at East Bay Street and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard in 2016, building the brewing facility, taproom, then Bier Hall music venue.
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Davis announced the plans to sell in a news release April 25, 2025, saying the decision came at a time when the East Bay Street operation is “operating from a place of strength and stability.” He said he would seek buyers who would maintain company values and culture as Intuition entered a new era.
Davis said he had taken Intuition as far as he could and wanted to ensure the growth of the brand. And he emphasized that operations would continue as normal while discussions with potential buyers continued.
News of the sale attempt came after a number of local brewpubs and craft breweries had closed, including A1A Ale Works and Ragtime Tavern as well as Hyperion Brewing Co., Brewer’s Pizza, Lemonstreet Brewing, Barley and Pie Brewing Co. and Tabula Rasa Brewery
Intuition Ale Works statement
In this week’s announcement about the closing, Davis said that he didn’t open Intuition to chase trends, but “to add something real to Jacksonville’s emerging craft beer scene.”
Moving Downtown was a deliberate choice because he says he believed in the long-term potential of Downtown Jacksonville. He said he “was confident that Intuition could play a role in helping shape what it might become.”
“The craft beer industry has changed dramatically since COVID. Costs are higher, margins are thinner, and competition is relentless,” Davis wrote on Facebook. “For small, independent breweries, the room for error is smaller than it has ever been. … I don’t regret the move. It was ambitious, and it was my call. But that ambition was rooted in the hope that transformative Downtown development would follow. It never did.”
Ultimately, the financial burden placed on Intuition made long-term sustainability impossible, Davis said. So after exhausting every option, he wrote that he made the hard — but clear — decision to permanently close Intuition when its lease expires.
The Facebook message says the last Bier Hall show will be the Yonder Mountain String Band. The taproom, kitchen and Bier Hall will remain open and operating as usual through April 24, and all previously scheduled private events will move forward as planned.
