Once the news was out that City Brewery of La Crosse, Wisconsin was negotiating to buy the Latrobe Brewery, many people, myself included, stopped paying close attention to this story. You’ll recall that brewing giant InBev sold the brand name Rolling Rock to Anheuser-Busch on May 19 of this year. But the Latrobe Brewery where Rolling Rock had been brewed since 1939 was not part of the deal. It had been scheduled to close July 31 if a buyer could not be found and a mad scramble ensued involving local and state politicians, the media, imaginative rumors, InBev and all manner of possible buyers. Finally on June 21, it was announced that City Brewery was in negotiations. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, and moved on to the next story.

But it’s been almost three months now and a deal to buy the brewery has still not been finalized. While negotiations are ongoing, the brewery closed July 31 and has been dormant since then. City Brewery met yesterday with officials from local and state agencies to work out issues surrounding how anticipated production increases will effect the capacity of water treatment facilities. Currently the brewery’s capacity is 1.3 million barrels and City Brewery wants to brew two million. Let’s hope the deal will be done soon and the now unemployed brewery employees can back to work.