Another Wake County brewery shuts down after 7 years in business
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- Vicious Fishes closes Apex taproom after seven years.
- The brewery’s Fuquay-Varina location closed weeks earlier.
- Taprooms remain in Angier and Cary.
A local brewery has closed down not one, but two of its locations in the last month.
After seven years in business, Vicious Fishes Brewery has officially said goodbye to its taproom in Apex — shortly after shutting down its site in Fuquay-Varina.
“As many of you know, this location is pledged to a development group. We always knew we’d eventually leave this site, but we didn’t expect it to be so soon,” the team announced on Facebook Tuesday, Dec. 2.
“Our lease was complete and up until last night we believed we’d be continuing on here. Sadly we could not put a framework in place to do so.”
This comes just weeks after Vicious Fishes announced the closure of the taproom & kitchen in downtown Fuquay-Varina due to increased rent, The News & Observer previously reported.
‘We’ve decided it’s time to swim back to our roots’
“Our lease is up - and the proposal is for a 55% rent hike. Given the dramatic increase and after a lot of consideration, we’ve decided we need to focus on what’s core to Vicious Fishes Brewery, which is making the best beer we can and serving it directly to patrons in our taprooms,” the Nov. 13 Facebook post states.
“...Never say never, we’d love it if a taproom-focused home in Fuquay became available at some point in the future. Thank you, Fuquay, for all the love and support you’ve shown us over the last seven years!”
Vicious Fishes began as a pair of friends’ home brewing hobby in 1991. Two decades — and “something of a cult following” in their San Francisco hometown — later, the brewery officially opened around the Triangle area, according to its website.
Since then, it’s become a popular spot for local beer lovers to enjoy fruity IPAs, sours and German lagers.
Though the Apex and Fuquay-Varina breweries are closed, you can still get your fill of Vicious Fishes’s craft brews at the OG taproom in Angier and a location in Cary.
The News & Observer’s Drew Jackson contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Another Wake County brewery shuts down after 7 years in business."