• Courtesy Photo Squatters

In January, we reported that Monster Energy Drinks had acquired the craft brewery collective CANarchy, in a deal that would affect craft breweries across six states. Utah's Squatters and Wasatch were a part of CANarchy. In fact, the two local giants in Utah's beer world were the first breweries to be acquired by Fireman Capital out of Boston, in 2012, before the addition of six other national breweries, including Oskar Blues and Cigar, created CANarchy.

The purchase by Monster seeks to add alcohol manufacturing to its portfolio of beverages, so it can enter the lucrative alcoholic seltzer and malt beverage market. However, much of the alcohol manufacturing that Monster bought is attached to restaurants (brewpubs)—a sector Monster really has no interest in.

Flash back to mid-2021, and PRC Restaurant Company (IUtah)—jointly owned by Squatters co-founders Jeff Polychronis and Peter Cole—made inquiries into purchasing the Squatters/Wasatch breweries from CANarchy before the whole Monster deal was in motion. CANarchy hadn't really expressed much interest in the sale to PRC, until last December.

"It's been surreal," Polychronis chuckles. "Two days after Monster had announced their purchase of CANarchy we closed the deal, on Feb. 17. "The deal" was to acquire the six Squatters/Wasatch restaurants: Wasatch Park City, Squatters Roadhouse Grill, two at Salt Lake International Airport, Squatters SLC, Wasatch in Sugar House and the Commissary/Kitchen/Cafe at the International Center in SLC.

Acquiring the pubs was fairly simple process, but one crucial piece of the puzzle kept two historical beer-making properties intact: The founder of Wasatch, Greg Schirff, retained majority ownership of the Park City brewpub's building, and Cole and Polychronis did the same for Squatters' Broadway building in Salt Lake. "Even though we sold Squatters nine years ago," Polychronis says, "they (Squatters) had become our tenant, and we not only had an interest in wanting our tenant to succeed, but also the business that we had started back in 1984 was still very much close to our hearts."

• Courtesy Photo Wasatch

So now as the stars align, Squatters and Wasatch are back under the Utah umbrella where they belong. "Me, Peter and our investment partners are really excited about bringing total ownership of the brands back to Utah," Polychronis adds. "Now everybody involved lives in Park City or Salt Lake City."

PRC's motivations for preserving the brands are sincere; they want their historic labels to continue. Unfortunately, one of the key issues now is that, though PRC owns the property and the business, Monster continues to own the brewing equipment—which means they can't brew outside of Monster's new bailiwick.

"It's a little bit complicated," Polychronis says. "Monster continues to own the intellectual properties. They own the Wasatch and Squatters names, but we've entered into a licensing agreement with them that allows us to use the names as we have done in the past. But we don't own them."

So what changes will customers notice? Not much. The West Side Tavern and Beer Store located at the main production brewery in SLC will stay under Monster's management, and you'll likely see more new products there that Monster may be producing over the coming months and years. It is safe to say, however, that America's strangest beer market continues on its offbeat path, with its two founding members back and safe in the locals only category. As always, cheers!