- November 6, 2025
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A prominent Sarasota-based brewery with three locations is closing one spot as it consolidates its operations. The closing of the location, the owner and a manager told the Business Observer, stem from size and logistics issues, and aren't connected to several lawsuits and a countersuit the company is involved in over allegations of unpaid debts.
Big Top Brewing Co. is shutting down its Lakewood Ranch store, which is called Big Top Brewers Collective. Its other two businesses — Big Top Brewing Restaurant and Brewery at Fruitville Commons and Big Top Live on Cattlemen Road — will remain open, and it will begin brewing operations at the Fruitville location.
“We’ve been planning Lakewood Ranch’s move” for eight months, Big Top Brewing co-owner Mike Bisaha says in a phone interview Oct. 30, the last day in business for Big Top Brewers Collective.
The Lakewood Ranch Boulevard store has 3,000 square feet of production space and 13-foot ceilings, according to Bisaha, who says it could not meet the production needs of the company.
To brew Big Top’s beer, “we have tanks that are 26 feet tall — they don’t fit,” Bisaha says. “Lakewood Ranch was never designed for us to be there” long-term, he adds. “It was literally just a place for us to be able to continue while Fruitville was built.”
Big Top Brewing Company’s Fruitville Commons location — which opened in 2024 — spans 18,000 square feet and has the capacity for 700, the Business Observer previously reported. It has 8,000 square feet of production space with 32-foot ceilings, Bisaha says.
“Fruitville was always designed to be the one primary head of Big Top,” Bisaha says, with food and beverage production handled on-site. "We’ve been handicapped on production" due to the size of the Lakewood Ranch facility.
Big Top Brewers Collective “was never meant to be our production brewery. We only went into Lakewood Ranch because our Fruitville location was delayed” during construction, he says.
Soon, patrons at Fruitville Commons will be able to see the brewhouse at work, according to Bisaha, who says the operation is being assembled and will triple its production capacity.
“We finally have the new brew system at Fruitville and tanks shifted over there,” Bisaha says. "At Fruitville, the location is doing incredible. There is no point for us to have two production facilities that close together. It’s not easy to set up a massive production brewery. We’re a very large production brewery."
Situated at the end of a shopping center on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, the Big Top Brewers Collective space seats about 100 people, Big Top Logistics Manager Anthony Juliano says, speaking with the Business Observer outside the store in Manatee County its last day in business. Juliano, echoing Bisaha, says the location was “really small."
The seven staff members who worked at Big Top Brewers Collective will be reassigned to the other locations, according to Juliano.
Closing Big Top Brewers Collective was unrelated to the legal battles that currently involve Big Top Brewing Co., according to Bisaha.
Big Top is in the middle of lawsuits with multiple lenders claiming it has not made payments on loans ranging from $600,000 to $4 million. The $600,000 case centers around a loan from SouthState Bank, and attorneys say they are working on a resolution.
Another lawsuit, meanwhile, appears to be headed to trial, involving a $4 million loan for the construction of the brewery’s Fruitville Commons location. Big Top in September filed a counterclaim against the lender, alleging the business was overcharged. The lender has since denied that claim.
“Big Top’s not going anywhere,” Bisaha says. “We stand firm about why we are countersuing them. We are a small business battling a $300 million fund and we look forward to having all the facts come out.”
A civil trial for the case is tentatively scheduled for May 4, 2026.
