In December two craft breweries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a sad way to end 2023 and something we’re going to see more of this year.

 Flying Fish Brewing

Founded in 1995 by Gene Muller Flying Fish Brewing was Southern New Jersey’s first craft brewery. Renowned for its for its series of limited-edition beers named after exits on the New Jersey Turnpike, Flying Fish became an award-winning operation that was widely available in South Jersey as well as in Philadelphia.

Flying Fish beers were the first in the region to be featured at the Great British Beer Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival and Canada’s Biere de Mondial Festival. Flying Fish beers are eight-time medal winners at the Great American Beer Festival, the most of any New Jersey brewery.

The Somerdale-based brewery had been in acquisition  talks with Cape May Brewing but that potential merger fell  apart last summer. “after extensive analysis during the diligence phase.”

According to the bankruptcy filing  the company, which is currently owned by Scranton-based private equity firm Elk Lake Capital has $1.3 million in assets and $9.3 million in liabilities.

Guanella Pass Brewery

The first brewery in Georgetown, Colorado since Prohibition, the Guanella Pass Brewery opened a second location in 2020 at the foot of Berthoud Pass in downtown Empire that the company described as a “true mountain brewery.”

But on December 7, the company which has 16 owners, led by Steven and Stacey Skalski of Evergreen, who together are its majority shareholders, the 7-year-old brewery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

According to the Denver Post, has $2.3 million in debt, far more than the $860,000 in gross revenue that it earned in 2023. Guanella Pass has just $72,340 in assets: primarily brewing and restaurant equipment, along with a few thousand dollars in cash.

According to The Street, ‘Guanella Pass has continued to update its Facebook and X (the former Twitter) pages sharing events and posting branded merchandise for sale without making any mention of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.”

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