Full Pint brewery closing, citing debt and market changes

Full Pint Brewery Co., one of the region’s first craft beer makers, said it is shutting down its operations.

Full Pint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, seeking protection from creditors while hoping to reorganize the brewery’s debt and possibly attract new investors, according to Barrett Goddard of Ligonier, the brewer and one of the business partners.

Since that has not happened, Goddard said brewery owners now hope to avoid a Chapter 7 liquidation of the assets of the business founded almost 10 years ago.

“We pretty much made the call” to shut down Friday or stretch operations into Saturday, Goddard said.

Full Pint hopes to use up the rest of its beer at its North Versailles brewery by attracting enough drinkers who want to fill up their growlers, Goddard said. If not, he said, the beer would go down the drain.

It is the second longtime local craft brewer to file for bankruptcy in the past two years.

Rivertowne Brewing, with a brewery in Murrysville and taverns in Pittsburgh, Monroeville, Verona and North Huntingdon, filed for bankruptcy in May 2018. The brewery was sold to Helltowne Brewing in Mt. Pleasant in October 2018, but none of the restaurants survived.

When Full Pint filed for bankruptcy, it still had $165,000 worth of beer to tap and various brewing equipment valued at $222,000, according to a Dec. 16 filing. It generated $760,000 in revenue from Jan. 1 until its Nov. 11 bankruptcy filing, but was not on pace to top the $1.2 million in revenue it generated in 2018.

Full Pint said it faced $561,468 in liabilities, of which almost $400,000 was in unsecured claims, according to a Dec. 16 bankruptcy filing. The company owes S&T Bank almost $131,000 and PNC Bank made a claim for $16,854.

In addition to the banks and suppliers, Full Pint’s investors are claiming they are owed money. Ed Kegg of Irwin said he was owed $102,067 on his capital contribution, while Burgettstown’s Mark Kegg, a part owner, said he was owed $15,462. Goddard said he was owed $9,587 and Margaret Goddard of Ligonier said she was owed $14,667, both on their capital contributions.

Full Pint filed for bankruptcy a little more than a month before it closed its Wild Side Pub in Upper Lawrenceville in late December.

Goddard noted the region’s craft beer business has become full of competitors, with about 40 just in Allegheny County. When Full Pint opened almost 10 years ago, it was among five breweries in the county, he said. Full Pint also faced competition from a few breweries just across the Allegheny County border in the Irwin-North Huntingdon area of Westmoreland County.

The craft beer market is moving away from a brewery with a larger capacity like Full Pint’s 15-barrel operation to brewpubs with a three-barrel capacity, Goddard said. He is confident that Full Pint’s financial problems were not caused by drinkers not liking the taste of the beer he made.

“Our beer was top-notch,” Goddard said.

Goddard said the quarantine of nonessential businesses like bars had actually helped Full Pint. Customers “can bring their growlers (to Full Pint) and take them home and drink,” he said.

If the operation is not sold, he said he would like to buy back the brands.

“I definitely want to stay in the beer business,” Goddard said.