Medicine Bow files petition for bankruptcy

CHEYENNE – Cheyenne’s first and only brewpub, Medicine Bow Brewing Co., is reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

That means new management, a new menu, a new focus on families and a new determination to weather financial storms that prompted it to seek protection under federal bankruptcy laws.

“We definitely are going to be here,´ said Medicine Bow president Larry Sortor, emphasizing changes the business is making to continue as a fixture in downtown Cheyenne, day and night.

Rocky Mountain Brewing Co., doing business as Medicine Bow Brewing Co., filed a Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Wyoming Division, April 28, four days after three of the firm’s four founders – treasurer and general manager Brett Boreing, executive chef Deneb Williams and Sortor determined that reorganization was necessary. The filing listed total assets of $812,338 and total liabilities of $960,967. Creditors include state and local taxing authorities, suppliers and investors.

“The financial condition of the corporation is continuing to deteriorate,” they said in a resolution accompanying their filing. “During the slower winter months, the amount of debt is growing faster than the business.”

Medicine Bow opened a little more than two years ago in a one-time auto garage at 115 East 17th St. in downtown Cheyenne and has been credited with helping revitalize the downtown. But it also was seen by some as more of a nightclub than a restaurant, and when the fourth partner, brewmaster Shawn Loring, left in March, rumors started to fly that the brewpub had sold its equipment and was closing – all false, Sortor stressed.

“A lot of the rumors did hurt us,” he conceded.

Boreing has departed, and Williams has taken over as general manager and operations manager, with responsibility for advertising and promotions, as well as the menu and the floor staff. The assistant brewer, Richard Rush, has taken over for Loring and has already unveiled some of his own beers.