Black Bottle Brewery lays out bankruptcy plan

FORT COLLINS — Black Bottle Brewery LLC has laid out its plans to emerge from bankruptcy amid the ongoing pandemic’s hard-hitting effects on small craft breweries across the country.

In filings Friday to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado, the midtown Fort Collins brewery projected that it would bring in about $7.23 million in revenue and have just more than $415,000 in funds left over after expenses to distribute to creditors over the next five years, far less than its stated $1.61 million in liabilities in July.

Black Bottle said it was on track for $1.7 million in revenue in 2020 before the pandemic hit, but the past three years were difficult as debt service for loans to buy out a former ownership partner and finance expansions consumed all of the brewery’s cash flows.

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It then filed for bankruptcy protections in July after the earlier stay-at-home orders implemented in the first months of the pandemic cut off in-person taproom revenues for several craft brewers.

The brewery’s plan would pay priority and some secured claims such as property taxes over 12 months, while other claims would get a proportional split of the remaining funds with interest.

It is prepared to cut staff “as necessary” to maintain the cash flow required under its proposed plan, it said in its filing, and based its timeline on the expectation that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the first quarter of next year.

The plan projects that $263,906 would be created if Black Bottle were to liquidate, all of which would be split between its commercial lenders Great Western Bank and Chase Financial.

The plan requires confirmation by the court, which has yet to set a hearing for the plan, according to court filings. Black Bottle’s creditors may also file objections.

The brewery did not respond to a request for comment Monday.