Troubled beer brand liquidates in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Operating a craft brewery has been a challenging business over the last 2-1/2 years.

Brewery owners have faced several economic issues that have impacted their ability to continue as going concerns, including rising labor and product costs, driven by inflation.

Companies have faced rising lease payments and a clientele that is more discriminating with expenditures. Businesses also began paying higher interest rates for debt they obtained after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Financial difficulties have led the number of operating craft breweries to plummet significantly since 2023, based on a Brewers Association report.

Fewer new breweries have opened

The number of operating craft breweries declined nationwide to 9,680 in 2024, down from 9,747 in 2023. It was also the fourth consecutive year that the number of new brewery openings declined, with 434 new breweries opening and 501 closing in 2024, according to the report.

Craft breweries have struggled in 2025, as brewery closings outpaced openings, with 9,269 breweries operating in June 2025, down 1%, compared to 9,352 in June 2024, the Brewers Association said in its 2025 Midyear Market Report.

Brewers also had a significant decline in craft beer volume, dropping 5% year-over-year compared to 2024.

Number of craft breweries declines :

U.S. craft breweries operating in June 2025: 9,269.
U.S. craft breweries operating in June 2024: 9,352.

With all of this industry deterioration, it's no surprise that craft breweries have begun filing for either Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Struggling craft beer brand Dissent Craft Brewing has shut down its flagship brewery location in St. Petersburg, Fla., and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, two years after closing its Lakeland, Fla., brewery.

The seven-year-old craft beer company revealed on social media that its final day of business was Aug. 17, Florida Beer News reported.

Dissent Craft Brewing's social media accounts are no longer operating.

Dissent Craft Brewing files Chapter 7 to liquidate and close its business.

Image source: Shutterstock

No choice but to liquidate in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

The craft brewery subsequently filed its Chapter 7 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida on Aug. 25, listing about $100,000 to $1 million in assets and liabilities, Bankruptcy Observer reported.

Dissent Craft Brewing closed locations:

St. Petersburg, Fla., closed Aug. 17, 2025.
Lakeland, Fla., closed Sept. 3, 2023.

The regional craft brewer, which distributed its beer to restaurants and bars from Tallahassee, Fla., to Miami, closed its Lakeland, Fla., location on Sept. 3, 2023, after learning that its leased brewery space was under contract to be sold for $1.35 million.

More bankruptcy:

“It's the uncertainty of whether or not we'd be allowed to maintain our lease and what the projected rent would be,” Dissent co-owner Billy Demas told the Lakeland Ledger at the time.

“We don't know when it's going to sell or if it's going to sell, and we don't want to live with that as a business,” Demas said.

Covid-19 forced brewery to delay opening

Dissent signed its Lakeland lease in early 2020, just before the Covid-19 shutdown.

The brewery's Lakeland location finally opened in October 2021.

Dissent Craft Brewing's bankruptcy followed another bankruptcy filing by popular craft brewer Memphis Made Brewing Company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 7, 2025, about a year after closing its original brewery location.

Brewery kicked out of its location

Memphis Made Brewing closed the brewery and taproom in July 2024 in the Midtown Cooper-Young neighborhood when its landlord wanted the space to expand his own business.

The company consolidated its operations in its Downtown Memphis location, where it began brewing beer earlier in 2024.

The debtor did not indicate a reason for filing for bankruptcy in its petition.