Facing more than $10 million in debts, Empire Farm Brewery in Cazenovia, N.Y., has filed for chapter 11 protection seeking to sell much of its property and assets in order to reorganize and stay open, Syracuse.com reported. The $6 million brewery and tasting room remains open for business as usual. The brewery opened in the summer of 2016 as a spinoff of the Empire Brewing Co. in downtown Syracuse’s Armory Square. The two businesses are separate, so the bankruptcy filing does not affect the brewpub. As part of the reorganization plan, Empire Farm Brewery has entered an agreement to sell many of its assets, including its tasting room, to Wisconsin-based Burnett Dairy Cooperative for $3.25 million. A filing on the reorganization says Burnett Dairy will purchase “substantially all of the brewery’s assets.” Empire recently sold all of its intellectual property rights — including its name, logos and trademarks — to the Harris Beach law firm in Syracuse, which handles the brewery’s affairs. That sale satisfied at least $50,000 in unpaid debts the brewery had with the law firm.
