Guanella Pass Brewing, which has locations in Georgetown and Empire, is bankrupt.
The 7-year-old brewery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 30. It has $2.3 million in debt, far more than the $860,000 in gross revenue that it earned in 2023.
Guanella Pass became Georgetown’s first brewery since Prohibition when it opened in May 2017 at 501 Rose St. in the tiny Clear Creek County town. It has 16 owners, led by Steven and Stacey Skalski of Evergreen, who together are its majority shareholders.
Steven Skalski bought 501 Rose St. for $180,000 in 2016, county records show.
“We’ve got this building, we had to build it all out. It was an old antique shop,” Skalski told a beer podcast in 2019. “We had to do a lot of demolition work and put floors in.
“It’s just a great spot. People are discovering Georgetown more and more.”
In 2020, Guanella Pass opened a brewpub at the foot of Berthoud Pass along U.S. 40 in Empire. It also operates the SilverBrick Saloon, a restaurant in Georgetown.
Steven Skalski and a lawyer for Guanella Pass, Katharine Sender with Cohen & Cohen in Denver, did not answer questions about the company’s future Tuesday.
On Dec. 7, the brewery, along with both Skalskis, were sued in Jefferson County by On Tap Credit Union, a beer-themed banking institution that said the defendants owe it $36,000 and counting on a credit card. The Skalskis and their company have not responded to the lawsuit in court but the brewery’s bankruptcy paperwork shows a $36,000 debt to On Tap.
Guanella Pass has just $72,340 in assets: brewing and restaurant equipment mostly, along with a few thousand dollars in a bank account. It brought in $792,000 in gross revenue in 2021, $1.1 million in 2022 and $860,000 last year, according to its bankruptcy paperwork.
It owes $573,000 to First Savings Bank, which loaned it money in 2021, and $256,000 to the Clear Creek Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit that loaned it money in 2019. Both loans are collateralized by the property at 501 Rose St. in Georgetown.
Guanella Pass also owes $700,000 to the Skalskis, $135,000 to the U.S. Small Business Administration, $100,000 to the Colorado Department of Revenue, $32,000 to its food vendor, $22,000 to its bookkeeper and $10,000 to its power company, among others.
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.
