USA, NE: Ploughshare Brewing Co. to close down

Matt Stinchfield was a chemist before he became the award-winning head brewer and founder of Ploughshare Brewing Co., the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

On July 8, while driving across the country, in part to head to a consulting gig but mostly to clear his head, he distilled the reasons that his tap room at 1630 P St. was closing into a single calculation

"People are going to say, 'I was in there; the place was hopping,' but the answer is, it's a math problem, and the income was insufficient to manage the debt," Stinchfield said.

"The reality is, the cost of building a brewery is enormous. Our build-out was far over budget. We were building out at the same time that the Railyard was being constructed, and we had a terrible time getting contractors, and some of the contractors we had, we had to redo their work. So we had a huge debt to start with. We controlled our business expenses very frugally, so the only reason that the business wasn't open is that sales were less than expected."

Recently, Stinchfield announced to employees, investors and about a hundred loyal regulars that Ploughshare Brewing Co. was closing. The tap room’s doors have been shut since July 3, when it stayed open past its typical hours to let the taps flow until about 1 a.m. Then many of the tap handles were given away to the regulars as souvenirs.

The news came as a shock to loyal customers such as Betty Levitov, a retired Doane College English professor, who was invited to the night gathering on July 3. On June 27, she’d attended a five-course pairing of Ploughshare varieties with light fare at Hopcat, which featured combinations such as a tomato-citrus gazpacho alongside the brewery’s World Beer Cup silver medal-winning Pivo Bublina maibock.

There, she said, Stinchfield was as in his element as when he’d lead her and other Ploughshare guests on informative brewery tours where he’d occasionally break into song. She’s taken the tour more than once, and befriended Stinchfield and his wife.

“He’s so passionate about what he does that it’s infectious,” she said.

Though she had occasionally spoken with Stinchfield about the financial challenges of starting up Ploughshare in 2014, she had no idea that a few days after the beer pairing she’d get an email announcing to a select few loyal customers that the business was closing.

“We've known for a long time that a small percentage of our customer base is responsible for the majority of our retail sales,” Stinchfield said. “In other words, we have a real following and then we have everybody else who comes in once in a while or has just come on a visit through town or something like that.

"We identified maybe a hundred folks who were very regular and saw eye-to-eye with what we were doing in terms of our beer lineup and our food program and supported the fact that we were an independently owned business, and all that good stuff. So we just sent out an invite.”

At the gathering, Stinchfield thanked those who’d supported the business for the three years it was open and gave away mementos such as growlers, glasses and coasters. (“I took a beer glass from one of the beer fests, and some coasters,” Levitov said. “I probably won’t enjoy using that glass.”)

"A couple of pictures went missing from our bathroom walls, but that's not a big deal," Stinchfield said, laughing. "These people were looking for a souvenir if they could, but you know, all the big stuff is still there.”

That includes the tanks and other brewing equipment, as well as packaging materials for six packs of Ploughshare bottles that Stinchfield said the company was unable to fill and get distributed before running out of cash in June.

The importance of selling bottles of Ploughshare was a point he made in his successful pitch to become a finalist for last year’s Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Pitch Room contest, saying on a video that he wanted to start selling six packs “so we can put Ploughshare beers on picnic blankets and dinner tables and tailgates throughout the Midwest.”

Stinchfield said the company hasn't been dissolved yet, and he's holding out hope that someone sees value in continuing to brew Ploughshare varieties and purchases a majority stake in the business.

“Those kind of things are pretty miraculous when they happen, but I'm not saying it couldn't happen," Stinchfield said.

He said there had been talks with another Nebraska brewery to buy the brewery’s assets and keep several Ploughshare brands alive. But they fell through.

“We found out late in the game that that deal was not going to happen, so now the best option is to market the facility to another business entity that would want to come in and run a brewery at 1630 P Street,” Stinchfield said.

Many of the brewery’s varieties remained on tap at Lincoln bars this week. Unless a deal with a brewer or investor materializes, that will likely be the last of Ploughshare’s beers available in Lincoln for the immediate future.

"Drink it while you can would be my best advice there," Stinchfield said.

But Stinchfield, who was a key advocate for craft brewers during the recent Nebraska legislative session, said he hopes to remain involved with the craft brewing industry.

"I feel like I really caught the bug when we won our World Beer medal, and I felt our beers were getting better all the time, and I feel like I have more medal-winning beers in me yet to create, so I'd like to not let go of that dream," he said.

09 July, 2017