Shut down (Michigan Brewing Company)

[ZombieBrew83]

MBC will always have a special place in my heart. The a bunch of students from the School of Packaging at MSU did a tour there my senior year. That trip is what exposed me to a world outside of Bud/Miller/Coors. I have not been back in years but remember it pretty much exactly how MBCSucks described it. Sad to see something with so much potential go down the drain.

 

[Homercidal]

So what's to become of the place? Do they sell the equipment? Sell the whole place to a new brewer?

 

[signpost]

Anyone tried Hopmans in Waterford Township for homebrew supplies?

My dad lives just around the corner from that place. When I go visit this summer I'll probably be brewing a batch at my dad's place. As much as I have enjoyed ordering from Northern Brewer (because the closest HBS is a 2 hour drive away from my house), I'd love to support a Michigan business. Especially one that is practically in my dad's backyard.

 

[dogbar]

Celis White appears to be a bad luck brand. Down in Texas we went through losing it two owners ago.

 

[MBC_Sucks]

I've been there 2-3 times and am sorry to see it like this, but that's a pretty accurate statement. I've heard from several others that he did a terrible job managing the place and people. Nothing "interesting" about MBC is one thing that helped do it in. They had capacity. They lacked any style. The other things I didn't like??

Sargeants
Bad Bass American Lager
Wolverine

It was like MBC wanted to be the next big macro brewer...

And there were more problems. I've spoken to investors, and here's what they've told me:

1. Bobby inflated the stock value. One person invested, bought 400 shares at $50 each. When they received the stock certificate, the certificate stated 330,000 shares were outstanding. Do the math. That's a total corporate value of $14,500,000. Does anyone believe MBC was worth a cool $14.5 mill? And then this person told me a balance sheet was presented to them at the next annual investor's meeting that showed total company assets of about $2.5 mill. Doesn't take a CPA or SEC investigator to sniff out THAT fraud.

2. Speaking of regular shareholder meetings, the last one to be held was in March of 2009. This was the last time shareholders received any financials as well. Bobby has supplied NO financial or statements to any investor in the last three years.

3. And then there's the MBC downtown location. That was a partnership Bobby entered into with another investor, Ernie St. Pierre, and they shut out the rest of the shareholders. They attempted to call it "MBC" and claim it was a different entity, yet the name was strikingly similar and the place served exclusively MBC products. THAT'S known as "shareholder oppression". It's illegal to set up a substantially similar entity in name, product, and brand, but shut out the shareholders.

Bobby better lawyer up, big time.

 

[ACarver]

And there were more problems. I've spoken to investors, and here's what they've told me:

1. Bobby inflated the stock value. One person invested, bought 400 shares at $50 each. When they received the stock certificate, the certificate stated 330,000 shares were outstanding. Do the math. That's a total corporate value of $14,500,000. Does anyone believe MBC was worth a cool $14.5 mill? And then this person told me a balance sheet was presented to them at the next annual investor's meeting that showed total company assets of about $2.5 mill. Doesn't take a CPA or SEC investigator to sniff out THAT fraud.

2. Speaking of regular shareholder meetings, the last one to be held was in March of 2009. This was the last time shareholders received any financials as well. Bobby has supplied NO financial or statements to any investor in the last three years.

3. And then there's the MBC downtown location. That was a partnership Bobby entered into with another investor, Ernie St. Pierre, and they shut out the rest of the shareholders. They attempted to call it "MBC" and claim it was a different entity, yet the name was strikingly similar and the place served exclusively MBC products. THAT'S known as "shareholder oppression". It's illegal to set up a substantially similar entity in name, product, and brand, but shut out the shareholders.

Bobby better lawyer up, big time.

Something tells me your not much of a fan of MBC. Not sure where I'm picking that up from, but I get a strange feeling.

In all seriousness, never had a beer from there, but like someone else said, saw the place on Dinners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it looked like they had some nice equipment and at least a few loyal customers. Pretty unexpected news to someone like me that is not in the know.

 

[MBC_Sucks]

So what's to become of the place? Do they sell the equipment? Sell the whole place to a new brewer?

Everything in the building is under a complete lien by the new owner due to non-payment of rent.

Look for a HUGE brewery equipment auction in the near future, folks, and look for TONS of LHBS gear at auction prices, too.

Everything must go, go GO ! !

 

[MBC_Sucks]

Sad to see something with so much potential go down the drain.

That's why all the investors are calling Bobby Mason's head on a pike out in front of the old place.

 

[bjd17bb]

Hey brewing community, we at Dusty's Cellar are going to try and fill a little of your need for home brewing supplies on the east side of town, so come on over and check out what we can do for you.

 

[Homercidal]

You should put a sign up in MBC's lawn...

 

[rico567]

Hey brewing community, we at Dusty's Cellar are going to try and fill a little of your need for home brewing supplies on the east side of town, so come on over and check out what we can do for you.

Now these are the kinds of places we need in our area.......

 

[Spartangreen]

Hey brewing community, we at Dusty's Cellar are going to try and fill a little of your need for home brewing supplies on the east side of town, so come on over and check out what we can do for you.

@ Dusty's
Do guys still have the German bacon beer? (Smoked Beer)

 

[bjd17bb]

I have had a few smoked beers, any idea exactly which one?

 

[dannedry]

I really didn't have an opinion either way about MBC. It was just OKAY. I went there for the bulk grains. Some of the store's other things were much cheaper than anywhere else I have seen, so I will miss that. Their brews overall weren't exciting at all. The IPA was okay, Celis White was good... the rest of it... I never cared for. The food was okay... but I always thought they should be doing a better job. The "Pub" had a cafeteria feel to it. Like they just threw out a couple tables in a loading dock and called that a pub. Like the rest of you, I hate to see a Michigan company close up shop, and even more-so the closest microbrewery to me.

A few shops I would recommend is The Red Salamander in Grand Ledge - it's okay, but it's in the basement of an old church, so it's kinda weird. But they do have a decent selection. I have driven out to Siciliano's in Grand Rapids... they have a GREAT selection, and it's just a very cool store. Crazy beer from around the world. Then follow that up with a meal and a few pints at Brewery Vivant.

Another brewery closed up shop in Jackson recently... "The Local Pub and Brewery" or "Jaxon Beer Co"... whatever they were called on any given day. But that place completely sucked. Absolute garbage.

I am very excited for all of the new micro's that seem to be opening in the near future...

 

[Spartan1979]

A

1. Bobby inflated the stock value. One person invested, bought 400 shares at $50 each. When they received the stock certificate, the certificate stated 330,000 shares were outstanding. Do the math. That's a total corporate value of $14,500,000. Does anyone believe MBC was worth a cool $14.5 mill? And then this person told me a balance sheet was presented to them at the next annual investor's meeting that showed total company assets of about $2.5 mill. Doesn't take a CPA or SEC investigator to sniff out THAT fraud.

I don't think that's fraud. Not all of the owners necessarily paid the same for their shares, especially in the case of the founders of the company.

 

[pjj2ba]

Hey brewing community, we at Dusty's Cellar are going to try and fill a little of your need for home brewing supplies on the east side of town, so come on over and check out what we can do for you.

Ahhhh, I have very fond memories of Dusty's cellar! Back in the day it was the ONLY place that had a good selection of imports. I'm talking about back when that was about all that was available, except for Bells, Frankenmuth and Old Detroit.

 

[Bhornbacker]

And there were more problems. I've spoken to investors, and here's what they've told me:

1. Bobby inflated the stock value. One person invested, bought 400 shares at $50 each. When they received the stock certificate, the certificate stated 330,000 shares were outstanding. Do the math. That's a total corporate value of $14,500,000. Does anyone believe MBC was worth a cool $14.5 mill? And then this person told me a balance sheet was presented to them at the next annual investor's meeting that showed total company assets of about $2.5 mill. Doesn't take a CPA or SEC investigator to sniff out THAT fraud.

2. Speaking of regular shareholder meetings, the last one to be held was in March of 2009. This was the last time shareholders received any financials as well. Bobby has supplied NO financial or statements to any investor in the last three years.

3. And then there's the MBC downtown location. That was a partnership Bobby entered into with another investor, Ernie St. Pierre, and they shut out the rest of the shareholders. They attempted to call it "MBC" and claim it was a different entity, yet the name was strikingly similar and the place served exclusively MBC products. THAT'S known as "shareholder oppression". It's illegal to set up a substantially similar entity in name, product, and brand, but shut out the shareholders.

Bobby better lawyer up, big time.

I too am an extremely pissed off investor - your analogy above is right on - no meetings, no statements - no idea whatsoever what the value (if there is any) is for the investment they've had for 10 years. I am extremely dissatisfied with the way this business has been run, and how I have been treated. I want to hear from other investors who may want to connect with each other to see what if anything we can do to get some relief (other than a dime on a dollar!). What went wrong here???

 

[wSelwyn]

So I am still seeing new shipments of MBC on the shelves... Are they still producing? What's the status?

 

[Toga]

They are not producing. The shipments you are seeing are what the distributors had laying in their warehouses. I picked up what may be my last 6xer of Celis White the other day

 

[Homercidal]

I'm going to miss that beer. But fortunately, Allagash White is a pretty darn good example of the style, even if it's not made in MI.

 

[Farmer_John]

They are not producing. The shipments you are seeing are what the distributors had laying in their warehouses. I picked up what may be my last 6xer of Celis White the other day

I hope it's better than the one I picked up BEFORE they closed down. It was terrible. Worse than my homebrew!

 

[Homercidal]

A short article in the Detroit Free Press claims that MBC is going to have it's assets auctioned off.

 

[BigHefty]

Yep, the auction is this Wed (June 20th). Everything is going including rights to the names!

 

[Clanchief]

If you have some money, they have a lot of good stuff, even homebrew sized, for sale. But you have to put $5000 in up front, looks like as a wire transfer - no credit cards allowed. Homebrew store owners in the area should definitely get in on that. It looked like they had a lot of equipment and ingredients for sale.

 

[pwortiz]

I thought I caught a quick blurb on detroit's channel 7 news at noon today...but it was at the tail end of the segment and I haven't been able to find the story anywhere since then....

 

[pwortiz]

AH, here's the link to the Free Press story:
http://www.freep.com/article/201206...uction?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

 

[dannedry]

Here's the link to the auction site... you can get to several pictures and more info from here...

http://sdtc.ar02.f3-13.host6.22970.americanis.net/Listings/1471204.html

 

[ColumbusAmongus]

Hmm...interesting info there. I was pretty sad to see them go because things beer was my main HB supply source. Everyone that worked there was great so I will definitely miss going there. The food area wasn't at all fancy but everyone was always really friendly and helpful so the fam and I liked having a low key dinner there every now and then.

I am not surprised to hear this shutdown though. Their beer was just so blah. We always described it as beer targeted towards people who didn't know anything about beer. Besides the apparent skullduggery on the biz side, I think MBC was a prime example of people not being honest with their product. MI has some killer beers so you can't expect to be competitive with blah.

I hope that from the ashes, a kick azz brewery can get their start from all of that equipment going on the market.

 

[tolonen]

The LSG also has an article on the investors of MBC:

Michigan Brewing Co. investors left with questions (In hindsight, some say fate was obvious)

Sad to see it go.

 

[wSelwyn]

Did anyone here on HBT snag any supplies from the auction? I know The Malty Dog of Southfield was closed part of Wednesday as the owners were attending the auction.