The iconic brewpub The Grange Public House & Brewery in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debts in the Southern District bankruptcy court of its state. No, Bud, Coors, or even Miller haven’t gone bankrupt, but one of the most picturesque breweries in the United States has.
Although the craft beer world had its heyday in the 2010s, it seems that it’s time to put the hops aside for this small brewery.
The Grange Public House & Brewery
This brewery was not just a simple beverage factory; it was a company with its own “grain-to-glass/farm-to-fork” philosophy. Located at 129 S. Jefferson St, Mount Pleasant, this brewpub even had its own full kitchen.
Customers never got bored at this brewery, as they often rotated their experimental wheat beers with fruit, experimenting with both malty and sour styles. The names of their beers reflected the brand’s eccentricity: eXperiment 696 IPA (Red X, Sabro, Talus), Cloud 7 IPA (Talus/Sabro/Simcoe/Nectaron), Brav – Wee Heavy, Delta Tango Foxtrot (Blood Orange/Mango/Blueberry Banana).
They experimented with tropical flavors such as coconut, grapefruit, flour, and even pine resin. This gave their beer a bitter aromatic touch and a strong flavor. They also had malty barrels: porter, wee heavy, Irish stout, which had a flavor profile reminiscent of caramel, dark chocolate, or even toasted bread. They also had Kornbinder (American lager) and Tanstaafl (pale lager) to broaden the spectrum. The point is that there were beers for all tastes.
Although these frothy works of art were not mass-marketed and canned in national runs, they were prestigious in their local environment. This brewery focused on serving beer on the premises and providing a complete experience, including food.
Five beautiful but intense years
The fact that this brewery is in Chapter 11 does not mean immediate closure. First, they must weigh up the assets and liabilities and the list of creditors according to the original report. The brewery has not been open for decades, but opened in the year of the pandemic.
The craft beer phenomenon is palpable in the United States. In June 2025, there were more than 9,000 breweries operating across the country. However, the years following the pandemic have been tough; in 2024, there were more local brewery closures (501) than openings (434). What was a boom in the craft beer hobby in the 2010s has gradually cooled off.
However, brewing your own beer at home has not always been normal. After the era of moonshine and Prohibition, there are still many obstacles to creating your own alcoholic beverages without strict legal protection. This changed in 1978, when homebrewing was legalized in the United States, opening the door to home brewing culture and leading to the creation of microbreweries across the country.
Beer Crafting
This marked the rebirth of brewing, which had not been seen since the Middle Ages: the demand for flavor and variation in taste depending on the location gave rise to many variations on what had until then been a bland, overly foamy, and thin beer. Intense styles (IPAs, sours, barrel-aged) reappeared in contrast to industrial lagers.
All we know is that this young man grew up in the 80s and 90s and fueled the craft beer boom. Today, the market has matured, causing demand for beer to level off, so some producers are pivoting to other beverages such as ciders/cocktail ingredients and various sodas.
Chapter 11 is not a 100% certain goodbye, but it is a see you later if they don’t manage to stay afloat. For customers of The Grange Public House & Brewery, it will be a social blow that will be difficult to overcome… because we’ve all had our hearts broken at some point when our favorite place closed down.