One Upstate New York brewery is closing. One is reorganizing its finances through bankruptcy. One is seeking an extension of a tax break because it encountered an unexpected major expense paired with a decline in sales.

All three -- CB Craft Brewers of Honeoye Falls (closing); Empire Brewery of Cazenovia (reorganization); and Ithaca Beer Co. in Tompkins County (tax relief) are relatively large, high profile brewers. The recent news that one is closing and the other two are facing financial stress has been hard to ignore and even attracted some national media attention.

And yet the number of breweries operating in New York, and Upstate, continues to surge. The state had just under 100 breweries in 2012. Now it has more than 430 -- and more than 340 of those are north of New York City and Long Island.

Openings continue to outpace closings by a wide margin. More than 500 New York breweries looks like a real possibility in the near future.

So what, if anything, do the troubles at these three breweries signal for the state’s beer industry?

Each of the cases has its own specific factors (see below). But there is something they have in common that separates them from many of the newcomers:

The vast majority of the start-up breweries are quite small, selling most of their beer straight out of their tasting rooms, by the pint or to go (cans, bottles, growlers). These small-batch breweries can also frequently change their beer lineups -- offering new flavors and styles from week to week.

That’s not the case for CB, Empire and Ithaca, all of which have been in business one way or another since the 1990s. Each of those breweries is large enough that a significant part of its business depends on selling beer through distributors to stores, bars, restaurants and other venues. That typically means establishing some known flagship brands, rather than an ever-changing lineup.

“Distribution is the bottleneck,” said Paul Leone, director of the New York State Brewers Association. “The number of breweries is increasing. But the shelf space (in stores) has not increased. The number of tap handles (at bars) has not increased.

“All of those breweries that are big enough to be in distribution are really feeling it right now,” Leone said. “There is a lot more competition at that level.”

Gregg Stacy, Ithaca’s marketing director, puts it this way: A few years ago, he said, when a bar sold out big half- or quarter-barrel kegs of a popular beer like Ithaca Flower Power IPA, it would immediately place an order for more. Now, a bar kicks a “sixtel” -- a sixth of a barrel -- and may wait a month before reordering.

“There’s a lot of beer in the pipeline now,” Stacy said. “So they’ll still buy from us and tell us that it was good and they sold out in a day or two. That’s great. But they’re buying less from each brewer, and less often. The business model has changed.”

BEWARE OF DEBT

In recent years, some of Upstate New York’s mid-sized breweries tried to ease the financial stress by banding together -- forming partnerships to achieve economies of scale in things like purchasing or back-office operations.

Two Upstate brewers that have been among the most successful in the distribution game are Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown and Southern Tier Brewing in Lakewood, near Jamestown. Both are part of large multi-state partnerships.

There’s another strategy to succeeding in the current climate, according to Leone: Be careful about taking on too much debt.

“That’s a recipe for trouble,’’ he said, Two Upstate breweries that have grown successfully over the years with a cautious approach to taking on debt are Middle Ages Brewing in Syracuse and Rohrbach in Rochester. Both operate popular tasting rooms with some store and bar distribution.

Trying to repay large debts in the distribution model can be extremely difficult, Leone said. Using third party distributors -- which is required by law once a brewery becomes large enough -- takes a bite out of the profits.

“It’s about the return on your investment,” Leone said. “Would you rather make $5 per case (in distribution) or $5 per pint (in your tasting room)? Because that’s what you’re up against right now. You have to sell a lot of beer to make a lot of money in distribution.”

CASE BY CASE

The competition is real. Still, it would be wrong to see the troubles at CB, Empire and Ithaca as a sign that the craft beer industry overall is collapsing, according to Leone, Stacy and other observers.

“As a beverage branding consultant I speak with producers and stakeholders across the industry about how they position their businesses for success in today’s crowded marketplace, and from where I sit, none of them are hitting the panic button,” said Glenn Clark, who advises many craft beverage companies through his company, Crafting A Brand, in the Rochester suburb of Mendon. “Last week’s bad news was the result of unique problems at three larger, established breweries — and in my opinion shouldn’t be seen as a bellwether of a broader economic trend.”

The specifics in each case vary:

-- CB Craft Brewers owner Mike Alcorn initially said the brewery would close because he planned to retire, but then reporting in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle revealed the company was behind on its rent and was being evicted.

-- At Empire, sales through the distribution network have not caught up to the cost of building the $63 million farm-based brewery in Cazenovia. (Empire started as a brewpub in downtown Syracuse). Both the Syracuse and Cazenovia breweries will remain open while owner David Katleski sells some assets (including the Cazenovia tasting room) and tries to sort out his debts.

-- At Ithaca, the slowdown in distribution coincided with an unexpected $400,000 project to fix some issues in its environmental controls. The issues did not cause any environmental damage, Stacy said, but the repairs put a crimp in the bottom line. Ithaca Beer is seeking to extend an existing Tompkins County tax abatement program for a few years so it can recover financially. The company is otherwise stable and is not seeking any new tax cuts, Stacy said.

In a way, said Clark of Crafting a Brand, the older breweries like Empire and Ithaca have “unique challenges.”

“Many of them are tied to restrictive, profit-eating contracts with distribution partners,” Clark said. “Some have taken on debt that enabled them to expand when their wasn’t nearly as much competition, and for some it’s just simply not possible to be as nimble as the hot startup brewery across the street. Ironically, the maturity of the business has become a liability for some of these brewers.”

The good news, he said, is “today’s jam-packed craft beer market offers endless choices for the consumer.” But for some breweries, he added, it may be difficult.

“I think we’ll continue to see consolidations, restructuring and some closings as they position themselves to succeed going forward,” Clark said. “An adjustment—not a bursting bubble—is underway.”

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Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.