Nolensville's Mill Creek Brewing closes indefinitely, will seek bankruptcy protection

Emily R. West | The Tennessean

Mill Creek Brewing Company closed quietly during the weekend after its CEO announced Friday the company would declare bankruptcy protection.

The craft brewing company ran out of Nolensville during the last four years. Founder and CEO Chris Going said the company could no longer meet its financial obligations. Its brewery and taprooms in Nashville are no longer operating.

"Our board of directors and I worked tirelessly over the past several months to find a solution to keep things moving forward," Going said. "Unfortunately, many options that could have saved things didn’t pan out. As time has ticked down, it hasn’t left many options available and we’re forced to make this difficult decision to shut things down."

At the end of 2018, seeing supply issues in their home market, Going said the decision was made to pull distribution back to just Tennessee as the company ramped up 2019. One of those decisions was to open a taproom in Franklin.

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“As we started shipping beer out of state, the Nashville demand really shot up," Going said. "The decision to pull back came from both a financial need and also a logistical one. Why ship beer out of Nashville when someone locally wants to buy it? We also spent a lot of dollars investing in the expansions and support of those markets, and sadly some of those moves did tremendous damage to our company.”

Nolensville by local codes has only allowed Mill Creek to operate its taproom three days per week for a total of 19 hours.

“Our town officials actually just voted last week on the first reading of a new code amendment to remove the restrictions on our taproom," Going said. "That would’ve gone into effect in early December. Our Nolensville taprooms sales were already up 40% year to date. That vote would’ve been a game changer going forward."

The company will allow the bankruptcy process to progress and adhere to all the requirements. Going said that could mean its brands and beer will cease to exist.

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Reach Emily West at erwest@tennessean.com; at 615-613-1380; or on Twitter at @emwest22.