Good Nature Farm Brewery, the local craft beer hotspot and favorite amongst Colgate students, has forfeited its operations to a court-appointed receiver after not being able to pay mortgage debts. As a result, owner and co-founder Carrie Blackmore ’08 stepped away from the business last month.

The future of the business, which houses an industrial brewery and a dining room with substantial outdoor seating, is not yet clear. Good Nature, located south of the Colgate University Townhouse Apartments on State Route 12B, was in the holdings of DCC Ranger LLC, a hedge fund registered in Albany, NY shortly after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Blackmore. The debt reached over $4.5 million, and DCC Ranger LLC has since filed a lawsuit against Blackmore.

DDC Ranger LLC could not be reached for comment.

According to Syracuse.com, the Supreme Court of the State of New York appointed George E. Shoupp III of Development Specialists as a receiver to help manage the business on Nov. 2. Development Specialists now owns all of Good Nature Farm Brewery’s assets, intellectual property, buildings, and product inventory.

At the time of print publication, George E. Shoupp III did not respond to requests for comment.

Blackmore, who felt like there was a lack of craft beer options in Hamilton, said she wanted to start her own business and bring a local, farm-to-table approach to Hamilton. She established Good Nature Brewing in 2010, providing beer to Hamilton establishments like the Colgate Inn. Shortly after, the business began to grow, eventually leading to the opening and renovation of their current location in 2017, as well as a taproom located on Broad St. across from the Village Green which has since closed. 

However, during planning, construction and renovation, the Good Nature Farm Brewery faced mounting obstacles. Blackmore commented on these difficulties and how her team was able to work through them. 

“By the time [COVID-19] hit, we’d already been through the wringer in ways that should have decimated us,” Blackmore said. “In fact, we never should have made it to our grand opening. During planning and construction of the farm brewery [location], we faced regulatory issues, construction delays and cost overruns — most of which cropped up when we were already so far along that we had no choice but to push on or lose our shirts.”

More tasks — like needing to construct a path to Colgate’s Townhouse Apartments and having to install a significant wastewater treatment facility — all had to be done in order to ensure that the Brewery did not have a negative impact on the Village of Hamilton, according to Blackmore.

More issues followed, including multiple fires, refrigeration failures and, eventually, the COVID-19 pandemic. Running with only a handful of employees, the business operated through initial pandemic lockdowns in 2020, driving and providing food and meals to University students and Hamilton residents.

“We still had a business to run, so we pivoted hard,” Blackmore said. “We went down from about 40 employees to two and a half. We closed our downtown location, changed our business model, added online ordering and offered grocery items from local farms to our community for pick-up and delivery. We ran food deliveries to the Colgate and Hamilton communities when dining halls were shut down and folks were afraid to go to the store.”

With growing financial issues, the Brewery eventually attempted to make financial deals with banks to receive more funding with minimal success.

“I was really sad to hear about the trouble the Brewery is going through, and honestly I had no idea that this was all going on,” sophomore Cullen Williams said. “The Brewery is such a staple of Colgate and Hamilton and I know so many people who love going there.”

The lack of businesses in the Hamilton area makes the loss of the Brewery even more disheartening, according to Williams.

“It’s unfortunate because there really aren’t that many restaurants and businesses here in Hamilton. Learning that one of the most loved and popular restaurants here is struggling with funding and debt is hard because we should be supporting the small community that we have,” Williams said. “I hope there are ways we can help them out because I think it is important that we hold on to the few restaurants that we have here.”

Blackmore wrote in a Nov. 6 message posted to the business’s Facebook page that as of Nov. 7, all inquiries regarding the business would officially be handled by the receiver.

“I’m laying as low as I can right now,” Blackmore wrote. “I’m tired.”

As of December 2022, Good Nature Farm Brewery remains open and operational with an uncertain future.