The Brewer’s Art, which abruptly closed Feb. 2, was “limping along” for about a year before filing for bankruptcy, owner Volker Stewart said in a United States Bankruptcy Court District of Maryland hearing Wednesday.

“It was really a day-to-day operation,” said Stewart, who opened the beloved Mount Vernon restaurant and brewery 30 years ago.

Stewart said in a public meeting of creditors Wednesday that he had been struggling to pay staff and going “pretty deeply into debt to keep the business afloat.” He invested his retirement and personal savings into the eatery before hitting new obstacles in January, when the primary purveyors of his food and wine cut him off over unpaid debts and a storm blanketed the area with 11 inches of snow, inhibiting parking and foot traffic.

“Not only did I not have money to pay my people, I didn’t have money to pay the rent. I had no means of obtaining product to sell,” Stewart said.

The shuttering was a surprise to employees, who learned about the company’s financial distress in a text from Stewart the day the business closed: “We have run out of money. I cannot pay you, please do not come in.”

The brewpub, which filed for bankruptcy under the name Old Line Brewers LLC, was an anchor business along the Charles Street corridor since it opened in December 1996. Over the years, the eatery received acclaim for its burgers and duck fat fries, as well as its signature Resurrection Belgian abbey-style brown ale, the intellectual property of which may now be leveraged to help pay back creditors. It’s unclear, though, whether that product and the equipment it was made on, still sitting inside the brewery, will bring much relief.

Craft brewery closures have outpaced openings in recent years, due in part to rising competition and a downturn in consumer interest. Morgan Fisher, a trustee appointed to The Brewer’s Art bankruptcy case, said in the meeting that he has witnessed dozens of recent Chapter 11 filings in the industry, with companies also looking to sell off equipment the market has deemed less valuable.

“We believe the cost of moving The Brewer’s Art’s equipment and repairing the facility is more expensive than the equipment itself,” said attorney Constance M. Hare, who represented Old Line Brewers LLC in the meeting.

Fisher said the Charles Street pub’s machinery, valued at about $75,000 may be too “ambitiously priced.” Stewart said he hoped a fan of the business would eventually step in and want to take over the operation — “but I don’t know how realistic that expectation is.”

The Brewer’s Art accumulated about $1.9 million in debt, which includes taxes, wages and back rent. The pub’s landlord, BendixHQ LLC, filed a lawsuit in early February in Baltimore City Circuit Court stating that the Mount Vernon business owes more than $64,000 in rent and utilities. The Maryland comptroller filed a December lien in the same court that claims the pub owes $70,640 in sales tax and $14,408 in interest and penalties. The brewpub also owes $199,000 to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a pandemic-era loan.

To help out the company, Stewart loaned The Brewer’s Art $632,000 and paid himself “practically nothing,” he said in the Wednesday meeting. His taxable income for 2025 was $1,400, he said.

Though the pub filed in mid-February for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which a business’s assets are liquidated, Stewart said he is not yet in personal bankruptcy. But at his hearing Wednesday, the owner said he took on some “very, very bad loans” to make payments on debts.

In the 90 days before the pub filed for bankruptcy, he paid a net amount of about $5,700 each week to one creditor who was giving him a loan to keep up with payments to other creditors, he said. He’s also trying to stop recurring payments for phone and internet service from taking money out of the two bank accounts that remain open for the pub.

“There were times when I’d take money out” of the company accounts, Stewart said. “But they were usually pretty small amounts just so I can live, get groceries and the like.” He described the payments as not much more than a few thousand dollars.

Stewart grew emotional as he discussed where he and The Brewer’s Art have landed, holding back tears as he reflected on the last 30 years.

“I’ve got no money, I’ve got no way to make money,” he said.

Another hearing is yet to be scheduled.