In March this year, after 14 years in business, Glen Iris brewery Deeds entered voluntary administration. In May, founders Patrick Alé and Dave Milstein closed the taproom and brewing operations.

Now, they’ve found a way to keep the Deeds taproom and its brewing operations running until February 2025.

Deeds and its creditors have put in place a deed of company arrangement, an alternative to immediate liquidation. This arrangement provides a moratorium period where the company is not required to repay debts and allows a company to restructure with the goal of providing the maximum return to its creditors.

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“We were basically going down the path of liquidation. We would have closed down, everything would have been sold off. But we realised going down that process, that wouldn’t have been an ideal scenario for paying back any of our debts or staff entitlements,” Alé tells Broadsheet.

“The staff would have had to go down the path of getting their entitlements through a government body, which would have been massive delays – it could be six months to a year – so we decided we would get the administrators out of the building.”

The taproom reopened on July 31 and is operating with what Alé describes as a “skeleton crew” with a mix of both new and existing staff. Rather than reopen the kitchen themselves, Alé and Milstein have turned it over to the team from Sliders on
Tyres, a food truck known for burgers and fried
chicken, which will take over the kitchen from Wednesday September 4th until Deeds operations cease in February next year. There are also plans for occasional food pop-ups, with La Tortilleria scheduled to host a week-long Day of the Dead event starting at the end of October.

New brewers are on board and the team plans to make limited-edition brews, including naturally fermented sour beers and a cherry chocolate stout reminiscent of a black forest cake.

Alé says the chances of the business staying open past February are extremely low. “Something out of left field would have to happen for anything to change on that part,” he says, but adds, “I feel so much better doing it this way than letting liquidators cut it all up and rip it up.”

Deeds Brewing
4 Paran Place, Glen Iris
1300 673 362

Hours:
Wed & Thur 4pm to 10pm
Fri 4pm to 11pm
Sat midday to 11pm

deedsbrewing.com.au