A Beloved Brewery Chain Shut Down All 16 Locations. Now, It’s Making a Surprise Comeback

Less than a year after Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant filed for bankruptcy and blindsided 800 workers, its founder is reopening five locations.

BY AMAYA NICHOLE, NEWS WRITER

Photo: Mark Pellegrini via Wikimedia Commons

Less than a year after it closed its doors in September 2025, a northeast brewery chain is set to re-open its taps.

For Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, that goodbye wasn’t meant to be permanent. “It’s been our pleasure to serve you, and we are deeply grateful for your support, friendship, and loyalty over the years,” the company announced in a now deleted social media post from last year. “We sincerely hope to return in the future, and when we do, we promise to welcome you with open arms.”

Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant was founded in 1996 and went on to become one of the most decorated craft breweries in the country, earning more than 88 combined awards from the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival, including a record 20 consecutive years of wins at the World Beer Cup.

Additionally, they were featured in Men’s Journal’s 101 best beers in America. “We’re usually leery of the beer coming out of brewpub chains, which typically range from the merely uninspired to the downright boring,” the editors wrote. “We’re happy to report that Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, which operates 11 brewpubs across Delaware (the home state), Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, is an exception to the rule.”

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Despite their success, last year Iron Hill Brewery filed for bankruptcy and shut down all 16 of its locations. The sudden closure of the company initially left its 800-plus workers shocked and scrambling. Former employee Jordan Corporal said both he and his girlfriend lost their jobs without warning. “It is an uprooting, I guess, trying to figure out where to go from here,” Corporal told 6abc Action News. 

Some believed that the company had expanded too quickly and couldn’t take care of all its locations. “I wish they would’ve maybe not opened so many and put their energy and time into just a couple,” another former employee Lauren Brown said.

Founder Mark Edelson and his team listened to their employees feedback and said they are doing things differently this time around as the new iteration will be scaled back, with five locations.

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